Air pollution is the introduction into the atmosphere of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause discomfort, disease, or death to humans, damage other living organisms such as food crops, or damage the natural environment or built environment.
The atmosphere is a complex dynamic natural gaseous system that is essential to support life on planet Earth. Stratospheric ozone depletion due to air pollution has long been recognized as a threat to human health as well as to the Earth's ecosystems.
Indoor air pollution and urban air quality are listed as two of the World’s Worst Toxic Pollution Problems in the 2008 Blacksmith Institute World's Worst Polluted Places report.
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Read more about Air Pollution: Pollutants, Sources, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), Health Effects, Reduction Efforts, Legal Regulations, Cities, NATA, Governing Urban Air Pollution – A Regional Example (London), Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Atmospheric Dispersion, Environmental Impacts of greenhouse Gas Pollutants
Famous quotes containing the words air and/or pollution:
“All things are flowing, even those that seem immovable. The adamant is always passing into smoke. The plants imbibe the materials which they want from the air and the ground. They burn, that is, exhale and decompose their own bodies into the air and earth again. The animal burns, or undergoes the like perpetual consumption. The earth burns, the mountains burn and decompose, slower, but incessantly.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Like the effects of industrial pollution ... the AIDS crisis is evidence of a world in which nothing important is regional, local, limited; in which everything that can circulate does, and every problem is, or is destined to become, worldwide.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)