Air Pollution Facts 2022-2023

AIR POLLUTION

While urban areas may be the first to come to mind when thinking about air pollution, the thin layer of air that envelops the Earth is contaminated on many different scales (Figure 1). Air pollution is one of the most prevalent environmental problems because, like water pollution, it affects everyone equally downstream and upwind. Polluters are typically geographically removed from the people whose health they are endangering through their emissions, making it difficult to implement effective measures to reduce regional and global air pollution.

Figure 1: Global air pollution occurs when so much pollution, such as carbon dioxide, is released into the atmosphere that global changes occur. Urban and regional air pollution are more local; pollutants travel less distance and stay in the air for shorter time periods. Acid rain, smog, and other examples are discussed in the text. (Source: Modified from P. Mackenzie, J. Mackenzie. Our Changing Planet. Englewood Cliffs, NO: Prentice-Hall, 1995, p. 237.)

 

According to EPA data from 2009, the United States released 107 million tonnes of pollutants into the atmosphere every year. This is a significant decrease when compared to earlier years, but it is based solely on information from the most widely regulated pollutants. It's also worth noting that 80 million Americans reside in regions where air pollution levels are persistently high. Air pollution continues to be one of the most significant environmental problems worldwide, with very high associated costs. Crop and cattle losses, forest deterioration, disruption of coastal ecosystems, weathering of monuments and buildings, and cleaning costs for clothes and other personal property add up to tens of billions of dollars in direct damages each year in the United States due to outdoor air pollution. Ground-level ozone was responsible for $500 million in lost agricultural and commercial forest production in 2005. The rising cost of medical treatment results in a loss of billions more annually. The EPA began its groundbreaking Add Rain Program in 1995, and by 2010, it had entered its second iteration. The outcomes remain fruitful. Emissions of sulfur-based pollutants alone have decreased by roughly 1 million tonnes since 2002, when they peaked at over 30 percent. There is still work to be done, especially in the most difficult places like the coastal cities of the United States. One million people die each year throughout the world because of particle air pollution.

The health risks posed by polluted indoor air may exceed those posed by outdoor air pollution. Millions and billions of dollars have been lost due to radon and, more specifically, cigarette smoke. Air pollution around the world is perhaps the biggest environmental problem that humanity will confront in the next few hundred years. Pollution-induced climate change poses numerous threats to society, including widespread crop failures, human and animal migration, and coastal city floods.

But there is hope. The quality of the air that Americans breathe as a whole has vastly improved during the past four decades. Despite rising population, rising energy consumption, and rising vehicle miles travelled, pollution levels have decreased by 53% since the Clean Air Act's implementation in 1970. (Figure 2). A lot of cities have significantly reduced the number of days per year when the air quality index is greater than 100, according to a 2005 EPA report. However, many cities continue to have unhealthy levels of smog and ozone pollution (below 100 is considered acceptable or safe). 

Figure 2: The levels of six principal pollutants have dropped in the United States despite increasing population, energy consumption, and increasing vehicle miles travelled. (Source: Environmental Protection Agency.)