Air Pollution & Health (Health & the Environment) (Health and the Environment)

Pollution in our air is an important health concern that is said by the World Health Organization to cause the deaths of over 2.4 million people each year. This absorbing book covers the history, causes, symptoms, measurement, and prevention and regulation efforts of air pollution. The history of air pollution is described, including the major incidents of severe air pollution, including the 1952 London Fog, the Bhopal Disaster in India in 1984, and the current state of Beijing, host of the 2008 Summer Olympics, now considered as having the lowest air quality in the world today. The book covers how ozone depletion affects health; what is ground-level air pollution and its effect on health; what is acid rain; and how global warming and air pollution are related. It also discusses indoor air pollution in detail. Health symptoms, such as emphysema, asthma, cancer, and heart disease, resulting from breathing contaminated air are described as well. The book thoroughly explains how our air becomes polluted and the major sources of pollution and discusses how governments, industries, and individuals are striving to set and maintain standards to improve the air by such measures as regulation of the burning of fossil fuels and less harmful replacements, industrial effluence, cigarette smoke, aerosols, and more. Air pollution is a serious growing global concern since it is a major contributor to the Earth s global warming, and with some countries of the world becoming more industrialized, pollutant levels exceed air quality standards by large margins and endanger the health of residents and visitors. This essential book sheds light on a subject crucial to the health of humans and their environment. Air Pollution & Health uses an abundance of special features to capture the interest of students: * over 60 full-color photos and illustrations * ask the expert sections, providing real answers to insightful questions * find out more sections, directing readers to additional resources * glossaries of terms at the beginning of each chapter, reinforcing important terms * real-life stories and events, providing examples to reinforce the text * excerpts from primary sources, modeling document-based questions and answers, providing cross-curriculum links