Atmospheric pollution occurs through the introduction of numerous particles suspended in the air, gradually altering the natural conditions of various ecosystems, as well as harming human health.
Among the main agents that generate pollutants are: car engines, steel industries, factories of cement and paper, refineries, incineration of household waste and forest fires for expansion of crops and pastures.
The most incident pollutants in the atmosphere, in general in large cities, are related to the emission of gases, such as: carbon monoxide (CO), with an average concentration equal to 45%; nitrogen dioxide (NO2), approximately 16%; sulfur dioxide (SO2), proportionately to 19%; hydrocarbons with 13% distribution in the air; and 7% including the other particles.
The causes of intense environmental degradation are visibly observed and felt through increasingly evident processes, such as:
- The phenomenon of thermal inversion, due to heating and poor circulation of air currents, with a significant increase in temperature and accumulation of pollutant particles in suspension.
- Retention of solar radiation increasing the greenhouse effect, essential for maintaining life at tolerant levels, but harmful when excessive.
- Precipitations with a high content of acidic substances (sulfur and nitrogen) forming the so-called acid rain.
- And the destruction of the ozone layer resulting from the emission of gases from the chlorofluorocarbon group (CFC), used in the manufacture of refrigerators and plastics, currently replaced by others compounds.
Carbon monoxide, for example, is an extremely dangerous gas, which when inhaled by man, is associated with hemoglobin (blood cell) and forms a stable compound (carboxyhemoglobin), causing asphyxia due to non-oxygenation of tissues Organic.
By Krukemberghe Fonseca
Graduated in Biology
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biologia/agentes-poluidores-do-ar.htm