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:
“To be worst,
The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,
Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear.
The lamentable change is from the best;
The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then,
Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!
The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst
Owes nothing to thy blasts.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“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)