It is finally happening. It has started in the United Kingdom, and will no doubt spread to the world. Human death as a result of air pollution has been reported on a rise in the UK. It is being said that most of the pollution travels through winds to the UK travels from outside Europe. Increase in smog is being cited as the reason for the deaths. This gradual increase causes several disorders in human beings like breathing problems, bronchitis, heart attack and unusually early deaths and the list of diseases is increasing.
Smog comes from vehicular and industrial emissions, which interact with atmospheric particles in presence of sunlight and form secondary pollutants. The cycle is completed when these secondary pollutants combine with the emissions again to form photochemical smog. The reaction that forms photochemical smog produces particulate matter and ground level ozone.
Most of us know ozone as the good gas, which protects us from the ultraviolet rays of the sun; that is the atmospheric ozone. The low level ozone, on the other hand, is a pollutant. It is hazardous to humans, animals and plants. It is also responsible for significant decrease in agricultural yields, interferes with photosynthesis and causes stunted growth in plants.
All this knowledge, but no use; pollution will only be taken seriously, if it directly affects human life. Human death is the only tragedy that jolts humans out of the senses, and still we take no heed. It started with just air pollution, then came smog, and then photochemical smog, greenhouse gases, and global warming. Pollution has grown, science has matured, but we haven’t. Not yet!
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Source: Dailymail