Air Pollution

• Air is a mixture of various gases of which 78% IS NITROGEN AND 21% is oxygen. Other gases like carbon dioxide, argon, methane, helium, ozone and water vapours are also present in very small amount.

• Air pollution is the contamination of air by impurities which may have a harmful impact on the living organisms and the non-living components.

• Pollutants are the substances which contaminate air.

• Increasing levels of greenhouse gases like CO₂ are leading to global warming.

• Some major causes of air pollution are :

      

        Excessive burning of fossils fuels like coal, kerosene,   petrol or diesel.

        

         Smoke from factories and vehicles.

       

         Use of certain substances like chlorofluorocarbons.

· Methyl isocynate, also called MIC released from the Union Carbide Factory at Bhopal contaminated the environment to such a large extent that thousands of people lost their lives.

·An increase in earth’s temperature by even as little as 0.5degree C can cause serious effect like melting of glaciers.

· Due to greenhouse effect, the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere is gradually increasing. This is called Global Warming.