When we are talking about Air Pollution, it means that the air or the atmosphere all around us is polluted by pollutants making it dangerous and unsafe.

Primary pollutants produced by human activity include:
• Oxides of sulfur, nitrogen and carbon
• Organic compounds, such as hydrocarbons (fuel vapors and solvents)
• Particulate matter, such as smoke and dust
• Metal oxides, especially those of lead, cadmium, copper and iron
• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
• Hazardous air pollutants (HAP)
• Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
• Odors

From the 1900s onwards, there has been rapid industrialization in many countries and these industrial burn fossil fuels which contribute mainly to the gas carbon dioxide (CO²), which is colorless, odorless and not a harmful gas but when it travels up the atmosphere it is a greenhouse gas and can trap heat in Earth by converting the light energy of the sun to infrared-red rays that warm up the earth. This is called the greenhouse effect; it protects us from too harsh weather as heat can be trapped but an overdose would do harm to us. Similarly, as population increases rapidly, more agriculture is grown to feed the people and also for income in many countries. The animals they rear like cows produce methane (CH4) when they belch and it is also a greenhouse gas contributing even more to the greenhouse effect.

And as technology advances, people burn even more types of fuel like nitrogen and sulphur which lead to their oxides. These element-based fuels can provide a greater amount of energy then carbon even though not use as commonly as it. They (the oxides) are poisonous in nature but they can also be produced naturally in small amounts. For example, a volcano eruption would cause great amounts of sulphur to react to oxides and in lightning nitrogen reacts to form oxides also. These type of gases can react with water to form acids and when they mix with the water vapor above, they would acidity it and disrupt the ecosystem as acids have acidic properties that will do harm to the living beings on Earth. Many animals cannot live in an environment with a pH too low like fishes in ponds and when the acid rain falls into water sources many fishes and plants may die disrupting the ecosystem as many other animals rely on them and also affecting them. Acids also can wear off metals and so buildings can be corroded and destroyed as a result and a lot of money can be lost as a result.

CFCs did a great harm in the air pollution, from the 1970s or so, aerosol spray cans and Styrofoam packaging product contained a molecule chlorofluorocarbons which has more then one type but it is usually made up of chlorine, fluorine and carbon. The molecule can drift up high as high as the stratosphere and when it reaches there the highly chlorine will break up from the molecule and start to dismember the ozone molecules as they are pretty unstable and they are converted in oxygen molecule so it reduces the amount of ozone in the atmosphere therfore reducing our protection aganist UV rays which are harmful and cancerous the living beings as ozone has the ability to absorb the radiation and CFCs can do their destruction for a very long time as they are non-biodegradable. Although production of CFCs have stopped and the ozone layer is recovering, this has indeed taught us about the lessons of air pollution

There are many many more real theories for air pollution like the ones listed above and we have shown you how it is happening so rapidly and how it happened. So after we know all about it, the next question is, how are we going to stop it?