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| Causes of Air Pollution |
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| Large area of forest catches wild fire accidentally. If not controlled in time by proper methods, fire grows out of proportion. In the last 5 years two major wild fires (in USA and Malaysia) are recorded. Each of them has sent an estimated 1.5 million tons of CO2 to atmosphere. Over years, many accidental forest fires have been recorded. In such wildfires, large amount of O2 is converted into CO2 causing imbalance in composition of air. |
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| Accidents to transport vehicles carrying inflammable materials cause instantaneous fire. They release large amount of pollutants like CO, CO2, SO2. When large ships carrying huge quantity of petroleum products meet accidents, they cause serious air pollution. |
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| Accidental leakage of poisonous gases from chemical or pesticide industries is highly dangerous to human habitation. Leakages of gases like ammonia, cyanide, methane, hydrogen sulphide, sulphuric acid etc can be highly dangerous to employees of such industries as well as people dwelling in and around the locality - where such industry is established. Leakage of methyl isocyanide (MIS) in Bhopal leading to death of thousands of innocents is an illustration for such pollution. Several leakages of poisonous gases are reported in the history of mankind. |
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| Industries are responsible for large scale air pollution as compared to other causes because: |
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 the extent of gaseous pollution from industries is very high as compared to any other cause |
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 number of industries being established are regarded as yard stick of progress. |
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| Not all industries can lead to air pollution. Following type of industries are responsible for air pollution. |
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 Thermal power plants - CO2, CO |
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 Fertilizer industries - NH3, CH4, SO2, H2S, NO3 |
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 Food industries - Cl, NO3, CO2 |
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 Pesticide industries - HCN, CN2, NH3, CH4, SO2, H2S, NO3, Cl, CO2, CO |
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 Pharmaceutical industries - Cl2, H2S, SO2, CH4, NH3 |
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 Cement industries - Cl2, NH3, SO2, NO2, |
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 Steel industries - CO2, CO |
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 Paper industries - CO, Cl2, CO2, H2S, SO2, NH3 |
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 Sugar industries - CO2, CO, Cl2, SO2, NH3, NO2 |
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 Textile industries - CO2, Cl2, NO2, SO2, NH3, |
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 Petroleum industries - CO2, CO, SO2 |
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 Atomic energy units - radioactive gases |
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| These industries release the pollutant gases in their normal course of functioning as a part of manufacturing process. Although some industries have modified their manufacturing process and brought some structural changes to reduce the pollution - the total air pollution due to industries is increasing. |
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| Most of industrially active areas in our country are highly polluted changing the composition of air. The dominant gases and pollutants due to industrial activities are SO2, NO2, Cl, CH3, CO2, CO. Each one of them has dangerous effect on human health, animal health as well as effect on the whole ecosystem. |
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| Burning the petroleum products to run automotive transport vehicles is the main cause of air pollution. The main pollutants like SO2, CO, CO2 are main gases being released into air due to transport vehicles. |
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| But, the extent of pollution due to transport vehicles is directly dependent upon |
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 the level of urbanisation |
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 density of vehicles |
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| As the urban development increases, the necessity of transport vehicles becomes inevitable. As the dependence on vehicle increases, the density of vehicle increases. |
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| Cities with very high population have recorded high level of air pollution due to vehicles. Vehicular pollution in many agglomerates like Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Bangalore, Pune is so high that a natural air with its natural composition has become rare. |
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| Some socially relevant issues related to vehicular pollution have been recently raised in public debates: |
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 Although vehicular transport is inevitable in cities, is it possible that individual ownership of vehicle could be avoided and public transport system could be more efficiently used. |
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 Is it necessary that a single travelling person use a four wheeler? |
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 Can we not partially replace the transport needs by electrically operated public transport systems than present petroleum dependent vehicles? |
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 Is there any possibility using electricity operated vehicles? |
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| Air pollution due to dwelling of human population is caused by three reasons. |
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| Chlorofluorocarbon |
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| Refrigerators, air coolers, and some electronic equipments release a group of chlorinated chemicals called Chlorofluorocarbon. They are potential pollutants. Due to large number of such equipments in a smaller geographical area (like in city) large amount of Chlorofluorocarbon are released to atmosphere. |
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| High Density Population |
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| Density of population in many cities and urban centers is so high that their respiration has caused imbalance in air composition. Their constant intake of oxygen and release of carbon dioxide has the potentiality to change the composition of air. |
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