Air pollution is the resultant of the direct and indirect change in the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of the atmosphere which mainly results from its contamination with gaseous and particulate emissions from industry, thermal power station, automobiles etc.
The ill effects of air pollution are:-
Air pollution has an detrimental effect on human health, plants as well as on the environment.
1. Human health
• Air pollution leads to respiratory infection, heart diseases, lung cancer etc. According to a report from WHO, there was premature death of some 7 million people worldwide in the year 2014 due to air pollution.
• Some Pollutants present in air pollution directly damage the brain cells and in an infant, it resists the development of nervous system leading to neurodevelopmental disorders in infant and in adults it affects the central nervous system and it leads to short-term memory loss, decreased learning ability etc.
2. Plants
Due to air pollution plants are not able to get sufficient sunlight due to which their growth get retarded and quality and yield of the crop get reduced. Also, toxic gases and suspended particles in air decrease the photosynthetic activity.
3. Environmental
• Depletion of Ozone layer:- Air pollution contains ozone-depleting substances in large quantity and affects the ozone layer detrimentally.
• Acid rain: the pollutants causing air pollution which is from the burning of fossil fuels tends to remain in the atmosphere for a very long time. These suspended particles and gases like nitrous oxides and sulfur oxides give rise to harmful solutions like nitric acid or even sulphuric acid on coming in contact with rainwater. These acids come down in the form of acid rain and cause large-scale harm as they affect the living as well as the nonliving substances. It erodes buildings and materials like marble and also kills plants and destroy forests affecting both the flora and fauna of the area.