Air Pollution is an issue facing many of the big cities across the world that needs to be dealt with urgently.

Air pollution causes a lot of diseases and brings down the quality of life. When the air around us is foul enough to be declared unfit for breathing, it is time to take drastic measure.

A few cities have found themselves in this situation in the past few years, where they had to be shut down due to pollution.

Causes – How does air get polluted?

Causes of air pollution includes:

• The vehicular emissions of carbon dioxide are on the increase with the number of vehicles that hit the road and the bad quality of fuel used.
• People burn fires in the open which releases carbon dioxide.
• Factories release gasses from their chimneys that directly merge with the air.
• Air transport is also a major contributor to air

Effects of air pollution

• Severe lung issues in adults and sometimes newly born kids.
• A regular cough and cold or even asthma symptoms in humans.
• Air Pollution also result in acid rain that destroys agricultural produce
• It also leads to ozone layer depletion and expose us to a lot of harmful rays from the sun
• Increase in the cases of lung cancer in people

Control Measures – How to control air pollution?

• Vehicles must use good quality fuel.
• Fires must not be burned in the open.
• If more people used public transport or pooled transport, then the number of private vehicles on the road would go down, bringing down the emission levels.
• Factories releasing pollutants must be persuaded to have some filtration plant or equipment set up.
• If the vehicles and factories continue to violate pollution related rules, they may be fined to ensure compliance.
• More trees can be planted, and further deforestation stopped to keep the air purified as the pollutants are absorbed and pure air released from the trees.

Conclusion

In short, air pollution is a severe threat to humanity, and we need to take immediate steps to curb it. Some of the simple ways of reducing air pollution are to switch to public transports or carpools for your daily commutes to work. A reduction in the usage of fireworks and crackers can also make a big difference. Taking these small steps in our everyday lives can bring down the overall pollution levels in the country and help you live a healthy life.