What are the top five air pollutants and where do you find them?

Question

What are the top five air pollutants and where do you find them?

Answer 1

The major air pollutants are:

- Sulfur oxides from the burning of coal and oil; from the tribal campfire to the the big city power plant.

- Nitrogen from high temperature combustion, like your car.

- Carbon Monoxide which is another by product of burning gas, or oil.

- Carbon Dioxide which we exhale or create by burning anything.

- Volatile organic compounds like CFS (that made the hole in the ozone layer larger) which come from spray cans, the coolant in freezers, and various solvents.

- Particulate matter; anything that forms dust from bits of unburned wood to skin scales and pieces of hair.

- Ammonia which is found in urine.

- Unpleasant odors; any garbage dump

- Radiation; nuclear reactors, weapons and some cancer treatment medical waste.

According to Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_polluti...

"Major primary pollutants produced by human activity include:

    * Sulfur oxides (SOx) especially sulfur dioxide are emitted from burning of coal and oil.

    * Nitrogen oxides (NOx) especially nitrogen dioxide are emitted from high temperature combustion. Can be seen as the brown haze dome above or plume downwind of cities.

    * Carbon monoxide is colourless, odourless, non-irritating but very poisonous gas. It is a product by incomplete combustion of fuel such as natural gas, coal or wood. Vehicular exhaust is a major source of carbon monoxide.

    * Carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas emitted from combustion.

    * Volatile organic compounds (VOC), such as hydrocarbon fuel vapors and solvents.

    * Particulate matter (PM), measured as smoke and dust. PM10 is the fraction of suspended particles 10 micrometers in diameter and smaller that will enter the nasal cavity. PM2.5 has a maximum particle size of 2.5 µm and will enter the bronchies and lungs.

    * Toxic metals, such as lead, cadmium and copper.

    * Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), harmful to the ozone layer emitted from products currently banned from use.

    * Ammonia (NH3) emitted from agricultural processes.

    * Odors, such as from garbage, sewage, and industrial processes

    * Radioactive pollutants produced by nuclear explosions and war explosives, and natural processes such as radon.

Secondary pollutants include:

    * Particulate matter formed from gaseous primary pollutants and compounds in photochemical smog, such as nitrogen dioxide.

    * Ground level ozone (O3) formed from NOx and VOCs.

    * Peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) similarly formed from NOx and VOCs.

Minor air pollutants include:

    * A large number of minor hazardous air pollutants. Some of these are regulated in USA under the Clean Air Act and in Europe under the Air Framework Directive.

    * A variety of persistent organic pollutants, which can attach to particulate matter."

Most plants and animals are not considered to be polluters because their by products are recycled.  Even the methane produced by cows is normally not a problem until man created huge herds of them.

Plants don't just breath in CO2 and exhale O2 but they take our waste matter from digestion and use the nitrogen in that to grow and make food.