There are many rather simple but scary air pollution facts that every member of society should be aware of, but often aren’t.

The main air pollution facts that citizens of the world need to pay attention to are startling when you consider the health impact that air pollution causes. There are many sources that cite the same information, and the information is frightening.

Air pollution has gotten so out of control that people who live in just about any large city run a higher risk of contracting illnesses and experiencing health problems from the air than if they lived in Chernobyl, where radiation was once at its peak and killed people for miles around.

This type of air pollution is caused by everything from major manufacturing plants to the cars we drive to the recycling methods used with plastics.

Over the 20 years or so, air pollution effects on the health have been studied on residents of Los Angeles.

These studies reveal that the air pollution is dangerous enough to cause serious health problems including cardiac restriction. Jogging in any major city near heavy traffic patterns is likely to cause a cardiac arrhythmia and lung problems.

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More heart attacks have been reported while jogging in the city, triggered by air pollution problems which are known to cause a restricted ability to provide the heart with well oxygenated blood. Respiratory illness is up, cardiac illness has increased, and premature deaths have totaled an annual 2 million deaths thanks to the health threat posed by air pollution.

As a society we tend to overlook the air pollution problems and causes because unless the pollution is bad enough to see smog, air pollution can’t be seen, felt, and rarely smelled. It is a silent, invisible health risk that receives little media attention. Once the smog problems of California started receiving attention, many ecological groups turned their attention to water pollution and tree conservation.

While deforestation actual helps to increase the effects of air pollution since there is less clean oxygen in the air, attention needs to be given to the air pollution that every major city world wide faces on a daily basis.

Industry is by far the biggest and most aggressive pollutant source on the planet, although the African tradition of burning old unusable electronics certainly isn’t helping. While city and county wide recycling seems like a good idea on the surface, almost all cities burn the plastics left out in the blue containers, releasing toxic pollutants into the air. In order for recycling to be effective it can’t destroy the air quality at the same time.

The destruction of the ozone layer that culminated to a very fierce point in the early nineties still needs attention as the destruction of the ozone layer adds to the air quality issues.

Perhaps as a civilization, the chronic display of air quality meters displayed on weather reports should let us know that we have a serious problem on our hands. Exhaust fumes from cars, trucks, and tractor trailers have the potential to pollute the air ten to fifteen times more in one day than a week’s worth of CFC releasing air conditioners, which have finally been outlawed.

The more we insist on using older cars which release a higher degree of carbons, the more we use those old air conditioners with CFC releasing potential, and the more we take the air’s overall cleanliness for granted, the more people and wild life will die early thanks to unbreathable air quality.

The more air pollution facts that the general public gathers, the more they can see the tenable situation that the world’s air is truly in, and appropriate action can be taken in order to help clean up the air we put into our lungs and the lungs of our children.