The Negative Effects of Automobile Emissions Pollution Essays -- Envir

The Negative Effects of Automobile Emissions Pollution Charles Dickens wrote about the dirty conditions of London, England by saying, "Smoke lowering down from chimney pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snowflakes – gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun . . . Fog everywhere . . . fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping, and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city" (Qtd. Langone 28). The problem with the air back in Dickens’ day was all of the coal that was burned for heat and power. Today, we do not often use coal in our individual homes or businesses, but we still have a big problem with our air. Automobiles are our main problem today. In almost every large metropolitan area in the world, the effects of the pollution released from the cars can be seen, smelt and felt by the average person. When science and technology step in and actually measure the amounts of pollution present, the effects become even more shocking. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) measures the amount of pollution in our air on a scale they call the Pollution Standards Index or the PSI. This scale measures several different pollutants including: carbon monoxide, ground-level ozone, lead, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter and sulfur dioxide (EPA 2). Automobiles contribute to four of the six pollutants measured on the scale: Carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide (Patterson 6). The scale also explains at what levels the pollutants become unhealthy and what we should do to protect ourselves. At the Good and Moderate levels of the scale, there are no serious health effects found. At the Unhealthful... .... Phoenix, August 1991. "Environmental Profile for: Maricopa County, Arizona. Air Quality". Environmental Protection Agency. 24 November, 1998. http://www.epa.gov/epahome/general.htm Kraft, Michael. Vig, Norman. Environmental Policy in the 1990’s. Washington D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1994. Langone, John. Our Endangered Earth. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1992. Levy, John. Contemporary Urban Planning. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997. Lorenzetti, Maureen S. Alternative Motor Fuels. Tulsa: PennWell Publishing Co., 1996. Morgan, James, et al. The Technical Feasibility, Socio-Economic Impact and Environmental Benefits of Alternative Energy Vehicles As Related To The State of Arizona. Northern Arizona University, 1986. Patterson, D.J. Emissions From Combustion Engines And Their Control. Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor Science Publishers, 1972.