Air Pollution

AIR POLLUTION

Read the text choosing the correct words.

Air pollution occurs when the concentrations of (harmful, painful, injurious) substances become high enough to cause the atmospheric environment to become toxic. Air pollutants can be gaseous, liquid or (dependable, stable, solid) in form, and can come from natural as well as human sources. Examples of natural sources of air pollution include forest fires, volcanic pollution and dust. Human sources of air pollutants include (injections, diffusions, emissions) from industry, agriculture, forestry, transportation, power generation, and space heating.
Air pollution can threaten the health of human beings, trees, lakes, crops, and animals. Abundant amount of air pollution changes natural atmospheric processes, causing acid rains, ozone holes, and enhancing the greenhouse effect.

INDUSTRIAL SMOG is considered the most serious type of air pollution. Smoke and oxides of that are (revealed, released, let out) by burning coal and oil containing minor amounts of sulfur is the cause. Industrial smog has been known to cause air pollution disasters. One of the worst occurred in London in December of 1952. Five days of stagnant air brought about high-pressure systems caused between 3,500 and 4,000 deaths. Industrial smogs in London were called (bean soups, pea soupers, smog soupers).

Another main cause of air pollution is (DISCHARGE, CAR GASES, EXHAUST FUMES) from vehicles that run on gasoline or diesel. Until a few years ago, lead was added to most gasolines to make car engines run better. Lead is a highly toxic metal and can cause nervous system damage and digestive problems. Now ecologically minded people try to use (lead-free, leadless, leaded) petrol to prevent air pollution.


Sulfur and (nytrogene, nitrogen, nitrogyne) oxides from power plants, industry, cars and other sources cause rain, snow and fog to become acidic. The most serious damage caused by (ACIDIFIED, ACIDIC, ACID) RAIN today is...