Question

Explain vehicular pollution and how its affects the urban environment?

Answer 1

The large majority of today's cars and trucks travel by using internal combustion engines that burn gasoline or other fossil fuels. The process of burning gasoline to power cars and trucks contributes to air pollution by releasing a variety of emissions into the atmosphere. Emissions that are released directly into the atmosphere from the tailpipes of cars and trucks are the primary source of vehicular pollution. But motor vehicles also pollute the air during the processes of manufacturing, refuelling, and from the emissions associated with oil refining and distribution of the fuel they burn.

Primary pollution from motor vehicles is pollution that is emitted directly into the atmosphere, whereas secondary pollution results from chemical reactions between pollutants after they have been released into the air.

Despite decades of efforts to control air pollution, at least 92 million Americans still live in areas with chronic smog problems. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) predicts that by 2010, even with the benefit of current and anticipated pollution control programs, more than 93 million people will live in areas that violate health standards for ozone (urban smog), and more than 55 million Americans will suffer from unhealthy levels of fine-particle pollution, which is especially harmful to children and senior citizens.

The following are the major pollutants associated with motor vehicles:

▪Ozone (O 3 ). The primary ingredient in urban smog, ozone is created when hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides (NO x )—both of which are chemicals released by automobile fuel combustion—react with sunlight. Though beneficial in the upper atmosphere, at the ground level ozone can irritate the respiratory system, causing coughing, choking, and reduced lung capacity.

▪Particulate matter (PM). These particles of soot, metals, and pollen give smog its murky colour. Among vehicular pollution, fine particles (those less than one-tenth the diameter of a human hair) pose the most serious threat to human health by penetrating deep into lungs. In addition to direct emissions of fine particles, automobiles release nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and sulfur dioxide, which generate additional fine particles as secondary pollution.

▪Nitrogen oxides (NO x ). These vehicular pollutants can cause lung irritation and weaken the body's defences against respiratory infections such as pneumonia and influenza. In addition, they assist in the formation of ozone and particulate matter. In many cities, NO x pollution accounts for one-third of the fine particulate pollution in the air.

Answer 2

pollution caused by vehicles is called as vehicular pollution
it releases harmful gases in atmosphere and these gases become the reason of asthma attacks..
hope this helps uh..