When people think about air pollution or smog they think of big cities and places far away, like Beijing for the summer olympics this year where smog was a serious problem leading up to the games for the athletes. But the truth is, smog is a serious problem for everyone, and poses serious health effects for all of us.
Technically smog is a combination of of the words smoke and fog and nowadays is generally a result of car emmissions reactiong with the atmosphere and you can see it when its hit by sunlight. After doing a little reading on the internet i found out how much of a problem smog can be. Some large metropolitian areas around te world seiously affected by smog are London, Mexico City, Tehran, Los Angeles, and many places in Indochina. This type of heavy air pollution seriously affects the elderly, children, and people with cardiovascular conditions such as asthma or emphysema. Smog can irritate the eyes, nose and lungs, and cause shortness of breath and coughing. Specifically in the nasal passages it can dry out the protective membranes in the nose and interfere with the bodys ability to fight off infections, making people more susceptibility to getting sick. It is a fact that respiratory deaths are always increased when there are increased levels of smog in a certain place. The last piece of information that perhaps is most inportant is that smog is responsible for depleting the ozone layer that protects the earth from the suns damaging UV rays. Once the ozone layer is depleted or destroyed in a certain area it can not be replaced and this is a very serious problem we are trying to deal with.
This blog was simply written to inform you about smog, and the harmful effects it can have, and perhaps we can find a way in the future of reducing of emmissions and tackling the serious smog problem we all face.
