Bio

Ground-level ozone in most major United States cities results primarily from what?

Automobile Engines

The majority of atmospheric mercury is produced by what process?

Burning Coal

What are the primary anthropogenic sources of GHG's?

Burning Fossil Fuels

Which energy sources produces the most air pollutants when used during the generation of electricity?

Burning Fuel

What are the primary air pollutants produced from burning coal?

Carbon Dioxide, Sulphur Dioxide, Mercury, Nitrogen oxide, carbon Monoxide, Lead, Hydrocarbons, Arsenic, Cadmium, particulate matter, uranium

What pollutant has a stronger affinity for hemoglobin than oxygen?

Carbon Monoxide

Which type of electricity-generating power plant releases radioactive materials as well as toxic metals such as lead and arsenic under normal operating conditions?

Coal Burning Power Plants

What is a common component of photochemical smog and is a reddish-brown gas with a pungent odor?

Gas Exhaust

What causes photochemical smog in large cities in the United States?

Ground-Level Ozone

What pollutant is implicated in human neurological damage?

Lead

What was once widely used in the United States as a gasoline additive?

Lead

What chemical compound leads to the formation of photochemical smog in the troposphere when it reacts with other compounds in the presence of sunlight?

Nitrogen Oxides and Volatile Organic Hydrocarbons

Catalytic Converters reduce what pollutants in car exhaust?

Photochemical Smog

What are the direct products of the use of hydrocarbon fuels in automobile engines?

Photochemical Smog: CO2, NOx, and VOCs

What is a natural source of atmospheric carbon dioxide?

Respiration, Decomposition, and Volcanic Eruptions

Smoke from forest fires is most likely to affect air quality over larger areas for many days when what climactic situation is present?

Temperature Inversion/ Thermal Inversion

What was the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990?

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, allowed power plants to buy and sell SO2 pollution allowances. This is called a cap-and-trade program

Consumers who get their electricity from coal-fired power plants are not paying the true cost of energy production in their monthly utility bills. Explain why?

This is because the bills do not include the public Health cost. Such as the ones that deal with air Pollution

What best describes one way the Clean Air Act helped reduce air pollution?

Through the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulated the use of lead, particularly in fuels, which dramatically decreased the amount of lead in the atmosphere.

Increased use of what technologies would cause the greatest reduction in the primary source of photochemical smog?

catalytic converters, reduction of nitrogen oxide and VOCs

The three main anthropogenic sources of gaseous air pollutants in the United States are what?

industry, transportation, and energy production

What environmental problems are most often linked to the combustion of fossil fuels?

lead to the production of ozone, formation of photochemical smog, and convert to nitric acid in the atmosphere, causing acid rain

What is the human health impact most closely associated with atmospheric particulates?

respiratory illnesses and lung disease