Chapter 12 Test Review

Long term effects on human health?

Long term effects on human health caused by air pollution are emphysema, lung cancer, and heart disease

Short term effects on human health?

Short term effects on human health caused by air pollution are headache, nausea, irritation to the eyes nose and throat, tightness in the chest, coughing, and upper respiratory infections.

What is sick-building syndrome?

Sick-building syndrome is when buildings have very poor air quality.

What is smog? How is it formed? Is it a primary of secondary pollutant?

Smog is when air pollution hangs over urban areas, and reduces visibility. Smog is formed by chemical reactions that involve sunlight, air, automobile exhaust, and ozone. Smog is an example of a secondary pollutant.

Describe the potential effects of acid precipitation on nonliving components of the environment?

Acid precipitation can dissolve materials used to make buildings, causing important and historic monuments to be reduced to nothing

Describe the potential effects on acid precipitation on humans?

Acid precipitation can find its way into crops and animals, which poisons the human body. It can also cause respiratory problems in children, decrease in animal and plant produce, and dissolve materials in buildings.

Describe how acid precipitation forms?

Acid precipitation forms when sulfur and nitrogen oxides combine with water in the atmosphere, which falls as sulfuric acid and nitric acid.

Describe acid precipitation as a global problem.

Acid precipitation is a global problem in that acid from one country can leak into another country that isn't producing pollutants. Acid precipitation is a problem that must be addressed by the world instead of just by each individual country on their own.

What is acid precipitation? How many types are there?

Acid precipitation is precipitation that contains high concentrations of acids.

What is acid shock?

Acid shock is the sudden influx of acidic water that causes a rapid change in the water's pH. Acid shock is caused when acidic snow melts and combines with the water.

What effect does acid precipitation have on soil, plants, and aquatic life?

Acidification changes the chemical makeup of soil in many ways. Nutrients can be washed away from soil, or the acid can be absorbed by the plants.

What is air pollution? What are the main causes of air pollution?

Air pollution is when harmful substances build up in the air to unhealthy levels. The main cause of air pollution is human activity.

Describe how indoor air pollution occurs?

Indoor pollution occurs when poisonous substances are found in carpets, building materials, paints, and furniture.

What is light pollution?

Light pollution is the overuse and waste of light. Light pollution is diminishing to view of our night sky

What is radon gas?

Radon gas is a colorless, tasteless, and odorless radioactive substance. The health effects of radon are destruction of genetic material in lungs, and lung cancer.

List and identify the primary air pollutants? What are their effects on human health and the environment?

The primary air pollutants are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter. (Study Table 1)

What is pH? Study figure 12.

pH is measure of how acidic or basic a substance is.

What is a primary pollutant?

A primary pollutant is a pollutant that is put directly into the air by human activity. An example is soot from smoke.

What must happen to transform primary pollutants into secondary pollutants?

A primary pollutant must mix with another pollutant in order to become a secondary pollutant.

What is a scrubber?

A scrubber is a machine that moves gases through a spray of water that dissolves many pollutants.

What is a secondary pollutant?

A secondary pollutant is when a primary pollutant comes into contact with other primary pollutants or with naturally occurring substances. An example is ground-level ozone.

What is an electrostatic precipitator? How does it work?

An electrostatic precipitator is a machine used in cement factories and coal-burning power plants to remove dust particles from smoke stacks.

What is asbestos?

Asbestos is a fire retardant substance formerly used as an insulator in building materials. The health effects of asbestos are cutting of the lungs, asbestosis, difficulty breathing, and heart failure.

What are some health effects of ground level ozone?

Health effects of ground level ozone are irritation of the respiratory system, a reduction in lung function, aggravation of asthma, and inflammation to the lining of the lungs.

What is noise pollution? Decibels? What is the danger level that can contribute to hearing loss and deafness? How much greater is the intensity of 20 dB than 10 dB?

Noise pollutants affect human health and the quality of human life. Decibels are a measure of the intensity of the intensity of sound. Constant exposure to decibels over 120 can result in deafness. 20 dB is 10 times the intensity of 10 dB.

What is the California Zero-Emission Vehicle Program? What is a zero-emission vehicle?

The California Zero-Emission Vehicle Program requires that by 2016 all cars sold in California must be zero-emission. Zero-emission vehicles are vehicles that have no tailpipe emissions, no emissions from gasoline, and no emission-control systems that deteriorate over time.

What is the Clean Air Act?

The Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate vehicle emissions in the United States

What is the EPA?

The EPA is the Environmental Protection Agency.

What are the primary industrial air pollutants?

The primary industrial air pollutants are burning fossil fuels (releasing huge quantities of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the air), power plants that produce electricity (repeat), and VOCs (chemical compounds that form toxic fumes).