Intro to Air Pollution and Smog Study Guide

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?

Because of the external cost, or externalities.

The majority of atmospheric mercury is produced by what process?

Burning coal

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

Burning coal

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

Burning coal

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

CO2 (Carbon dioxide), NOx (nitrogen oxide), and VOCs (volatile organic compounds).

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

Car exhaust

What are the primary air pollutants produced from burning coal? (There are 10)

Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, lead, hydrocarbons, arsenic, cadmium, particulate matter, and uranium.

What pollutant has a stronger affinity for hemoglobin than oxygen?

Carbon monoxide

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

Catalytic Converters

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

Global warming

Catalytic converters reduce what pollutants in car exhaust?

Hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides

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

Industry, transportation, and energy production

What was the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990?

It implemented the cap and trade program.

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

It removed lead from fuel, and required all cars to have catalytic converters.

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

Lead

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

Lung cancer

What pollutant is implicated in human neurological damage?

Mercury and other heavy metals

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

Nitrogen dioxide

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

What is a natural source of atmospheric carbon dioxide?

Respiration, decomposition, volcanic eruptions, and forest fires.

What are the primary anthropogenic sources of GHG's?

The burning of fossil fuels, including gasoline, oil, and coal.

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

The chemical reactions nitrogen oxides and VOCs

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

Thermal inversion