Sources and Pollutants
This heavy metal was once added to gasoline and caused neurological damage in children.
What is lead?
Sunny weather and car emissions can promote this ground-level pollutant formed by photochemical reactions.
What is ground-level ozone (tropospheric ozone)?
Commonly emitted by furniture, pressed wood, and some building materials; causes irritation and off-gassing
What is formaldehyde?
A device that uses an electrical charge to remove particulates from smokestack emissions.
What is an electrostatic precipitator?
When pH falls from alkaline to acidic over decades in a pond, this metal group often becomes more soluble and toxic.
What are heavy metals?
A naturally occurring radioactive gas from uranium decay that can accumulate in basements
What is radon?
A diagram shows a warm layer above cold air that traps pollutants near the surface; this phenomenon is called this.
What is a temperature inversion?
Old pipes and paints are common indoor sources of this neurotoxic metal.
What is lead?
This control technology injects a reagent or uses a liquid to remove acidic gases from exhaust.
What is a scrubber (wet scrubber)?
If a pond’s pH drops from 8.2 to 5.2, adding this alkaline compound is an effective short-term remediation.
What is calcium carbonate (lime)?
This pollutant bioaccumulates in large predatory fish and is a concern for human consumption.
What is mercury?
This urban effect raises local temperatures and can worsen air pollution by altering local circulation.
What is the heat-island effect?
Short-term exposure to high levels of this indoor pollutant causes headache, dizziness, and can be fatal.
What is carbon monoxide?
Requiring lower tailpipe NOx emissions or reformulated gasoline would reduce precursors to this secondary pollutant.
What is ground-level ozone?
Acid deposition primarily originates from emissions of this gas from fossil-fuel combustion.
What is sulfur dioxide?
Fibrous mineral once used in insulation and known to cause lung disease
What is asbestos?
When sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react in the atmosphere and return as acidic precipitation, it’s called this.
What is acid deposition (acid rain)?
Indoor particulate matter from wood stoves and tobacco smoke can aggravate these chronic conditions.
What are asthma and chronic respiratory disease?
Installing baghouse filters at a coal plant primarily reduces this pollutant group.
What are particulates (particulate matter)?
A decline in pond pH often leads to this change in biodiversity
What is a decrease in number of fish species (loss of biodiversity)?
Colorless, odorless gas from incomplete combustion that binds to hemoglobin and causes hypoxia.
What is carbon monoxide?
A meteorological condition that reduces the mixing depth and leads to higher pollutant concentrations at ground level.
What is a shallow mixing depth associated with inversion?
This ubiquitous indoor pollutant originates from soil and rock beneath buildings and increases lung cancer risk.
What is radon?
A regulatory approach that sets emissions limits for facilities and may trade allowances for sulfur dioxide is called this.
What is cap-and-trade (emissions trading)?
Besides liming, this long-term strategy reduces acid deposition at the source.
What is reducing SO2 and NOx emissions from power plants and vehicles?