Air protection from pollution today has become one of the priorities of the society.After all, if no water a person can live a few days without food - a few weeks, you can not do without air a few minutes.After breathing - it is a continuous process.
We live at the bottom of the fifth, air, ocean, planet, often referred to as the atmosphere.If it was not, life on Earth would not have arisen.
air
Composition Composition of atmospheric air is a constant ever since the origins of humanity.We know that 78% of the air - is nitrogen, 21% is oxygen.The content of argon in the air and carbon dioxide together is about 1%.And all the other gases in the amount of give us such a small figure of 0.0004%.
What applies to other gases?There are many: methane, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, helium, hydrogen sulfide and others.As long as their number does not change in the air, everything is fine.But with increasing concentrations of either air pollution occurs.These gases are literally poisoning our lives.
If people want to maintain their health, vital air protection from pollution.
consequences of changes in the composition of air
air pollution is dangerous by the fact that people there are a variety of allergic reactions.According to doctors, allergy is most often caused by the fact that the human immune system can not recognize the synthetic chemicals, not by nature but by man.Therefore, the protection of clean air plays an important role in the prevention of allergic diseases in humans.
Every year there is a huge amount of new chemicals.They change the composition of the atmosphere in the big cities, where as a result of a growing number of people suffering from respiratory diseases.No one is surprised that over the industrial centers almost constantly hanging toxic cloud of smog.
But even ice-covered and completely uninhabited Antarctica has not remained aloof from the process of pollution.And no wonder, because the atmosphere - the most mobile of all the layers of the Earth.A movement of air can not stop any borders between states or mountain ranges or oceans.
pollution sources
Thermal power plants, metallurgical and chemical plants are the main air pollutants.The smoke from the chimneys of such enterprises carried by wind over long distances, leading to the spread of harmful substances for tens of kilometers from the source.
to big cities characterized by traffic jams, in which thousands of machines are idle with the engine running.Exhaust fumes contain carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, products of incomplete combustion and particulate matter.Each of them in their own way dangerous to health.
Carbon monoxide interferes with the body's oxygen supply, causing aggravation of cardiovascular diseases.The solid particles penetrate into the lungs and are deposited in them becoming a cause of asthma, allergic diseases.Hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides are the source of destruction of the ozone layer and cause photochemical smog in cities.
Smog great and terrible
first major signal that needed protection from air pollution, has become "a great smog", 1952, in London.As a result of stagnation of the city of fog and sulfur dioxide resulting from the combustion of coal in fireplaces, boilers and thermal power plants, the UK capital for three days suffocating from lack of oxygen.
smog victims were about four thousand people, and another 100 thousand were acute respiratory diseases and cardiovascular systems.And for the first time en masse started talking about what is required to protect the air in the city.
result was the adoption in 1956 of the law "About Clean Air", banning coal furnace.Since then, most countries in the protection of air from pollution is enshrined in law.
Russian law on the protection of air
In Russia, the main legal act in this field is the Federal Law "On Air Protection".
They set standards for air quality (hygiene and sanitation), and emissions standards.The law requires state registration of polluting and dangerous substances and the need for special permits for their emissions.Production and use of fuels is possible only if the certification of fuel at atmospheric safety.
If the degree of danger for man and nature is not installed, the release of these substances into the atmosphere is prohibited.The activities of economic entities that do not have systems for cleaning exhaust gases and control systems.Vehicles in excess of the concentration of hazardous substances in the emissions may not be used.
Law on Air Protection also sets out the duties of citizens and businesses.For the emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere in excess of the existing regulations, they are legally and financially responsible.At the same time payment of fines does not exempt from the obligation to establish a system of cleaning the waste gases.
most "dirty" cities of Russia
air protection measures are particularly important for those settlements that Russia topped the list of cities with the most severe environmental conditions, including pollution of the atmosphere.It Azov, Achinsk, Barnaul, Beloyarsk, Blagoveshchensk, Bratsk, Volgograd, Volzhsky, Dzerzhinsk, Ekaterinburg, Winter, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kurgan, Kyzyl, Lesosibirsk, Magnitogorsk, Minusinsk, Moscow, Naberezhnye Chelny, Neryungri, Nizhnekamsk, Nizhniy Tagil, Novokuznetsk, Novocherkassk, Norilsk, Rostov-on-Don, Selenginsk, Solikamsk, Stavropol, Sterlitamak, Tver, Ussuriisk, Chernogorsk Chita, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
protect the city from air pollution
protection of air in the city should start with the elimination of traffic jams, especially during rush hours.Therefore they are building interchanges to avoid standing at traffic lights, introduced one-way traffic on parallel streets, and others. In order to limit the number of vehicles built bypass road near cities.In many large cities around the world, there are days when the central regions are allowed to travel alone on public transport and private car is best left in the garage.
In European countries such as Holland, Denmark, Lithuania, the best views of urban transport locals believe the bike.It is economical, requires no fuel, does not pollute the air.And he is not afraid of traffic jams.And the benefits of cycling training provides an additional plus.
But urban air quality depends not only on transport.Industrial enterprises are equipped with air purification systems continuously monitors the level of contamination.Smokestacks try to make higher the smoke dissipated not in the city, and was carried away beyond.This does not solve the whole problem, but to reduce the concentration of hazardous substances in the atmosphere.For the same reason it prohibited the building of new "dirty" businesses in major cities.
This can be considered palliative.But this measure - is the introduction of non-waste technology, in which there is no place for the generation of waste.
fight fires
Many remember the summer of 2010, when many cities of Central Russia were in the thrall of smog from burning peat.Residents of some settlements had to be evacuated, not only because of the danger of fires, but because of the heavy smoke area.Therefore, measures to protect the air should include prevention and control of forest and peat fires, both natural atmospheric pollutants.
International cooperation
Air protection from pollution - it is not only Russia or any other single country.After all, as already mentioned, air movement does not recognize state borders.So just vital to international cooperation.
main coordinator of the activities of various countries on environmental policy is the United Nations.The UN General Assembly defines the main directions of environmental policies, principles of relations between the two countries for the protection of nature.She holds international conference on acute environmental issues, develops recommendations for the protection of nature, including measures to protect the air.It helps the development of cooperation of many countries to protect the environment.
It signed the UN has initiated multilateral treaties on the protection of air, ozone layer protection, and many other documents on environmental well-being of the world.For now, everyone understands - the Earth we have one at all, and the atmosphere is also one.
