Millions of Americans see damage to their health due to air pollution. The U.S. is trying to keep the air pollution to a minimum but it is going to take many years.
According to CNBC, “More than 135 million Americans live with polluted air.”
Air pollution may not seem like a big deal right now, but later on it might have effects on your life that could damage you. Many people in America pollute the air without even knowing it.
You could simply be driving your car and think nothing of it but actually you are harming the environment by the gas in your car.
“The vapors given off when gasoline evaporates and the substances produced when gasoline is burned,” are air pollutants, according to EIA.gov.
Gas is one of the most common air pollutants in the U.S., affecting people every year causing health problems.
“More than 123 million people in the U.S. are thought to live in counties with bad ozone pollution,” according to CNBC.
Many people who live in air-polluted counties include those with vulnerable immune systems, such as children and elderly people. Many people are hurting themselves without even knowing. Living in bad ozone counties can damage your lungs or worsen any respiratory problems such as asthma. According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, air pollution can also “trigger a variety of health problems including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation and congestion.”
That's why the U.S. needs to help fix the ozone problem so people don't have to worry about health problems.
“The number of Americans exposed to poor air quality has consistently stayed over 125 million since 2013,” CNBC states.
The U.S.’s air quality is better than it used to be, however, because the government spent millions of dollars to help make it better.
CNBC also states, “Poor air quality is also costing the U.S. roughly $617 billion in damages every year.”
The U.S. spends a lot of money on air quality only for it to decline slowly, but air quality and air pollution can take many decades to reverse. Also, the U.S. will always have some percentage of bad air pollution or air quality. It won't ever go away.
What you can do to help air quality and air pollution is try to not use gas cars as much, and maybe switch to electric cars because they don't create bad things that damage the environment. You can also help the environment by not creating fumes from chemicals because millions of people breathe that in everyday and it harms them.
Michael Rosales
Centralia
