Atmospheric Issues
Catherine A. Johnson
SCI/275
February 23, 2014
University of Phoenix

Atmospheric Issues
As the planet expands, so does time periods that people spend in different interior spaces. Indoor air quality is of particular interest, since it effects behavior, ventilation, and the health of people. There is major concern for health issues resulting from indoor air pollution, as well as from the atmosphere. Similar to the Volatile organic compounds used in polluting indoor air quality, uses of similar chemicals are causing atmospheric issues as well. Compounds originate from indoor sources; a point of origin of gases or other materials which appears constantly in a similar way, although formed by mixtures of indoor and outdoor pollutants, it is a combination of the VOCs emitted gases from certain solids or liquids, which include varieties of chemicals from indoor and outdoor sources.
If looking at seasons as a means of ventilation, this influences amounts of chemicals released into the air and into the environments people live and work. Sources such as vehicle emissions, tobacco smoke, wooden furniture, flooring, wallpapers, and gluing emissions are just a few of pollutants contaminating the air. Everyday uses of products like paints, lacquers, paint strippers, cleaning supplies, and pesticides also have a harmful effect on the atmosphere. Current research shows ‘the ozone layer deteriorating due to the release of pollution containing chemicals like chlorine and bromine. Seasonal variations cause higher indoor levels of VOC’s to accumulate from abated ventilation in the winter compared to other seasonal months.
According to research “Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), chemicals found mainly in spray aerosols heavily used by industrialized nations for much of the past 50 years, are the primary culprits in ozone layer breakdown” CFCs make their way to the upper atmosphere, exposure to UV rays, causing them to break down into chemicals such as chlorine. Once it has broken down into chlorine, it then reacts with the oxygen atoms in the ozone and rips apart the molecules. Air pollution from mad-made sources such as, smog, factories, incinerators, transportation these do not replenish the stratospheric ozone. Sunlight triggers reactions between nitrogen oxides and volatile hydrocarbons (Berg, 2011)
A study conducted in central Germany with 622 homes in a midscale city called Leipzig, showed 2,242 measurements of more than 60 VOC’s in a single home. Studies concluded “items, activities, and buildings emit fixed compound spectra” (2014) Depending upon the VOC lifetime and the emission strength, the source intensity is variable, but usually the composition is relatively constant. Therefore, one must consider mixtures of VOC’s from multiple sources, because various source combinations of numerous air pollutants, including interactions as well as superposition of compounds, possess different effects on human health and the universes atmosphere. Studies aimed at finding characteristic sources of VOC’s in urban housings in areas without strong outdoor influences.
Air pollutants combined with global warming would be carbon dioxide, coal, oil, methane, nitrous oxide and the tropospheric ozone. Chemicals like toluene/benzene are good markers for influencing outdoor air and traffic. “Local conditions like industry and busy roads create emission sources that differentiate the pollution amount of homes in industrial, urban, and nonurban regions. A high variety of possible sources of indoor and ambient air poses a big challenge for scientists to assign different compounds to their point of origin” (2014).
Several aspects label atmosphere issues, from car exhaust to cigarette smoking all of these issues pollute air and effect the environment as well as our health. Air pollutants have a lasting effect on this world and the people who live here. Through science and technology, it is possible to identify pollutants impacting air people breathe in and atmospheric dangers protecting our world.
An outdoor atmosphere such as car exhaust pollutes the earth’s atmosphere. Car exhaust causes pollution from carbon dioxide released when vehicles burn fuel. This is a major issue for our environment in urbanized areas. The area with millions of vehicles driven daily produces massive amounts of air pollutants into congested areas. With urbanization comes expansion when this happens cities build roads, buildings, and homes to accommodate the population. The large pieces of land destroyed reducing natural recourses and increasing greenhouse gases. This causes a massive amount of air pollution to one general area. Although carbon dioxide is a massive cause to air pollution outdoors there are still many indoor atmosphere pollutions that we breathe in every day (Berg, 2011).
Cigarette smoke is one of the leading causes of indoor pollution in homes, the cigarette smoke a person breathes in does not only affect them personally but all the people around them as well. It is toxic to anyone who breathes the substance. There have hundreds of studies on the effects of cigarette smoke and the affect it has on everyone around breathing the toxin in. Cigarette smoke causes life-threating health problems to the people exposed to the substance or chemicals released into the air.
Radon is a radioactive gas produced naturally as a result in decay of uranium in the Earth’s crust. Currently radon has become progressively important as an indoor air contaminant. It sometimes accumulates to dangerous levels as it seeps through the ground and into buildings. “Radon is one of the highest risks for exposure in homes, since that is where people spend most of their time, if ingested or inhaled radon harms the body”( 2011).
In large countries like China, Asia, and Japan, air pollution created there can travel into other countries like United States of America causing clouds of smog effecting people here. Chemicals from these manufacturers release toxins into the air traveling at specific rates can reach a faraway country in as little as three days. The most polluted air is from Japan, Asia, Africa, and cities having governments who do not provide resources to eliminate such dangers.
The Environmental Protection Agency interacts with other countries to provide technical data and scientifically analysis, hoping to create a safer environment and cleaner air in which we all have to breathe. Maybe people from all over the world will realize one day, that it takes the efforts from all countries around the world, and each individual from those places to make changes together in order to change hazards affecting each of us today and the atmosphere we all seem to rely on each day .

References
Berg, L. R. (2011). Visualizing environmental science . Hoboken, NJ:: John Wiley & Sons in collaboration with the National Geographic Society.
Rosch, C. (2014). Relationship between sources and patterns of VOCs in indoor air. Leipzig: Atmospheric Pollution Research.