Air Pollution is Us

The dangers of air pollution seem obvious and of concern to some, but apparently only a minority. How much of the apathy is attributed to "I don't care" or "I don't believe it", or both, is unknown. Yet, I see it on a daily basis. 

The most striking is the number of people that leave their gas-powered vehicles running while at stores or other business. On my walk to and from the gym, I pass cars parked on the sides of the street and in the post-office parking lot. It's more common than not to notice that most vehicle engines are on and running with no occupants in them. 

Out of curiosity, I timed 4 empty vehicles independently with engines running (1 at post office, 2 at a barber shop, 1 store parking lot). Vacancy time was 12-32 minutes. The other day 5 running vehicles parked at the post-office were backed into the lot with rear ends butting the sidewalk. Another time I walked passed an engaged car with a passenger in a store parking lot. ~Twenty-five minutes later when I exited the store, the car was still running with it's passenger. I see this year-round, not just seasonal.

I see this ALL the time! Imagine how much emissions are exhausted into the air. I notice during my walks on cold and gray days that the exhaust stays closer to the ground, not dissipating into the air above, and worse on windless days. What that means is that I'm breathing it the entire time I walk along the streets. I can smell and taste it. 

All this in a small rural town. Now, consider the expansion of this in cities and along major highways. This is why I don't like living in urban areas (as well as my hypersensitivity to noise). And it affects more than just us humans; it impacts all life forms. 

Here is an important factoid: a scientist discovered by stringent experiments that lead in the environment was almost nil until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and increased every year. By sampling the permafrost in Greenland he found that the levels significantly increased in the 1950's, coinciding when lead was added to gasoline. Lead in gas was (is) volatilized in engines and emitted from tailpipes. Therefore, lead was deposited along streets and highways for decades. 

The dangers of lead were known decades before unleaded gas was introduced for on-road vehicles in the 1950's. Yet it took another 20 years for unleaded gas to be phased out completely. Lead use in gasoline was prohibited in the US in 1986.

The problems are: 

1. Lead is a heavy metal and stays in living tissues for some time, depending on how much and long an organism was exposed. High exposure (time and amount) can lead to the metal deposited and stored  in bones and teeth (the two common sources for sampling of lead contamination).

2. Bioaccumulation: lead from air pollution, etc can accumulate in soil and plants, and the organisms that use plants for food source. And lead can persist for hundreds of years.

"Lead shares about 10% of total pollution produced by heavy metals. The uptake of lead by the primary producers (plants) is found to affect their metabolic functions, growth, and photosynthetic activity. The accumulation of lead in excess can cause up to a 42% reduction in the growth of the roots."

Also, lead arsenate and other lead compounds were used as pesticides for food crops,  such as fruit orchards and on other crops, until the 1950s. But that lead in the soil is still there and being absorbed by plant roots. Sampling of plants along highways and streets demonstrate that plants absorb, and some sequester, lead from the air. (Avoid planting edible plants next to roads and highways.)

Pollution particles are not just lead, as this recent science article points out. Yet no one seems to care, considering the amount of pollution generated, knowingly and unknowingly, on a daily basis. Right under our noses.

"The damage that air pollution can do is wide-ranging and well-known: The chemicals produced by human activities can trap heat in the atmosphere, change the chemistry of the oceans and harm human health in myriad ways.

Now, a new study suggests that air pollution might also make flowers less attractive to pollinating insects. Compounds called nitrate radicals, which can be abundant in nighttime urban air, severely degrade the scent emitted by the pale evening primrose, reducing visits from pollinating hawk moths." ("Polluted Flowers Smell Less Sweet to Pollinators, Study Finds," Emily Anthes, New York Times, 2/08/2024)