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Look at EPA’s webpage called six common air pollutants. Click on ozone and particulate matter. After looking at the primary causes of ozone and particulate matter pollution, determine
1. Which Americans are most at risk from air pollution?
2. What are the risks of air pollution to human health? If you really want to get a broader sense of this question, look at the page on lead.
3. What changes would we need to make to society to reduce our exposures to hazardous air pollution?
Review Air Quality Index explained.
Now look at this recent report by U.S. PIRG. Read the full page.
4. How does Pittsburgh's air compare to the rest of the country?
After you have familiarized yourself with the causes of major air pollutants and the hazards associated with them go to the AIRNow home page. It is an interagency website sponsored by state, federal, tribal, and Canadian agencies concerned with air quality. The main strength of the website is its real-time air quality forecasts. These forecasts look like the weather maps you are accustomed to seeing, only the different colors refer to toxicity, rather than temperature.
Look through the map archives. Click on the Delaware/Maryland/Pennsylvania/Washington DC map for June 25.
5. From what locations do the ozone hotspots emanate?
6. Look at Western Pennsylvania on June 24. What is causing the ozone to spread over Pittsburgh? Erie? It’s probably not the same for Erie as Pittsburgh so think carefully about this one.
7. Why do ozone levels change with the hour of the day? To answer this question you will need to read Good up High, Bad Nearby.
Be sure to check the webcam views of Sequoia – Kings Canyon National Park. They’ll show you the difference between a good and bad day.
8. How does air pollution get to Sequoia – Kings Canyon National Park?
Hazecam.net has a collection of webcams that provide real time air pollution data and webshots of air quality around the country. Maybe there is something besides porn worth watching on a webcam.
For a great overview of everything worth worrying about in the air, go to EPA’s webpage called Air and Radiation Basic Information.
Here are additional webcams in National Parks, specifically to show the public what air pollution is like in the national parks.
Not as cool as the other websites, but On a Clear Day You can See Forever is thorough and readable. Shorter, too, than most textbooks and the questions at the end of Part I and Part II are useful for preparing for exams.
At the bottom of this page called Air Quality Guide for Ozone there is a list of things you can do to cut back on ozone pollution.
The California Air Resources Board has several links to pages that can help individuals, businesses, regulators, and corporations reduce air pollution.
Here’s a webpage assembled by a public – private partnership. This page has to do with air pollution prevention. By now you get the point.
Prepared by Eric Pallant and Terry Bensel 1/06; updated by Caryl Waggett 7/06.