Surely, especially if you live in a big city, more than once you have left home and you have found that the atmosphere is full of smoke or fog, more or less thick and of a strange and annoying smell. This is known worldwide for its term in English: Photochemicto the Smogbut in Spanish we know him as smog or photochemical tux or photochemical fog. To put it in a simple way, it is a type of pollution that affects us a lot.
Next, in this ecology article, we tell you What is the photochemical smog, its causes and consequencesin the environment and in our health, as well as the cities that have the most levels of this pollutant and what possible solutions.
What is the photochemical smog: the definition
To understand everything about this type of environmental pollution, we will first give the Smog definition and its types:
What is the smog and how it occurs
The simplest Smog definition is that it is an air pollution that occurs when fog is combined with smoke and other polluting particles that float in the atmosphere, in areas with high levels of contamination. Thus, it can occur when there is fog or mist and the appearance it has is that the atmosphere is full of smoke, normally of strange smell and colors that can range from gray to orange or reddish.
If you also wonder how the SMOG is formed, keep in mind that it occurs when several of the air pollutants are mixed, which affect both the environment and our health, with sunlight and give diverse chemical reactions and in chain and, in addition, it is more frequent in industrial areas with high levels of greenhouse gases emission.
Smog types
Basically there are two types of smog:
- Industrial or classic SMOG, which is also known as Smog Gris or Smog Sulufroso, and is mainly produced by industrial activity.
- Photochemical smog.
Thus, before the question of What is photochemical smog We can define it as the result of the production of secondary pollutants, such as Troopospheric ozone or bad ozonewhich is the one that stays on the surface of the planet and does not go to the stratosphere. The photochemical smog occurs when there are photochemical reactions, that is, chemicals such as some gases reactions to sunlight exposure.
Some of these chemicals that react with the light producing SMOG are volatile hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, such as nitrogen monoxide or nitric oxide, and in this case the result is the tropospheric ozone, which continues to suffer photochemical reactions producing the eSmog.
What are the causes of photochemical smog
Regarding the Main causes of photochemical smogwe indicate that you have to focus on the causes of the polluting gases in the atmosphere, as well as the causes of acid rain, which are really linked. As a summary, the causes of the SMOG or photochemical fog are:
- Industrial activity that emits fumes with greenhouse gases and other environmental pollutants, both in the air and the soil and water, since these also end in the air.
- Gas emissions of vehicles that use fossil fuels.
- The poor management of contaminating waste both urban and in rural areas.
In short, the reason that there is photochemical torn is that in the environment there are too many harmful chemicals that react to sunlighttherefore, the basic problem is the increase in gas emissions and other atmospheric pollutants in recent decades.
Consequences of photochemical smog
As we have pointed out, photochemical fog is a very serious air pollution problem that increases daily. There are several serious and negative consequences of this environmental problem, but to summarize and explain them in a simple way, we can indicate that the main consequences of photochemical smogboth for the environment and for us, they are the following:
Consequences of photochemical smog in the environment
- The environment is modified both at a chemical and visual level. So there is environmental pollution, that is to say of the air, and visual that affects the landscape and drastically reduces visibility. It becomes impossible to see a few meters away, which affects us, even promotes traffic accidents, and also affects the animals in the area and plants, because sunlight does not arrive well.
- The presence of this photochemical fog prevents cloud formation with rainfall, so the few days of having this smog ceases to be rains.
- This contamination layer causes temperatures to increase due to excessive accumulation of greenhouse gases.
Consequences of photochemical SMOG for health
Surely you will have thought that the most affected part of our health is breathing because we inhale concentrated chemicals and this is correct. But how does the Smog affect the respiratory system? What more aspects affect our health?
- It produces inflammation of the respiratory tract, both high and low in cases of high Smog density.
- Tos appears, difficulty breathing and oppression in the chest.
- Respiratory problems such as asthma worsen.
- It favors the appearance of heart disease and aggravates them.
- In cases where the environmental problem is prolonged, it produces stress, generalized discomfort, loss of quality of life, appearance of different types of cancer and, finally, premature death.
Expand this information reading this other ecology article in which we show you an infographic on air pollution and health problems.
Photochemical Smog solutions
Luckily, there are certain measures that can be taken to reduce this environmental problem, but it is really necessary to influence the pressing need to implement them globally. Among the Possible photochemical smog solutions We find:
- Improve the green areas of the cities and their surroundings, both from public areas and private gardens.
- Restrict the use of private vehicles.
- Promote the use of public transport and that this use renewable and non -fossil fuel energies.
- Place novel asphalt, with more ecological and/or special materials for the absorption of air pollution.
- Place special towers that purify the air and remove the smog.
- Improve environmental education in classrooms and the one addressed to the general public, through environmental campaigns.
- Individually reduce pollutant gases emissions and encourage projects that are responsible for searching and applying these solutions, as well as contacting the government or the City Council indicated for this in each situation.
- Make use of the 3R of ecology in all daily aspects.
- Help raise awareness among others.
Here you can learn more about solutions for air pollution.
Cities with more smog
As curious and interesting data we want to comment what are the cities with the highest Smog level In the world. Mainly these are places where much contamination occurs directly, but also of places that due to their geographical location have little ventilation, that is, they have few winds that renew the air in the area.
- London
- Beijing
- Mexico City
- New York
- Los Angeles
- Lahore
- New Delhi
- Riad
- Cairo
- Moscow
If you want to read more articles similar to Photochemical Smog: What is, causes and consequenceswe recommend that you enter our pollution category.
