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Every day I, along with millions of other people in the world, get into a car and drive to my destination. If anyone else is like me, he worries about the impact his car's emissions are having on his health, along with everyone else's. The simple fact is that, like me, most car owners love their cars and are almost lost without one. Unfortunately, cars use a petroleum-based product called gasoline, and when mixed with the proper amount of air and then compressed and ignited with a spark, it creates the energy to move a car forward. This explosion also creates new gasses or "emissions" that come from the tail pipe of the car. There are alternatives to the gas-burning car the zero-emission electric car.

The Environmental Protection Agency defines Pollutants or Pollution in the following way:unwanted chemicals or other materials found in the environment. Pollutants can harm human health, the environment, and property. Air pollutants occur as gases, liquid droplets, and solids. Once released into the environment, many pollutants can persist, travel long distances, and move from one environmental medium (e.g., air, water, land) to another. The chemical makeup of emissions includes unburned hydrogen carbon, carbon monoxide, Water, Ozone, Particulate Matter, Fine Particulate Matter, and Nitrogen Dioxide[1].

One of the pollutants unburned hydrogen carbon, is created from partially burned fuel that is expelled from the car's exhaust and contains many toxic compounds that have been proven to cause cancer and other health problems; this gas also reacts with nitrogen oxides in direct sunlight to form a gas called ozone[2]. Another one of these pollutants nitrogen dioxide is created during the compression stage in the engine when the oxygen and nitrogen in the air react with each other[3]. Effects of this gas on the respiratory system include lung irritation and damage[4].

Ozone or O3, another harmful byproduct of gas engines, is found high in the atmosphere where it protects the earth from harmful ultra-violet rays, but when nitrogen oxide and hydrogen carbons meet in sunlight, they create ozone closer to the ground and create what we call "smog." This smog is a lung irritant that causes lung damage and a variety of respiratory problems[5]. The effects that O3 can have on a person's health include breathing difficulties, lung tissue damage, coughing, and chest pains[6].

Another pollutant, particulate matter or PM10, is considered to be the most harmful to human health by the EPA. It is considered the most harmful because it is comprised of tiny particles that contain a variety of chemicals in liquid drops that remain suspended in the air for short or long periods of time, and when the particles finally do settle, the particles are breathed in by humans and other animals. Once breathed in, these particles settle deep into the lungs where they cause a variety of problems. Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) is much smaller than PM10 but is equally bad for lung health[7]. Both of these can cause health effects such as coughs, phlegm, wheezing, asthma, cancer, lung damage, heart attacks, and premature death[8].

The average person breathes in approximately eight million cubic feet of air throughout his lifetime; this is enough to fill up over 40 giant blimps[9]. In 2003, emissions were at an all time high at 6.8 billion tons, having quadrupled since 1950, and they are predicted to keep going up at an alarming rate[10].

Now that people are starting to realize the severity of the situation, scientists are coming out with better more efficient modes of transportation. One invention is the electric vehicle or "EV." The vehicle is equipped with several batteries that are fully charged before use. These are used to provide power to an electric motor. The vehicle itself is a zero-emissions car. The car has fewer moving parts, so the life of the car is far greater than many other modes of transportation, and this drives down the cost of ownership. However, this vehicle still requires electricity that has to come from a power plant. This can be solved by installing solar panels on the roof of a person's house to charge the car at home. As a drawback, this car has limited range on the battery's power, and very few places are available to charge the batteries back to full power when going longer distances. This could be remedied by having stations around cities where people can recharge their car while they go to their appointments or shop.

Many people would argue that there really is no problem and that the auto industry is a vital part of our economy, such as in the structural functional approach. With the structural functional approach, people build the cars in the factory and receive a paycheck for their labor. They then take and use this money to buy a vehicle, groceries, clothing, etc. This money then goes to other workers who help bring these different items in, sell, store, etc. These people then turn around and repeat this process and buy new vehicles that put money back into the company that pays the worker where the cycle begins again. Not only do the factory workers checks apply to this concept, but the people who maintain the car after it is built and sold apply as well. In this way all the people that are employed by companies who build replacement parts, refine oil into gas and oil for the car as-well-as the mechanics who work on the cars and companies that produce other products for these vehicles all are a part of this, so by getting rid of all these jobs, the economy would take a serious hit. To negate this, jobs would have to be created equally as fast for the new industries as they are lost in the old ones.

If people continue their current trend of burning gas and putting mass amounts of pollutants into the air, we will start to slowly kill ourselves and everything else around us. But if we can perfect and start utilizing alternative methods of transportation, ones that will produce few if no emissions, we may have a decent chance at saving our world. If people would start using these alternatives to the gas car, it would have a huge impact on the carbon imprint, our health, and the future health of our children. By starting now, we can also put in place the structure needed to support the American workforce and help to create the jobs necessary to keep the economy running. Also by switching over now while the environment in not in severe dire straits, we can take a few years to switch over all the different professions, so that the already fragile economy does not tank again.

 

Curtis Shoemaker 

Works Cited:

"Air Quality & Your Health." 2004. San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District. 2 Nov. 2009.

Buckley, Lila. "Carbon Emissions Reach Record High. Earth Policy Institute." 2004. 2 Nov. 2009.

Mitsuharu, Koguma. "What is Contained in Auto Emissions?"

chemistryquestion.com Apr 2002. 2 Nov. 2009.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Mobile Source Emissions - Past, Present, and Future". 9 Jul. 2007. Office of Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ). 2 Nov. 2009.

[1] Mitsuharu, Air Quality & Your Health

[2] Mitsuharu

[3] Mitsuharu

[4] Air Quality & Your Health

[5] Mitsuharu

[6] Air Quality & Your Health

[7] Mitsuharu

[8] Air Quality & Your Health

[9] slocleanair.org

[10] Buckley