WHO IS AT GREATEST RISK FROM AIR POLLUTION?

Individuals vary considerably in their susceptibility to unclean air. Those with heart disease and those with respiratory ailments such as asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema are likely to feel the effects of air pollution. But even those who do not have hearth disease or respiratory illnesses may be affected by air pollution to some degree: although there is no proof that air pollution causes disease, people in heavily polluted areas suffer more short-term respiratory ailments and chest infections than do those in clean –air zones. Cigarette smokers , in particular, run a higher risk of contracting pollution-related ailments, because the effects of of cigarette smoke and air pollution seem to rein force each other.

PROBLEMS WITH FLUOROCARBONS

Although fluorocarbons, chemical compounds used as propellants in aerosol spray cans –are not know to have a direct effects of human beings, they are nevertheless considered a threat to health by a growing number of scientists . Evidence has accumulated to suggest that because these compounds are inert and do not react with the other contents of the spray cans, they float up unchanged to the stratosphere, where they set of chemical reactions that may gradually destroy the layer of ozone that lies ten to forty miles above the earth. This ozone layers is important to living things on earth because it absorbs wavelengths of ultraviolet sunlight. Among the possible consequences of ozone depletions, scientist fear an increase in the incidence of skin cancer and a negative effect on human immune responses.