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Acid Rain and Children’s Health

By: Rokai Kolam

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It seems like a long time since we’ve heard anything about acid rain, but it’s still there. Acid rain occurs when pollution, such as that from fossil fuel burning or aerosols, enters the atmosphere and is absorbed into the moisture of the clouds and air. That eventually becomes rain, which falls on both land and water. It looks, smells, feels and tastes just like clean rain, but it’s far more harmful to human health than non-polluted rain is.

When the contaminated rain hits the ground, the particles of pollution—usually sulfur, carbon or harmful nitrates—are released into the air. People, especially kids, end up breathing in that pollution, so the problems associated with acid rain are often lung and breathing problems. Acid rain can actually cause these conditions in people, or can worsen conditions that already exist.

Some of the conditions associated with acid rain include:

• Asthma. This is an autoimmune condition in which your body fights off attackers that usually aren’t there. When there are attackers—pollution particles in your lungs—asthma goes into overdrive and becomes worse.

• Bronchitis. This is an infection of the bronchial tubes that lead to the lungs. Unwelcome pollution in the tubes causes them to become inflamed and infected, making breathing difficult.

• Pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection of one or both lungs. It can be very dangerous, and is often the cause of death to people who are already weak.

• Cancer. Many of the polluting chemicals are known carcinogens—cancer-causers.

• Cardiovascular problems. The particles that get inhaled could cause hardening of the arteries and depletion of oxygen to the blood. Both of these could result in heart attacks.

• Brain damage. People who inhale large amounts of these pollutant particles have been show to experience brain deterioration similar to that of Alzheimer’s patients. Some researchers even speculate that acid rain may be a contributing cause of Alzheimer’s.

So what can be done to help keep our kids healthy by reducing the amount of acid rain in the environment? It seems like an insurmountable problem, but there are a few things that, when taken together and done by many people, have been shown to make a real difference.

All of the actions we can take fall under the category of reducing our use of fossil fuels. Many of these techniques are well-known, but many people don’t know how far-reaching the effects of some simple conservation techniques can be.

• Reduce driving. Walk, bike, carpool or take public transportation whenever you can.

• Turn off lights, turn down heat, delay running your air conditioner. Those few simple things around the house can make a difference not only in the amount of acid rain people suffer from, but also in your monthly bills.

• Plant trees. Trees release more healthy oxygen into the air and give kids a better chance of breathing freely.

Kids are already vulnerable in so many ways; the least we can do is work together to conserve energy. It might just be our kids’ health we’re actually conserving.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

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