Air pollution of vehicles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Air pollution of vehicles - Essay Example Though vehicle-exhaust harmful pollutants are terribly dangerous to human health, the concerns about air or atmospheric pollution mainly grow in response to the drastic natural and climatic changes in the world-environment. One of such concerns of the scientists and the climatologists about the changes in the environment is ‘global warming’ that is directly resulted from vehicle-emission related air pollution (Dispensa & Brule, 2003, p.87). There are about seven pollutants, such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, Nitrogen Oxides, sulfur dioxides, etc found in vehicle emission. More than half of these pollutants have serious greenhouse effects on the nature and directly takes part in global worming. Due to the hazardous effects of vehicle emissions on human health and world environment, scientists and technologists have come up with the ideas of a number of non-polluting vehicle technologies that will greatly contribute to the reduction of the vehicle-emission related ai r pollutions. Present non-polluting technologies primarily pivot on reducing the emissions. Two of such pollution-resistant technologies are: Hybrid Electric Energy vehicle (HEEV) and Hydrogen fuel Combustion vehicle (HFCV). Pollutants in Traditional Fossil Fuel Vehicle Emission Traditional fossil fuel vehicle pollutions are related to three sectors such exhaust, evaporation and refueling emission. While evaporation and refueling pollute the environment by directly mixing the evaporated fuel with the air, the exhaustion related pollutants are produced by combusting and burning the fuels while producing a number of substances that pose great threats to both human health and environment. A study by the US Department of Energy shows that there is a number of pollutant substances produced at different stages of the combustion in a vehicle engine. Whereas most of these pollutants are carcinogenic, the greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc are responsible f or the rise in the temperature of the atmosphere. The carcinogenic substances are mainly responsible for causing cancer in human body. A list of vehicle exhaust pollutant along with their causes and effects are shown in the following table: Traits of Vehicle Emission that Need to be addressed Reducing air pollution is, to a great extent, a technical issue that depends on the availability as well as the adaptability of technologies with modern lifestyle, as Kjellstrom says, â€Å"Technologies to reduce pollution at its source are plentiful, as are technologies that reduce pollution by filtering it away from the emission source† (819). Technologies that contribute to the reduction of air pollution involve the use of lead-free fossil fuel and the use of â€Å"catalytic converters on a vehicle’s exhaust way. These technologies show significant results in the reduction of some particular air pollutants from vehicles. Yet the slogan that ‘the cleaner the air, the bett er the world’ does not always goes with the expectation of modern trade and commerce. Air pollution intervention programs often find it difficult to make themselves cost effective as well as adaptable to modern lifestyle. For example, while Hydrogen Fuel Combustion technologies hold a great prospect of being the replacement of the fossil fuel energy, they are not