Envis Centre, Ministry of Environment & Forest, Govt. of India
Printed Date: Saturday, December 7, 2024
Air
What is Air Pollution?
Air consists of a mixture of mainly nitrogen and oxygen, with small amounts of carbon dioxide, organ, water vapour etc. In addition there are a number of other substances in the air which may be harmful to public life and properly. These impurities may generate from natural or man made activities and consist of substances which could adversely affect the life process and other bio geochemical cycles on earth.
The Air (Revolution and control of Pollution) Act 1981 defines a pollutant as “air pollutant” means any solid, liquid or gaseous substance (including noise) present in the atmosphere in such concentration as may be or tend to be injurious to human beings or other living creatures or plants or property or environment; and “air pollution” means the presence in the atmosphere of any air pollutant.
Different types of pollutants an continuously emitted into the atmosphere and removed by a series of physical and chemical processes in the atmosphere. This phenomenon of self purification when the rate of addition of impurities exceeds the self purifying capacities them the accumulation of pollutants causes serious public health problems and hazards.