Controlling Air Pollution:

Now  let us  see, how air pollution can be controlled. 

i)  Photochemical smog-eliminating  this would require large scale changes in life style and culture. Life has become fast, and quicker modes of  transport are preferred. Every year hundreds of  thousands of  vehicles are added to the existing large number of automobiles. So  the net result is an increased production of oxides of nitrogen, and the phorochemical smog. The alternative is to develop transport of a very different kind, perhaps electrically operated cars and two wheelers rather  than those burning petrol, or to make the automobile  industry develop devices that could be  fitted to the vehicles to minimise the discharge of pollutants.  

ii)  Particulates generated largely by  industries, can be controlled by  scrubbers, precipitators, and filters. These devices cost money but they save lives. So far, owners of industries have thought only of cost and profit.  They have not  cared as to whathappens to plants and animals  that are exposed to the soot and smoke which  their factories pump into the air. 

iii)  To control sulphur dioxide, which is produced largely by coal furnaces  and coal-fired steam generators. several possibilities are available. One is to change from high sulphur to low sulphur fuel, such as natural gas. oil or nucleat fuel. This is. however, not a long term solution,  as low sulphur fuels are in short supply and nuclear fuels have problems of their own. The other possibility is to remove sulphur  from fuel, before use. Scrubbing the gases is the third alternative you have studied about it earlier.

iv) The amount of  smoke emanating from the kitchens can be minimised by  the use of smokeless  cbulhas solar cookers and biogas. These  have dualadvantage. One.  they are within the easy reach of people and secondly,  there is minimum pollution. 

So you can see, air pollution is related to technological development  and industrialisation. Technologies were available  in  the past to speed up transport or  to release the energy of  fossil fuels for increasing production. There was little concern about the pollution that was caused, until the use of technologies became more widespread and the hazards became  too great to ignore. But for the poorer countries. air pollution means many other  things. The housewife who bums cowdung or dry leaves or splintered wood  to cook food is exposed to intense heat and smoke. It is known that a lot of people. particularly in rural areas, go half-blind due to such exposure. People live in very dusty atmospheres-again very much so  in  rural areas. and their lungs often get damaged. Those working in mines and small workshops are exposed to air, that contains substances which irritate the breathing system causing disease, and often, early death. Air also carries  foul odours, flies and mosquitoes which make life unpleasant and cause  communicable diseases. Our priorities in combating air pollution have to be  intelligently determined. Perhaps, it can be  said that the greatest hazard is poverty which obliges people to live in dirt and squalor and work under conditions, to which, even animals should not be exposed.