The increase of environmental pollution at alarming rates and the rising awareness of its dangers made it necessary to control it by legislation and international treaties. In the United States, the Clean Air Act of 1970 (whose passage was aided by the 14-day smog alert in Washington that year) set limits on pollutants emitted by large plants and vehicles. These early standards focused on emissions of hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide. The new cars were required to have catalytic converters in their exhaust systems to reduce HC and CO emissions. As a side benefit, the removal of lead from gasoline to permit the use of catalytic converters led to a significant reduction in toxic lead emissions. Emission limits for HC, NOx, …show more content…
They are also exposed to more pollution since they are more active, and thus they breathe faster. People with heart and lung problems, especially those with asthma, are most affected by air pollutants. This becomes apparent when the air pollution levels in their neighborhoods rise to high …show more content…
A major source of greenhouse gas emissions is transportation. Each liter of gasoline burned by a vehicle produces about 2.5 kg of CO2 (or, each gallon of gasoline burned produces about 20 lbm of CO2). An average car in the United States is driven about 12,000 miles a year, and it consumes about 600 gallons of gasoline. Therefore, a car emits about 12,000 lbm of CO2 to the atmosphere a year, which is about four times the weight of a typical car (Fig. 2–67). This and other emissions can be reduced significantly by buying an energyefficient car that burns less fuel over the same distance, and by driving sensibly. Saving fuel also saves money and the environment. For example, choosing a vehicle that gets 30 rather than 20 miles per gallon will prevent 2 tons of CO2 from being released to the atmosphere every year while reducing the fuel cost by $400 per year (under average driving conditions of 12,000 miles a year and at a fuel cost of