Air Pollution In Utah

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It is Not like We Need It to Breathe or Anything - the Issue of Air Pollution in Utah One of the largest issues that our society currently faces as it moves towards the future is the issue of air pollution, and its effects on our daily lives. A negative externality caused by our dependence on modern technology, industrial fields, and engineering, this increasingly dangerous impurity is harmful to both nature and people. Air pollution is a constant problem all over the United States, especially in the larger industrial sectors such as large cities where fossil fuels are constantly being burned by factories, motorized vehicles, and power plants. In the state of Utah, air pollution is a constant problem caused by many different factors, such …show more content…

Severe air pollution, as the one experienced in Utah’s Wasatch Front and surrounding counties can have very dangerous effects on the health of individuals constantly exposed to it. In Utah, smog and air pollution is caused by inversion. Inversion is when the air closest to the Earth is colder than the air above the lower atmosphere. Inversion is common when cities or high-pollution areas are surrounded by mountains, trapping the air released by emissions in a cloud-like dense layer of pollutants. These pollutants, called particulate matter, are miniscule amounts of solid and liquid particles in the air condensed into …show more content…

These sources are emitters of nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, and sulfir dioxide, SO2, which can react with other chemicals to form fine particular matter through processing. (The, 13)
While a majority of Utah’s electricity is generated from the combustion of coal, the resultant emissions do not contribute significantly to Utah’s periodic inversions because a majority Utah’s power is generated outside of the Wasatch Front and Cache County. However, large, rural power companies do have a role in summer ozone in rural areas and the rest of the state since ozone can travel great