As a whole, air pollution is from when our air is poisoned from toxins, chemicals, pollutants, and particles released into the atmosphere by humans like us. Air quality directly impacts us and our world. Air pollution has been proven to impact our health and the health of those around us. Things such as mold and carbon monoxide are also among our air that we breathe. Air pollution has also been proven by the EPA to increase risks of cancers, mainly lung cancer, and asthma. A hypothesized 223,000 people died in 2010 as they lost the battle to lung cancer. Things such as premature death, non-fatal heart attacks, and bronchitis are also all impacted by air pollution.

The EPA, or Environmental Protection Agency, is hard at work protecting our air quality. The Clean Air Act, passed in 1970, gave the EPA the authority and responsibility to protect our air. Since then, more amendments have been passed to strengthen the EPA's power in protecting our clean air supply and encourage our nation to have better air quality. A new rule, issued recently on July 6, 2011, called the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, regulates amount of chemicals states are allowed to release into the air. Some ways states are permitted to follow this rule are to shrink power plants in states and have standards for summertime chemicals/toxins.

“While we have made tremendous strides reducing air pollution levels since the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970, there are still 120 million people in the country living in areas that still don’t meet today’s clean air standards. And we’ve been able—through sensitive testing procedures, evaluations, and risk assessments—to see that there are people who are still vulnerable to health effects, especially from low levels of pollution over long periods of time,” says EPA clean air researcher Dan Costa, Sc.D., DABT. Although the EPA has been slowly eliminating air pollution problems, people are still suffering from the poor air standards all over the world. The EPA clean air researcher Dan Costa provided evidence of finding ways people are still affected by poor air standards. Everyone is being affected by air pollution; what can you do to help? Limit chemicals you release into the air. For example, maybe walk somewhere nearby instead of driving/being driven. Lessen your carbon footprint. You could also try to recycle more, because lessening trash also lessens things burned in power plants. The small things count too: get rid of cans of chemicals such as cleaning supplies properly. Follow the laws made to protect our nation's air. Even if you aren't a full environmentalist, doing these small things can help our earth as a whole in more ways than one.

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