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• What color is you air quality today?

  Washington D.C.
  
  I live in a world where the only significant change that Air Quality has on our daily lives, is whether or not you get to ride the bus for free. You see, in the Northern Virginia area, if the Air Quality Index is red or higher, you can take the Metro Bus without paying.
  
  Some people love it and look forward to bad air. Others hate it because ridership goes up and commute times increase.
  
  But a few questions must be asked.
  
  * What exactly is air pollution and how is it caused?
  * How is it measured?
  * What are it’s effects?
  * What is being done to stop it?
  
  But before we get into the science, lets take just a second and talk about recent air quality topics in the news.
  
  We’ve been reading and talking about the controversial decision made by the Chinese government to pull millions of cars off the road in Beijing prior to the Olympics in an effort to clean up the air quality. But did it work? Doesnt any type of pollution take a long time to dissipate or clean up? After all, millions of people say that the pollution we put out today will take years (if not decades or hundreds of years) to clean up.
  
  Well, THIS news story just came out 5 hours ago. Entitled “Beijing’s best air in a decade due to Olympic Measures” it says:
  
  “Main pollutants were down 50 percent from normal during the August 8-24 Beijing Olympics, and 45 percent for the whole month, the bureau said on its website.
  
  “This was the best level in 10 years,” the bureau said.
  
  Among drastic measures to ensure clean air for the Beijing Olympics, private cars were only allowed on the roads on every second day using an odds and even number plate system.
  
  This took about one million of the car’s 3.3 million cars off the roads.
  
  More than 100 heavily polluting factories were also temporarily shut down, while some construction work was suspended.”
  
  So we know that cutting down on the causes of air pollution can result in immediate benefits. Lets not say it cant be done. (though they did take drastic measures and we cant expect to institute these types of changes overnight)
  
  So what exactly is air pollution?
  
  * Air pollution is the human introduction into the atmosphere of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damages the environment.[1] Air pollution causes deaths[2] and respiratory disease.[3] Air pollution is often identified with major stationary sources, but the greatest source of emissions is mobile sources, mainly automobiles.[4] Gases such as carbon dioxide, which contribute to global warming, have recently gained recognition as pollutants by climate scientists, while they also recognize that carbon dioxide is essential for plant life through [[photosynthesis].Air pollution is caused by Factories,Car Fuems and much more. (Wikipedia)
  
  Now do me a favor. Go back up to the first sentence of the bullet above and read it again. Discomfort, Damage, Death and Disease. That’s pretty scary stuff, yeah?
  
  How is it measured?
  
  * The E.P.A. uses Automatic Methods. These methods are capable of producing quantitative measurements of individual pollutants, o­n an hourly cycle. The level of pollutants such as ozone, oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulates can be determined very accurately. The equipment used includes apparatus which analyze the air using a range of spectroscopic methods such as infra-red or ultra-violet absorption, ultra-violet fluorescence and chemiluminescence.
  
  So even after having read this, the answer to me is still “I have really no idea, but there is some pretty fancy equipment out there being used to determine whether or not people get to ride the bus for free.”
  
  What are the effects of air pollution?
  
  * Air pollution can lead to Acid Rain, poor Air Quality, high levels of Chlorofluorocarbon, Global warming, Haze, Ozone depletion and Sm

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