Health Effects
Pollutants may act at different levels on the human body:
* At the skin – this is the case particularly irritating fumes and phenomena of allergies.
* The mucosa,
* The pulmonary alveoli. Pollutants dissolve and pass into the blood or in liquid superficial.
* Through the bodies – some toxic conveyed by the blood can accumulate in organs.
Pollutants can have effects in various scales:
* Immediate effects, such as those observed in historical accidents,
* Effets in the short term,
* Long-term effects, observed after chronic exposure to concentrations that can be very low.
The limits of concentration in ambient air of certain pollutants (SO2, dust, NO 2, Pb, O 3) imposed by European directives take account of these effects. The World Health Organization (WHO) makes the rules should be followed for various pollutants.
Particles: the more particles are fine they penetrate more deeply into the respiratory system and their residence time is important. They have a dual action related to the particles themselves and they carry pollutants (metals, hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, etc.They irritate the human respiratory system and may contribute to the onset of acute respiratory diseases.
Effects on Materials
The materials are mainly affected by the pollution that causes acid degradation of buildings, monuments and building facades. Air pollution threatens our cultural heritage and leads to expensive restoration of the facade or facade restoration of monuments.
Effects on forest ecosystems
The trees live for and die of natural causes varied even that age. The sudden decline observed since 1980 seems to mostly fall causes quite unusual. The officials believe that air pollution is one of the many elements involved in forest dieback. In France, the program DEFORPA (forest decline attributed to air pollution ) as well as research laboratories, have shown that the causes of forest decline are very complex, such as poor soils, drought abnormal presence of pollutants in the atmosphere mainly acid pollution and ozone.
Effects on freshwater ecosystems
The acidification of lakes and rivers often causes irreversible destruction of aquatic life.The decrease in pH causes the dissolution of metals contained naturally in the soil as toxic aluminum in the dissolved state in almost all living organisms.
