38. The Air We Breathe: Air Pollution in Atlanta

Abstract

Since breathing air is second nature to humans we often don’t think about how it can impact our health. Air quality has drastically suffered due to the lack of knowledge on the subject. This is highly apparent in Atlanta, Georgia, where air pollution has been on the rise and is expected to worsen due to massive transportation demands and increased energy production, just to name a few. Atlanta has been ranked 25th among cities in the United States for the worst ozone; smog being the main contributor and thus leading to negative health effects for the public. While everyone is at risk for negative health effects due to poor air quality, children and the elderly are most at risk due to the susceptibility of their lungs. Even healthy adults who lead active lifestyles suffer from the smog that lingers within the air they breathe. There have been attempts made by the government to help improve the air quality in Atlanta, specifically the Clean Air Act of 1996, but efforts have stalled in past years. There is an unsettling number of people that fail to acknowledge the issue of air pollution. The purpose of our project is to assess why this disregard for air quality has occurred, the effects poor air quality has on the population in Atlanta, and what has been established to rectify these problems.