Current evidence strongly implicates various pollutants in numerous human health problems, such as cancer, birth defects, genetic changes, chronic headaches, fatigue, and irritability, and digestive disorders. By the 1970s many organizations and governments were seeking means of controlling pollution. In the United States., Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency and passed numerous laws for pollution control. Waste disposal long considered routine has become an increasingly complex science and a major industrial challenge. Waste disposal specialists seek solutions to the safe disposal of many hazardous substances, including highly toxic radioactive wastes.
Air is essential to life.
The average person takes about 20,000 breaths a day, processing almost 3,000 gallons of air or almost two gallons of air per minute. Diseases aggravated by air pollution include chronic sinusitis, bronchitis, asthma and allergies. Studies suggest that air pollution can contribute to pulmonary problems in developing fetuses and young children, as well as damage to the immune system in adults. The people most vulnerable to health effects of air pollution are children, the elderly, those who work or exercise outdoors and those with chronic respiratory ailments. Children are at the greatest risk from air pollution because they breathe in far more air per pound of body weight than adults and their respiratory systems are still developing.