Air Quality

                Air quality is very important for the environment and also to humans. Humans breathe about 20,000 breathes every day. Many people are also unaware that some of the air they breathe in is very polluted. Polluted air is most likely around big cities. Factories and vehicles are the biggest problems. Short term exposure causes irritation in the nose throat and lungs. If you are exposed to poor air equality for a long period of time it leads to poor lung function which could possibly lead to lung cancer.

                People are able to check how the air quality is around where they live. The United States has an Environmental Health Agency. This agency has a website and a map that’s shows you how the air quality is around the United States. Air quality is measures on a chart, or air quality index. This chart goes from good being the lowest to hazardous being the highest.  It is based off of numbers 1 being the less hazardous to the highest being 500. The range 1-50 is considered good where the pollutants pose no health effects. In the middle of the numbers this is considered unhealthy and that people may begin to experience health effects. The highest numbers on the chart are labeled as hazardous. Looking at two cities, Cincinnati and Cleveland they have significant different air quality numbers.  The air in the Cleveland area is more polluted than the air in Cincinnati. Many of the numbers from Cleveland are considered unhealthy. If you would live in this area considered unhealthy you would develop health effects from it. These health effects could range from lung disease to even death. The air quality in Cincinnati is considered to be good. The numbers on the chart are low and in the lowest range. Living in a place that is very high with pollutants in the air is very unhealthy and poses great damage to a person’s health. 

Round-Up

            Roundup is a common product that is used to kill weeds. It is used around houses and also in fields by farmers. People use it in landscaping to kill weeds. Farmers use it to protect their crops from weeds. These weeds destroy crop fields. The farmers needs to use this to protect crops because that is how they make money.  

            Humans are exposed to chemicals every day. House hold cleaning products are used around us every day which contain many chemicals. Chemicals are also sprayed on our foods. Some of these chemicals are proving to cause health effects. Round-up contains some chemicals that are extremely unhealthy and deadly for us to get exposed to. An example of one of these chemicals is glyphosate. The amount of glyphosate in roundup is about 41%. This chemical is very effective in killing weeds. This chemical has also been said to severely damage human cells. The company that sells round-up says that it is environment friendly and it leave the soil clean. When round up is sprayed you can either come into contact by breathing it in or getting exposure to it on your skin.  Scientists are now linking round-up to health problems. These are severe health issues that cause people trouble for their whole life. A strong correlation is towards the chemical glyphosate and ADHD. This chemical causes problems to the thyroid hormone. They are also finding traces of this chemical that links to autism. Many radiation exposures and some chemicals leads to cancer, so does this chemical. The things in round-up are causing so many health problems and the list goes on. This will and can end your life. It is not safe at all to use and should be reevaluated to be sold. It should be looked at to take this product off the shelves and find something safer to use than this product.  

Nuclear Power Plants

                 Nuclear power plants provide electricity to many communities. With every form of energy it has pros and cons. Nuclear plants can let off large amounts of radiation. These plants do take seriously safety measures to contain the radiation and not let any leave the plant. With all these precautions and safety measures it still happens.

                Radiation is invisible to the naked eye but the side effects are not. Humans get exposed to radiation almost every day. X-rays are an example these are small exposures that should not cause large health problems concerning humans . If humans were to get exposed to a large concentration of radiation it is known to cause fatal cancer. Animals are similar to humans and can also be greatly affected by radiation. Radiation can kill off animal species quickly. Radiation that leaks into lakes or rivers gets spread across a large distance. Animals use these water sources to get water to survive. If radiation would be in these water ways animals digest these right into their systems. The animals become really sick and will most likely die depending on how much they were exposed. Fish and other species that live in the water get poisoned by this radiation and die quickly as well because they have so much in their system.  Radiation that was carried by water also gets into soil and seeps into the ground. Plants roots are in this soil that could be toxic with radiation. They use soil and water as the main life sources for them. If this is poisonous the plants suffer and die. Humans eat plants and animals and if they were effected by radiation it will bring deadly consequences. A radiation leak from a power plants gets spread out so quickly and are so deadly. Should we even have nuclear plants anymore. Many scientists are studying this and outweighing factors.