ENVS 2202 – Air Pollution – Summer 2020

Read the air pollution case attached and answer the 4 questions in the air pollution questions document. Be sure to provide appropriate sources for your answers – unsourced answers will not receive credit. The sources must be listed at the end of the question to which they apply. As in previous assignments certain types of sources (e.g., encyclopedias, dictionaries) are not acceptable to use. This assignment will be submitted to plagiarism detection software, so make sure your names are not on the document

1. How do fine particles cause health effects? What groups are most vulnerable to fine particle air pollution and why is that the case (2 pts)?

2. When discussing air pollution, you’ll sometimes see references to PM10 and PM2.5. What do PM10 and PM2.5 mean? Why are these categories used when discussing air quality (2 pts)?

3. In 13 counties around Atlanta, we are required to have our cars checked for emissions testing to renew the registration each year. What specific tests are done during this process and why are they considered important to reducing air pollution (2 pts)?

4. One potential solution for the problems of ecological damage from cars has been a recommendation to switch to other fuels that are less-damaging to the environment than oil. One important one in the US has been ethanol, which is added to gas in many places and is proposed to be beneficial because it comes from plants and therefore is renewable, and because it can should produce less pollution than burning gasoline. However, both of these arguments in favor of ethanol have come into question. For each of them, explain why they may not be true and what the implications are for using ethanol as a fuel source. (4 pts) NOTE: there is legitimate disagreement about the costs and benefits of using ethanol, so you will likely find arguments on both sides of the debate. For this question, you are only addressing arguments against ethanol as a fuel source.