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Outdoor air pollution is a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths. It is not safe to breathe because is harmfully impacts the lungs and the body. Indeed, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) under the World Health Organization (WHO) "has classified outdoor air pollution as a cancer-causing agent" (Simon, 2013). It is responsible for both lung and bladder cancer.
Particulate matter is also a carcinogen that the IARC has classified, and it can include anything from dust to chemicals to smoke. All of that contributes to air pollution -- whether smog, exhaust, fumes from factories, smoke, chemicals, dust, etc. Thus, the criteria for air pollution is anything that contaminates the air -- any particle that acts as a carcinogen (which is damaging to the lungs and cardiovascular system if inhaled) is a pollutant and causes air pollution. WHO (2013) notes that outdoor air pollution is not safe to breathe because it is "carcinogenic to humans" (p. 1).
An appropriate governmental role in preventing cancer that can be linked to air pollution would be to establish carbon controls. Proponents of this governmental intervention, like Al Gore, have demonstrated how carbon credits could be distributed by the government to factories and facilities that burn fossil fuels and the like and release carcinogens into the air thus contributing to cancer causing...
Gore has suggested that carbon controls and the exchange of carbon credits would help the government to keep a moderate "cap" or lid on the amount of pollution being released into the air. Of course, this is only a moderate step, and if one wanted to really eliminate cancer causing air pollution, one would propose that the government ban all operations that are linked to causing air pollution. If this were the case, we would probably all be required to drive electric cars. The government could mandate the manufacturing and usage of electric cars and shift the public away from the gas-guzzling vehicles that are responsible for so much air pollution (as well as wars). This would be a positive step in eliminating cancer causing air pollution.
State and local laws concerning air and water pollution were ineffective, leading the federal government to pass legislation in the 1970s, primarily because they did not address consistently across the nation the issue in the same manner. There was no uniformity. So while one area of one state could be strict on air and water…
References
Kessler, R. (2014). Air Pollution's Impact on Cancer is "Grossly Underestimated."
Scientific American. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/air-pollution-s-impact-on-cancer-is-grossly-underestimated/
Simon, S. (2013). World Health Organization: Outdoor Air Pollution Causes Cancer.
Cancer.org. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/world-health-organization-outdoor-air-pollution-causes-cancer
World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/pr221_E.pdf
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