Mobile Pollution Sources
- Many sources of pollution are mobile, including cars, planes, and ships.Buena Vista Images/Digital Vision/Getty Images
According to "Scorecard: The Pollution Information Site," 75 percent of the carbon monoxide poisoning worldwide comes from mobile sources. In cities and other areas where motor vehicles occur in high concentrations, as much as 90 percent of carbon monoxide pollution emanates from mobile sources. Mobile vehicles are also known sources of poisons, including the recognized carcinogens benzene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, 3-butadiene, and diesel particulate matter. - Tires, a solid waste, are a byproduct of cars.tas de pneus 1 image by Nathalie P from Fotolia.com
Fossil fuel combustion is the largest contributor to air pollution in the world, and a lot of this kind of pollution comes from mobile on-road vehicles. Cars produce two types of air pollution, both the exhaust from running the car and the unburned vapors that evaporate without being burned. The chemicals and smoke produced by cars and other vehicles cause irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. "Bicycle Universe" claims that 30,000 people die every year because of car emissions. - Ships produce both air and water pollution.PETROLIERA image by MYWORLD from Fotolia.com
Ships pump fossil-fuel pollution into both the water and air, but that's not the only waste they produce. According to "Oceana," cruise ships produce an average of 25,000 gallons of toilet sewage and 143,000 gallons of other waste water from sinks and showers each day. Marine life around the world is put at risk from the heavy metal, pathogens, and bacteria that ships release into ocean water. Diesel engines that power large cargo ships pump toxins into the air as well. "The Seattle PI" says that for each day such a ship is in a harbor, it gives off as much pollution as 12,500 cars, which is equivalent to an oil refinery. - Researchers can more readily study pollution at airports than what aircraft disperse through the sky.plane from the plane image by Julija Sapic from Fotolia.com
Aircraft pollution is difficult to study because once an aircraft is high enough, the pollution it gives off is dispersed through a very large area. Airports, however, are major sources of air, water, and noise pollution, and a great deal of this pollution comes from planes on the ground and runways. Airplanes give off carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen oxides. The chemicals used to de-ice planes also cause air and ground pollution. David Holzman of "Environmental Health Perspective" points out that air traffic itself can be considered a type of pollution. It certainly is a mobile source of noise. - Big agriculture is a large contributor to mobile pollution sources.combined harvester agriculture cotswolds england u image by david hughes from Fotolia.com
There is an endless list of small mobile sources of pollution, which includes construction equipment such as dozers, loaders, and pavers and agricultural equipment like tractors, bailers, mowers, and sprayers. Small recreational vehicles such as ATVs, snowmobiles, golf carts, and motorbikes also create pollution. Industrial and agricultural mobile sources are the largest contributors from this category, but the amount of pollution produced by them does not compare to the combined amount produced by on-road vehicles.
