Mystery Air Pollutants Review

Can you solve these pollution mysteries? Read the scenario on each slide and choose the pollutant you think is responsible.

Start

Sally is visiting Lake Tahoe at ~6,000 feet and loves being among the conifer trees. They smell so good! It’s a bright sunny day and many people are driving around the scenic lake loop. Sally notices a beautiful brown haze filling the valleys. The more Sally runs up and down the trail, the worse Sally’s lungs feel. Sally gets an asthma attack. Luckily a friendly rabbit offers to share its inhaler with Sally. Which pollutant is Sally inhaling in the valley?

CO

O3/ photochemical smog

Particulate Matter

Answer

CO

O3/ photochemical smog

Particulate Matter

Sky has been having trouble with her natural gas heater. It keeps burning through natural gas, but it’s not keeping the house as warm as it used to. Sky’s dog, Ford, wakes her up in the night. Ford is freaking out. Sky has a splitting headache and feels dizzy. Ford insists they leave the house. Sky walks into the front yard. As they leave the house, her headache clears. If Ford hadn’t woken Sky up, Sky would probably have died. What is Sky being exposed to?

Radon gas

Tropospheric Ozone

Carbon Monoxide

Answer

Radon gas

Tropospheric Ozone

Carbon Monoxide

Bai Chunxue, the head of respiratory medicine at Shanghai’s Zhongshan Hospital, sees the ever worsening pollution as the upcoming cause of many deaths. To protect himself from one of the main pollutants in his city, Chunxue wears a facemask on his walk to work (less than one mile) and has moved his apartment to the 37th floor (as this pollution is the worst between 10th and 20th floors). He worries about dust that is fine enough to get through the face mask and settle in his lungs and heart. He advocates that the Chinese government close or relocate factories close to Beijing. Another doctor in Northern China just diagnosed the youngest person to be diagnosed with lung cancer at just eight years old. What is Dr. Chunxue afraid to inhale?

Particulate Matter

Nitrous Oxide

CFCs

Answer

Particulate Matter

Nitrous Oxide

CFCs

Gaia’s house has an old shed in back. Sometimes, Gaia and her sisters will go play in the shed. There is paint peeling off the walls. Gaia and her sisters have fun peeling the paint of the walls. One of them notices that the paint tastes sweet. The kids take turns peeling off the longest strips possible and eating them. When Gaia returns to school that fall, she has trouble focusing. She gets irritated more easily and fights with other kids on the playground. Gaia can’t process words like she used to, and she has trouble reading chapter books. What have Gaia and her sisters ingested?

Lead

Arsenic

Mercury

Answer

Lead

Arsenic

Mercury

A couple months ago there was a forest fire on the other side of the ridge from Philly’s pond. Soon after there were several big thunderstorms. Philly could feel the rain pattering on the surface of her lake. Now the water feels terrible and Philly doesn't think she can live in her pond anymore. Mucus is forming in Philly’s gills and her cells can't maintain their electrolyte and fluid balance. Philly’s fertilized eggs, laid a few days after the storms, didn’t hatch. What is destroying Philly's pond?

Mercury

Acid Deposition

Formaldehyde

Answer

Mercury

Acid Deposition

Formaldehyde

Amal moved to North Dakota and is shopping for a home. He finds a home with a big basement where he can hold foosball parties and store his collection of airline barf bags. (He is trying to beat the world record of 6,290 air sickness bags). The house is cheap. The owner recently passed away from lung cancer. Amal’s real estate agent suggests he test the house for [name the pollutant]. Once Amal does, he finds that levels are high. If he buys the house, he must seal cracks in the basement and increase ventilation in the house. So much for foosball parties…

Radon gas

VOCs

Formaldehyde

Answer

Radon gas

VOCs

Formaldehyde

Fremont High School was built in the 1960’s. The insulation in the building had gotten old, and it was time to be replaced. However, the school district hired the cheapest contractors, without examining their credentials. Years later, many people who at attended or worked at the school during the insulation replacement developed lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. What pollutant were they exposed to?

Asbestos

Mold

Particulate Matter

Answer

Asbestos

Mold

Particulate Matter

Alma loves fish. She has tuna fish sandwiches for lunch almost every day. She and her partner often celebrate the end of the week by grilling swordfish steaks. She doesn’t realize that tuna are top predators and that toxins biomagnify further up the food chain. A toxin in the fish bioaccumulates in Alma’s body over her lifetime. When Alma finds out she is pregnant she learns that she should cut down on her seafood intake, but it’s too late. When her baby is born he has hearing and vision problems, and needs to get tested for brain damage. What toxin did Alma consume in the fish?

Arsenic

Lead

Mercury

Answer

Arsenic

Lead

Mercury

The Great London Smog, also known as the Big Smoke happened from December 5-9, 1952. A period of cold weather combined with certain wind conditions created a thermal inversion over the city that resulted in the build up of pollutants from coal burning stoves, heaters, and power plants. Visibility was reduced, even inside. The air was so thick, people referred to it as “pea soup.” Government medical reports found that 4,000 people died as a direct result of the smog and 10,000 more people were made ill it by its effect on their respiratory tracts, some dying later on. This disaster lead to support for passage of air pollution protections in the United Kingdom. What type of smog occurred here?

Photochemical smog

Industrial smog

Ozone

Answer

Photochemical smog

Ozone

Industrial smog

You are awesome!