Student Activity Sheets - Grades 3-5 Page 2
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20Causes of Air Pollution
Activity 1:
What Is Air Pollution?
Imagine more than 7,000 big empty soda bottles lined up.
The amount of air in those bottles is about how much air
each of us breathes every day. Now imagine that the bottles
contain not just air but also unhealthy gases and dirt particles.
Unfortunately, that is the air that we breathe on many days—
polluted air.
Air is polluted when it contains enough gases and particles
to harm living things—people, plants, animals. This pollution
comes from many familiar sources:
• cars and trucks and other vehicles
• gas-powered equipment, such as lawn mowers and
leaf blowers
• power plants and factories that burn fossil fuels
• fires, such as in wood stoves, fireplaces, campfires,
and barbeques
• dust and dirt from construction sites, roads, and fields
• household products, such as lighter fluid, paint,
cleaners, and bug sprays
In the San Joaquin Valley, the largest source of air pollution is
the exhaust from cars and other vehicles.
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution
Control District
San
Northern Region
In the San Joaquin Valley, we have a serious air pollution
Joaquin
problem. The San Joaquin Valley Air District covers eight
counties, which are divided into three regions:
Stanislaus
Northern Region: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced counties
Central Region: Madera, Fresno, Kings counties
Merced
Southern Region: Tulare and some of Kern counties
Madera
The entire area is 270 miles from north to south. In terms of the
area it covers, the Valley Air District is the largest air pollution
Fresno
control district in the nation, nearly 25,000 square miles.
Central
Region
The Valley has high levels of air pollution for three reasons:
Tulare
• Geography. The Valley is shaped like a big pot or bathtub
Kings
with mountains forming the sides. The air pollution settles
on the Valley floor and gets trapped.
Kern
• Climate. In the summer, hot temperatures cause pollutants
to combine to form smog. In the winter, very little wind
Southern Region
keeps particulate matter in the air.
• Growing Population. More people in the Valley means
more cars on the road and more equipment, products,
and activities that cause air pollution.
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