The Environmental Impacts Of The Environmental Movement

The Environmental Movement, which began in the 1960s, there was an emphasis on the quality of life for Americans. Air pollution is the addition of harmful pollutants into the air. The negative effects of air pollution were recognized leading to the implantation of the Clean Air Act of 1970. The government had the authority to create limits on the amount of pollutants and chemicals that were produced through industries and different methods of transportation. Another concept that emerged from the Environmental Movement was environmental justice. Environmental justice is the equal treatment and involvement of individuals of all ages, races, nationalities, and income in the development and enforcement of regulations and laws regarding the environment

The children breathe in more air than adults; therefore, children are more exposed and greatly affect by air pollution (Sheffield and Landrigan 2011). Millions of people reside in New York City; however, all of the boroughs, districts, are not greatly impacted by air pollution (Maantay 2007). The hospitalization rate for children who live in low income areas from birth until the age of four is four times higher than the hospitalization rate for children in high income neighborhoods (Maantay 2007). The Bronx has the highest rate of asthma hospitalizations, Figure 1; the rates that are illustrated on the graphs are distributed by boroughs, the ages a between zero and fourteen, and the rate is per 1,000 children (Maantay 2007). It has the highest rate of asthma related deaths, Figure 2; the amount of deaths is six children per 100,000 (Maantay

The pollutants are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitric oxide, black carbon, fine particulate matter, and ozone (Burt and Orris 2013, Cornell et al. 2012, and Patel et al. 2010). Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitric oxide, fine particulate matter and Black Carbon are created through incomplete combustion of coal power plants, incinerators, and the internal combustion of cars, trucks, buses, and trains (Burt and Orris 2013). The mechanisms in which these pollutants are produced are prevalent in New York City. Ozone is a very important component of the atmosphere. Ozone protects the Earth from ultraviolet radiation thus it is very beneficial to the Earth; however, ozone is very harmful in the troposphere. Ground level ozone is produced through the photochemical reactions between nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds, and sunlight (Sava and Carlsten