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Looking down from the Hollywood Hills, with Griffith Observatory on the hill in the foreground, air pollution is visible in downtown Los Angeles on a late afternoon.. Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials into the atmosphere that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damage ecosystems.
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), also known as "Superfund", requires that the criteria provided by the Hazard Ranking System (HRS) be used to make a list of national priorities of the known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants in the United States. [2]
Pollution from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. As with many countries, pollution in the United States is a concern for environmental organizations, government agencies, and individuals. Billions of pounds of toxic chemicals are released into the air, land, and waterways in the U.S. each year.
Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). [1] The program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is designed to pay for investigating and cleaning up sites contaminated with hazardous ...
It is a health protection tool used to make decisions to reduce short-term exposure to air pollution by adjusting activity levels during increased levels of air pollution. The Air Quality Health Index also provides advice on how to improve air quality by proposing a behavioral change to reduce the environmental footprint.
Around one-third of people in the U.S. live with unhealthy levels of air pollution, according to the American Lung Association. Wildfires are causing more short-term spikes.
For instance, some places like Africa and South America lack air pollution reporting tools, so their pollution levels are probably not reflected in this list. Moreover, many cities from a certain country are featured in the list may only mean that they have large and wide air pollution monitoring networks, which may or may not be an indicator ...
Climate change has led to the United States warming by 2.6 °F (1.4 °C) since 1970. [8] The climate of the United States is shifting in ways that are widespread and varied between regions. [9] [10] From 2010 to 2019, the United States experienced its hottest decade on record. [11] Extreme weather events, invasive species, floods and droughts ...