Air Pollution Glossary: Key Terms Explained
This article provides a glossary of essential terms related to air pollution to help the public better understand environmental health issues. It covers definitions ranging from ambient air pollution to the chemical processes that create secondary pollutants.
Why it matters
Understanding technical environmental terminology is crucial for public engagement with climate policy and health safety standards.
Air pollution can seem quite basic. The sky is brown bad; the sky is blue good. But start trying to understand what clean air truly entails, and it quickly becomes far more technical and complex than meets the eye, quite literally.
Ahead of this years International Day of Clean Air for blue skies , weve built a glossary of the terms most important for understanding air pollution what it is, how it works and how its tackled. We hope it helps readers expand their good-bad barometer to dig deeper into what theyre breathing and why that matters.
Air pollution is airborne liquid, solid and gaseous particles that change the natural atmosphere and are harmful to human and planetary health. Notably, around 43 per cent of countries lack a legal definition for air pollution, reflecting the ubiquity of weak air pollution control.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in