How Plants Can Help Cities To Improve Urban Air Quality
3 ways to reduce the negative impact of air pollution
Published in
5 min readJul 3, 2022
Credit: This article is based on two scientific articles by Ioannis Manisalidis and C. Nick Hewitt and their colleagues. (Full citations and link available at the end of the article)
A s more and more people move from rural areas into cities, the air quality in many cities decreases. This is because people live, work, and play together, and because many of these activities, including manufacturing and transportation, cause air pollution.
Air pollution can have many different forms — as gases, liquid droplets, or tiny solid particles — and can have serious health impact. The consequence is more than 3 million deaths worldwide every year, two times the number of people killed in traffic accidents. Some of the most dangerous pollutants are:
- carbon monoxide (CO) is a gas emitted from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. Symptoms of inhaling carbon monoxide include headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, and loss of consciousness. It can even poison us directly when the concentration is high enough.
- smog, which is the contraction of smoke fog, is a mix of water droplets with other pollutants. It diminishes lung function, can cause asthma, and…
