The term вЂњair toxicsвЂќ refers to a list of over 180 air pollutants-e.g., organic chemicals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), metals, and metal compounds, including fuels, solvents, mercury, arsenic, asbestos, and benzene-which yield hazardous health and environment effects even when present in trace amounts and produced by fewer sources compared to criteria pollutants.

Criteria air pollutants are a group of six common air pollutants-i.e., particulate matter (PM), photochemical oxidants (e.g., ozone), carbon monoxide, sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide, and lead-which can negatively affect public health and welfare, the atmosphere and environment, and surrounding structures.

The types of pollutants regulated by the EPA are divided into three groups, which include criteria air pollutants, air toxics, and greenhouse gases. That is why the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implemented the Clean Air Act (CAA) which imposed regulations on both sources of air pollutants to help mitigate their effect on the atmosphere, the environment, and human life. In high enough concentrations, the pollutants produced by either mobile or stationary sources could cause adverse effects to the atmosphere, the surrounding environment, and human life, such as increasing the average global temperature, decreasing atmospheric visibility, diminishing air quality, and affecting human health. Area sources emit less than 10 tons of a single pollutant or less than 25 tons of a combination of pollutants.

Stationary sources are further broken into major and area sources: major sources emit either 10 or more tons of a single air pollutant or 25 or more tons of a combination of air pollutants. Mobile refers to moving sources, such as airplanes, trains, and automobiles, while stationary refers to fixed industrial sources, such as power plants, factories, and other facilities.

Air pollutants are generated through both natural-e.g., volcanic eruptions and wildfires-and human-made sources-including mobile and stationary ones. In this day and age, pollution control systems are a must.

Common air pollutants produced by industrial processes.

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