APES Name ______
Understanding the Clean Air Act (CAA)
Visit the following EPA website: http://www.epa.gov/ebtpages/air.html Click on the link that says, “Plain English Guide to the Clean Air Act.”
Why should you Be Concerned about Air Pollution?
1. Why should we care about clean air? (List at least four specific reasons)
2. What year was the EPA created?
Understanding the Clean Air Act
3. What two events are described as alerting us to the danger of air pollution?
4. What year was the original Clean Air Act passed, and when were the two other revisions?
5. Although the CCA is a Federal law, what are the roles of the states and local governments?
Key Elements of the Clean Air Act
6. What is the responsibility/mission of the EPA for the US Clean Air Act?
Cleaning Up Commonly Found Air Pollutants
7. What are the six common air pollutants and how are they regulated?
8. What is an attainment area, a nonattainment area?
9. What is particle pollution and how have the standards changed and why? List at least 2 examples of particulates.
10. Why is ground level ozone a problem and how does it differ from the “ozone layer”?”
11. What is smog primarily made up of?
Cars, Trucks, Buses, and "Nonroad" Equipment
12. Half of the smog-forming VOC’s and Nitrogen Oxides and half the air pollution come from what source?
13. Name two ways the Clean Air Act is trying to improve pollution produced by mobile sources.
Interstate and International Air Pollution
14. Is air pollution restricted to clear boundaries? Describe two examples of pollutants ending up far from the original sources.
Reducing Acid Rain
15. What are the two primary pollutants forming acid rain and where do they come from come from?
16. Explain the Emission Allowances program briefly:
How the Clean Air Act is Working
17. What is AQI and what does it do?
Ways to Reduce Air Pollution
18. Select four of the ways to reduce air pollution on this page and explain, specifically, how each choice would reduce air pollution.
Repairing the Ozone Layer-. Found at http://www.sciencemaster.com/jump/physical/ozone.php
Ozone-destroying chemicals- Fill in the chart below with the chemical nameName / Use
19. / solvents, aerosol sprays (most spray can uses banned in 1970s) foaming agents in plastic manufacture (Styrofoam)
20. / fire extinguishers
21. / solvents, chemical manufacture; causes cancer in animals
22. / very widely-used solvent; in many workplace and consumer solvents, including auto repair and maintenance products
23. / CFC substitutes, chemicals slightly different from CFCs