Air pollution control is quickly taking the front seat in the world of greenhouse issues, with both the United States and China as ringleaders as the two major global producers of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. An interesting fact is that Americans are producing five times the amount of the toxin as the average Chinese, with China estimated to quickly catch up in the year 2050 with a population peak of 1.5 billion people unless something is immediately done.

Both countries are making serious commitments regarding pollution control strategies, with the latest medical research and studies adding an immediate emphasis for its immediate control, in order to improve the lives and health of their own citizens. A recent article by HealthDay reporter, Steven Reinberg, states that “free radicals attached to small particles of air pollution are found to be the cause of lung damage and possibly lung cancer.” H. Barry Dellinger is considered the study’s leading researcher, and also the chair of Patrick F. Taylor’s environmental chemistry at the Louisiana State University, with these latest finds explaining why many nonsmokers are developing “tobacco-related” diseases, such as lung cancer.

The disturbing issue is that absolutely none of this was ever necessary. We would have no real need for air pollution control, except for the Industrial Revolution and our dependency on the rapid growth of industrialization results of that era. On its own, every twenty-days our planet receives enough sunlight energy that matches in quantity and surpasses in quality the entire planetary reserves—coal, oil, and natural gas. But the problem is here from our own doing, and we need to deal with it through the best forms of air pollution control we can. The latest developing control strategies are being developed and applied through mandatory air pollution control agendas, utilizing single or a combination of individual measures.

Different forms of air pollution control can either focus on one pollutant, several pollutants, sources of air pollution, or can be implemented within a wide range of scales—global, international, local, national, or regional. And truth be known—all of them are extremely necessary to achieve the world’s goal of clean air for our own safety. Some different forms of strategies to prevent air pollution are energy efficiency, changes in technological processes, coatings without solvents, and reducing manufacturing and mobile source sector emissions to counteract continuous population growth and economic development on a worldwide level.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) sets the regulations for controlling air pollution and radiation exposure, in addition to developing national programs and technical policies. Their primary concerns deal with preventing pollution and energy efficiency. They also are concerned with many other issues:

• Indoor and outdoor air quality
• Industrial air pollution
• Pollution from vehicles and engines
• Radon
• Acid rain
Stratospheric ozone depletion
Climate change
Radiation protection.

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