Smog

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-025857",
  "term": "Smog",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. Dust, smoke, or chemical fumes that pollute the air and make hazy, unhealthy conditions (literally, the word is a blend of smoke and fog). Automobile, truck, bus, and other vehicle exhausts and particulates are usually trapped close to the ground, obscuring visibility and contributing to a number of respiratory problems.\n\n2. Smog is the brownish haze that pollutes our air, particularly over cities in the summertime. Smog can make it difficult for some people to breathe and it greatly reduces how far we can see through the air. The primary component of smog is ozone, a gas that is created when nitrogen oxides react with other chemicals in the atmosphere, especially in strong sunlight.\n\n3. Ozone, particulate matter, humidity and other pollutants that mix together in the air and reduce visibility.\n\n4. A mixture of pollutants, principally ground-level ozone, produced by chemical reactions in the air involving smog-forming chemicals. A major portion of smog-formers comes from burning petroleum-based fuels such as gasoline. Other smog-formers, volatile organic compounds, are found in products such as paints and solvents. Smog can harm health, damage the environment and cause poor visibility. Major smog occurrences are often to heavy motor vehicle traffic, sunshine, high temperatures and calm winds or temperature inversion (weather condition in which warm air is trapped close to the ground instead of rising). Smog is often worse away from the source of the smog-forming chemicals, since the chemical reactions that result in smog occur in the sky, while the reacting chemicals are being blown away from their sources by winds.\n\n5. Air pollution typically associated with oxidants.\n\n6. Air pollution caused by chemical reactions of various pollutants emitted from different sources. Ozone is one of the main ingredients of smog, and it can harm people's health.\n\n7. Dust, smoke, or chemical fumes that pollute the air and make hazy, unhealthy conditions (literally, the word is a blend of smoke and fog). Automobile, truck, bus, and other vehicle exhausts and particulates are usually trapped close to the ground, obscuring visibility and contributing to a number of respiratory problems. [Environmental Issues Glossary] A mixture of pollutants, principally ground-level ozone, produced by chemical reactions in the air involving smog-forming chemicals. A major portion of smog-formers come from burning of petroleum-based fuels such as gasoline. Other smog-formers, volatile organic compounds, are found in products such as paints and solvents.\n\n8. Originally smog meant a mixture of smoke and fog. Now, it means air that has restricted visibility due to pollution or pollution formed in the presence of sunlight--photochemical smog.",
  "subject": "Air",
  "see_also": [
    "Ground Level Ozone"
  ],
  "references": [
    "Environmental Issues Terms & Acronyms",
    "Clean Energy Glossary",
    "Chesapeake Bay Glossary",
    "Air Permitting Terms",
    "Terms of Environment",
    "Student's Guide to Global Climate Change",
    "Clean Air Act - Plain English",
    "NOAA National Weather Service Glossary"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/smog/"
}