Cars

One of the largest sources of air pollution in Britain is transport. The number of vehicles on Britain’s roads is constantly increasing and pollution from them is now a major problem. Today there are about 29 million vehicles on the road in Britain, 24 million of which are cars.

Nitrogen oxides pollution from cars contributes to acid rain. The nitrogen oxides given off by exhausts mixes with moisture in the air to form nitric acid. This is return to the Earth as acid rain. Cars account for about half of all nitrogen oxides produced in the UK.

Nitrogen oxides pollution from cars can be reduced by using catalytic converters. All new cars sold in Britain from January 1993 onwards have had catalytic converters.

Acid Rain

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