A factory was started near a village. Suddenly villagers started feeling the presence of irritating vapors in the village and cases of headache, chest pain, cough, dryness of throat and breathing problems increased. Villagers blamed the emissions from the chimney of the factory for such problems. Explain what could have happened. Give chemical reactions for the support of your explanation.
The symptoms observed in the village people are same caused when there is the presence of oxides of nitrogen and sulphur in the atmosphere. These oxides are produced by the industriesthrough oxidation of fossil fuels like coal gasoline etc.
The fossil fuels containing nitrogen burns in presence of oxygen to produce a variety of oxides of nitrogen as shown in the equation below:
N2 (g) + O2 (g) → 2 NO (g)
2NO (g) + O2 (g) → 2 NO2
The fossil fuels containing sulphur also burns in air containing oxygen to produce oxides of sulphur causing various breathing problems.
S + O2 → SO2
These oxides produced by the industries comes out to atmospheric air through chimneys causing air pollution and breathing problem for living beings.