What happens if acid rain touches you

Despite the overall positive picture, some areas in New England are still recovering. Examples of Secondary Pollutants. Why Is Rain Naturally Acidic? PH Level of Rain Water. The Advantages of Acid Rain. Types of Industrial Pollutants. Why Is Smog Bad? How is the Forest Affected by Acid Rain? The Effects of Acid on Aluminum.

Environmental Problems Caused by Minerals. All because of rain? Wait, I thought we needed this stuff. This is acid rain. Would buildings really disintegrate? If a superacid like carborane, that can disintegrate things instantly, came raining down from the sky, it would destroy everything in its path: entire buildings, cars and even you.

Unlike normal rain, that is slightly acidic, acid rain contains high levels of nitric and sulfuric acids. This makes its acidity level a pH of around 4, which is similar to tomato juice. It comes from humans polluting. Chemicals and pollutants that are caused from buring fossil fuels enter our atmosphere. There, they mix with water and oxygen to become acidic rain. But what would happen if rain was always too acidic?

But there are still many ways you can be indirectly affected by the rain. The main thing that will suffer is the environment. Very strong acids will burn if they touch your skin and can even destroy metals. Acid rain is much, much weaker than this; it is never acidic enough to burn your skin. Rain is always slightly acidic because it mixes with naturally occurring oxides in the air. Unpolluted rain would have a pH value of between 5 and 6. When the air becomes more polluted with nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide the acidity can increase to a pH value of 4.

Until relatively recently air pollution has been seen as a local issue. It was in southern Scandinavia in the late 's that the problems of acid rain were first observed and it was then that people began to realise that the origins of this pollution were far away in Britain and Northern Europe.

One early answer to industrial air pollution was to build very tall chimneys. Unfortunately all this does is push the polluting gases up into the clouds allowing emissions to float away on the wind.

The wind carries the pollution many hundreds of miles away where it eventually falls as acid rain. Over ninety percent of Norway's acid pollution comes from other countries. The worst European polluters are Germany, UK, Poland and Spain, each of them producing over a million tons of sulphur emissions in Governments are now beginning to admit that acid rain is a serious environmental problem and many countries are now taking steps to reduce the amount of sulphur and nitrogen emissions.

Find alternative sources of energy. These are 'clean' as far as acid rain goes but what other impact do they have on our environment? Restoring the Damage done by Acid Rain. Lakes and rivers can have powdered limestone added to them to neutralise the water - this is called "liming". Liming, however, is expensive and its effects are only temporary - it needs to be continued until the acid rain stops. The people of Norway and Sweden have successfully used liming to help restore lakes and streams in their countries.

A major liming programme is currently taking place in Wales. Close window. Acid Rain What is Acid Rain? The Effects of Acid Rain Acid rain can be carried great distances in the atmosphere, not just between countries but also from continent to continent.

Forests It is thought that acid rain can cause trees to grow more slowly or even to die but scientists have found that it is not the only cause.