es lining the nose, throat, and lungs.
Spring and summer haze over the eastern United States is composed primarily of concentrated sulfuric acid (Corfidi, 1993. p. 13). Most of this acid may be traced to the release of sulfur dioxide gas during the burning of high-sulfur coal by power plants, oil refineries, and steel manufacturing facilities. Sulfur dioxide emissions in the United States are concentrated in a broad band extending from the mid-Mississippi Valley into the lower Great Lakes region, the mid-Atlantic states, and southern New England.
Once in the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide bonds with oxygen sometimes in reactions enhanced by sunlightùphotooxidationùand sometimes merely in the presence of liquid waterùas in the droplets of clouds or power-plant plumes (Corfidi, 1993, p. 13)). These reactions form sulfate aerosols, liquid or solid particles suspended in the air. In the liquid aerosols, the sulfate forms tiny droplets of sulfuric acid. In the solid aerosols, the sul
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