Acid Rain's Effects on People Assessed

There is suggestive evidence that breathing the trace quantities of sulfuric and nitric acids formed in the atmosphere from power plant smelter emissions is injurious to human lungs. It is difficult to extrapolate results obtained with animal studies to effects on human lungs, however, and even more difficult to separate the effects of acids from those of other air pollutants in epidemiological studies. The acidification of water supplies leads to increases in the concentration of certain potentially toxic metals in that water, but those increases have not been linked to health effects.