Atmospheric Chemical Compounds: Sources, Occurrence and Bioassay

Air is the most important element of our environment because it is the most vital of the substances needed to sustain higher forms of life. A few decades ago, it was considered to act as a perfect sink in which smoke and fumes could be infinitely diluted. With the development of fine analytical techniques, it became evident that air is the vehicle for an amazingly complex mixture of chemical species in a variety of physical forms. These species are involved in an everlasting turnover, giving way to countless secondary substances.