Introduction
Air pollution is the introduction of particulates, biological
molecules, or other harmful materials into Earth's atmosphere,
causing diseases, death to humans,
damage to other living organisms
such as animals and food crops, or
the natural or built environment.
Air pollution may come from
anthropogenic or natural sources.
The atmosphere is a complex
natural gaseous system that is
essential to support life on
planet Earth. Stratospheric ozone depletion due to air pollution
has been recognized as a threat to human health as well as to
the Earth's ecosystems.
Indoor air pollution and urban air quality are listed as two
of the world's worst toxic pollution problems in the
2008 Blacksmith Institute World's Worst Polluted Places report.
According to the 2014 WHO report, air pollution in 2012 caused
the deaths of around 7 million people worldwide.
Pollutants
An air pollutant is a substance in the air that can have
adverse effects on humans and the ecosystem. The substance
can be solid particles, liquid droplets, or gases. A pollutant can
be of natural origin or man-made. Pollutants are classified as
primary or secondary. Primary pollutants are usually produced
from a process, such as ash from a volcanic eruption. Other
examples include carbon monoxide gas from motor vehicle
exhaust, or the sulfur dioxide released from factories.
Secondary pollutants are not emitted directly. Rather, they
form in the air when primary pollutants react or
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interact. Ground level ozoneis a prominent example of a
secondary pollutant. Some pollutants may be both primary and
secondary: they are both emitted directly and formed from
other primary pollutants.
Major primary pollutants produced by human activity include:
Sulfur oxides (SOx) - particularly sulfur dioxide, a chemical
compound with the formula SO2. SO2 is produced by volcanoes
and in various industrial processes. Coal and petroleum often
contain sulfur compounds, and their combustion generates
sulfur dioxide. Further oxidation of SO 2, usually in the presence
of a catalyst such as NO2, forms H2SO4, and thus acid rain. This
is one of the causes for concern over the environmental impact
of the use of these fuels as power sources.
Carbon monoxide (CO) - CO is a colorless, odorless, toxic
yet non-irritating gas. It is a product by incomplete
combustion of fuel such as natural gas, coal or wood. Vehicular
exhaust is a major source of carbon monoxide.
Volatile organic compounds (VOC) - VOCs are a well-
known outdoor air pollutant. They are categorized as either
methane (CH4) or non-methane (NMVOCs). Methane is an
extremely efficient greenhouse gas which contributes to
enhanced global warming. Other hydrocarbon VOCs are also
significant greenhouse gases because of their role in creating
ozone and prolonging the life of methane in the atmosphere.
This effect varies depending on local air quality. The aromatic
NMVOCs benzene, toluene and xylene are suspected
carcinogens and may lead to leukemia with prolonged
exposure. 1,3-butadiene is another dangerous compound often
associated with industrial use.
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Particulates, alternatively referred to as particulate matter
(PM), atmospheric particulate matter, or fine particles, are tiny
particles of solid or liquid
suspended in a gas. In contrast,
aerosol refers to combined
particles and gas. Some
particulates occur naturally,
originating from volcanoes, dust
storms, forest and grassland
fires, living vegetation, and sea
spray. Human activities, such as
the burning of fossil fuels in
vehicles, power plants and various industrial processes also
generate significant amounts of aerosols. Averaged worldwide,
anthropogenic aerosols—those made by human activities—
currently account for approximately 10 percent of our
atmosphere. Increased levels of fine particles in the air are
linked to health hazards such as heart disease, altered lung
function and lung cancer.
Toxic metals, such as lead and mercury, especially their
compounds.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) - harmful to the ozone layer;
emitted from products are currently banned from use. These
are gases which are released from air conditioners,
refrigerators, aerosol sprays, etc. CFC's on being released into
the air rises to stratosphere. Here they come in contact with
other gases and damage the ozone layer. This allows harmful
ultraviolet rays to reach the earth's surface. This can lead to
skin cancer, disease to eye and can even cause damage to
plants.
Ammonia, either directly or indirectly, is also a building
block for the synthesis of many pharmaceuticals. Although in
wide use, ammonia is both caustic and hazardous. In the
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atmosphere, ammonia reacts with oxides of nitrogen and sulfur
to form secondary particles.
Odours — such as from garbage, sewage, and industrial
processes
Radioactive pollutants - produced by nuclear explosions,
nuclear events, war explosives, and natural processes such as
the radioactive decay of radon.
Secondary pollutants include:
Particulates created from gaseous primary pollutants and
compounds in photochemical smog. Smog is a kind of air
pollution. Classic smog results from large amounts of coal
burning in an area caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur
dioxide. Modern smog does not usually come from coal but
from vehicular and industrial emissions that are acted on in the
atmosphere by ultraviolet light from the sun to form secondary
pollutants that also combine with the primary emissions to form
photochemical smog.
Peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) - similarly formed from NOx and
VOCs.
Minor air pollutants include:
A large number of minor hazardous air pollutants. Some of
these are regulated in USA under the Clean Air Act and in
Europe under the Air Framework Directive
A variety of persistent organic pollutants, which can attach to
particulates
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic
compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation
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through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. Because
of this, they have been observed to persist in the environment,
to be capable of long-range transport, bioaccumulate in human
and animal tissue, biomagnify in food chains, and to have
potentially significant impacts on human health and the
environment.
Sources:
There are various
locations, activities or factors
which are responsible for
releasing pollutants into the
atmosphere. These sources can
be classified into two major
categories.
Anthropogenic (man-made) sources:
These are mostly related to the burning of multiple types of
fuel.
Stationary sources include smoke stacks of power plants,
manufacturing facilities (factories) and waste incinerators, as
well as furnaces and other types of fuel-burning heating
devices. Traditional biomass includes wood, crop waste and
dung.
Mobile sources include motor vehicles, marine vessels, and
aircraft.
Controlled burn practices in agriculture and forest
management. Controlled or prescribed burning is a technique
sometimes used in forest management, farming, prairie
restoration or greenhouse gas abatement.
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Fumes from paint, hair spray, varnish, aerosol sprays and
other solvents
Waste deposition in landfills, which generate methane.
Methane is highly flammable and may form explosive mixtures
with air.
Military resources, such as nuclear weapons, toxic
gases, germ warfare and rocketry
Natural sources:
Dust from natural sources, usually large areas of land with
little or no vegetation
Methane, emitted by the digestion of food by animals, for
example cattle
Radon gas from radioactive decay within the Earth's crust.
Radon is a colorless, odorless, naturally occurring,
radioactive noble gas that is formed from the decay of radium.
Smoke and carbon monoxide from wildfires
Vegetation, in some regions, emits environmentally
significant amounts of Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on
warmer days. The VOC production from these species result in
ozone levels up to eight times higher than the low-impact tree
species.
Volcanic activity, which produces sulfur, chlorine, and ash
particulates
Emission factors
Air pollutant emission factors are reported representative
values that attempt to relate the quantity of a pollutant
released to the ambient air with an activity associated with the
release of that pollutant. Such factors facilitate estimation of
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emissions from various sources of air pollution. In most cases,
these factors are simply averages of all available data of
acceptable quality, and are generally assumed to be
representative of long-term averages.
There are 12 compounds in the list of Persistent organic
pollutants. Dioxins and furans are two of them and intentionally
created by combustion of organics, like open burning of
plastics.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has
published a compilation of air pollutant emission factors for a
multitude of industrial sources. The United Kingdom,
Air pollution exposure:
Air pollution risk is a function of the hazard of the pollutant
and the exposure to that pollutant. Air pollution exposure can
be expressed for an individual,
for certain groups (e.g.
neighborhoods or children
living in a county), or for entire
populations. For example, one
may want to calculate the
exposure to a hazardous air
pollutant for a geographic
area, which includes the
various microenvironments
and age groups. For example, a small child's inhalation rate will
be less than that of an adult. A child engaged in vigorous
exercise will have a higher respiration rate than the same child
in a sedentary activity. The daily exposure, then, needs to
reflect the time spent in each micro-environmental setting and
the type of activities in these settings. The air pollutant
concentration in each micro activity/micro environmental
setting is summed to indicate the exposure.
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Indoor air quality (IAQ) :
A lack of ventilation indoors concentrates air pollution
where people often spend the majority of their time. Radon
(Rn) gas, a carcinogen, is exuded from the Earth in certain
locations and trapped inside houses. Controlled wood fires in
stoves and fireplaces can add significant amounts of smoke
particulates into the air, inside and out. [20] Indoor pollution
fatalities may be caused by using pesticides and other chemical
sprays indoors without proper ventilation.
Asbestosis is a chronic inflammatory medical condition
affecting the tissue of the lungs. It occurs after long-term,
heavy exposure to asbestos from asbestos-containing materials
in structures. Sufferers have severe dyspnea (shortness of
breath) and are at an increased risk regarding several different
types of lung cancer. As clear explanations are not always
stressed in non-technical literature, care should be taken to
distinguish between several forms of relevant diseases.
Biological sources of air pollution are also found indoors,
as gases and airborne particulates. Pets produce dander,
people produce dust from minute skin flakes and decomposed
hair, dust mites in bedding, carpeting and furniture produce
enzymes and micrometre-sized fecal droppings, inhabitants
emit methane, mold forms on
Health effects
Air pollution is a significant risk factor for a number of
health conditions including respiratory infections, heart disease,
COPD, stroke and lung cancer. The health effects caused by air
pollution may include difficulty in breathing, wheezing,
coughing, asthma and worsening of existing respiratory and
cardiac conditions. The most common sources of air pollution
include particulates, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and sulphur
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dioxide. Children aged less than five years that live in
developing countries are the most vulnerable population in
terms of total deaths attributable to indoor and outdoor air
pollution.
Mortality
It is estimated that some 7 million premature deaths may
be attributed to air pollution. India has the highest death rate
due to air pollution. India also has more deaths from asthma
than any other nation according to the World Health
Organization.
The US EPA estimates allowing a ground-level ozone
concentration of 65 parts per billion, would avert 1,700 to 5,100
premature deaths nationwide in 2020 compared with the
current 75-ppb standard. The agency projects the stricter
standard would also prevent an additional 26,000 cases of
aggravated asthma, and more than a million cases of missed
work or school.
A new economic study of the health impacts and
associated costs of air pollution in the Los Angeles
Basin and San Joaquin Valley of Southern California shows that
more than 3,800 people die prematurely (approximately 14
years earlier than normal) each year.
Diesel exhaust (DE) is a major contributor to combustion-
derived particulate matter air pollution. In several human
experimental studies, using a well-validated exposure chamber
setup,
Cardiovascular disease
A 2007 review of evidence found ambient air pollution
exposure is a risk factor correlating with increased total
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mortality from cardiovascular events (range: 12% to 14% per
10 microg/m3 increase).
Lung disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) includes
diseases such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
A study conducted in 1960-1961 in the wake of the Great
Smog of 1952 compared 293 London residents with 477
residents of Gloucester, Peterborough, and Norwich, three
towns with low reported death rates from chronic bronchitis. All
subjects were male postal truck drivers aged 40 to 59.
Compared to the subjects from the outlying towns, the London
subjects exhibited more severe respiratory symptoms
(including cough, phlegm, and dyspnea), reduced lung function
(FEV1 and peak flow rate), and increased sputum production
and purulence. The differences were more pronounced for
subjects aged 50 to 59. The study controlled for age and
smoking habits, so concluded that air pollution was the most
likely cause of the observed differences.
Cancer
A review of evidence regarding whether ambient air
pollution exposure is a risk factor for cancer in 2007 found solid
data to conclude that long-term exposure to PM2.5 (fine
particulates) increases the overall risk of non-accidental
mortality by 6% per a 10 microg/m 3 increase. Exposure to
PM2.5 was also associated with an increased risk of mortality
from lung cancer (range: 15% to 21% per 10
microg/m3 increase) and total cardiovascular mortality (range:
12% to 14% per a 10 microg/m 3 increase). The review further
noted that living close to busy traffic appears to be associated
with elevated risks of these three outcomes --- increase in lung
cancer deaths, cardiovascular deaths, and overall non-
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accidental deaths. The reviewers also found suggestive
evidence that exposure to PM2.5 is positively associated with
mortality from coronary heart diseases and exposure to
SO2 increases mortality from lung cancer, but the data was
insufficient to provide solid conclusions. Another investigation
showed that higher activity level increases deposition fraction
of aerosol particles in human lung and recommended avoiding
heavy activities like running in outdoor space at polluted areas.
In 2011, a large Danish epidemiological study found an
increased risk of lung cancer for patients who lived in areas
with high nitrogen oxide concentrations. In this study, the
association was higher for non-smokers than smokers. An
additional Danish study, also in 2011, likewise noted evidence
of possible associations between air pollution and other forms
of cancer, including cervical cancer and brain cancer.
In December 2015, medical scientists reported
that cancer is overwhelmingly a result of environmental factors,
and not largely down to bad luck. Maintaining a healthy
weight, eating a healthy diet, minimizing alcohol and
eliminating smoking reduces the risk of developing the disease,
according to the researchers.
Children
In the United States, despite the passage of the Clean Air
Act in 1970, in 2002 at least 146 million Americans were living
innon-attainment areas—regions in which the concentration of
certain air pollutants exceeded federal standards. These
dangerous pollutants are known as the criteria pollutants, and
include ozone, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
dioxide, carbon monoxide, and lead. Protective measures to
ensure children's health are being taken in cities such as New
Delhi, India where buses now use compressed natural gas to
help eliminate the "pea-soup" smog. A recent study in Europe
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has found that exposure to ultrafine particles can
increase blood pressure in children.
"Clean" areas
Even in the areas with relatively low levels of air pollution,
public health effects can be significant and costly, since a large
number of people breathe in such pollutants. A 2005 scientific
study for the British Columbia Lung Association showed that a
small improvement in air quality (1% reduction of ambient
PM2.5 and ozone concentrations) would produce $29 million in
annual savings in the Metro Vancouver region in 2010. This
finding is based on health valuation of lethal (death) and sub-
lethal (illness) affects.
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Conclusion
In all the partner cities the industrial emissions (i.e.
SO2, dust) have been drastically reduced over the last decade,
so that now the main pollution everywhere is caused by traffic.
Therefore the data on air quality concern mainly traffic
emissions with data on carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen
oxides, benzene etc.
In addition to this traffic emission data held by all partner
cities, other data has been collected by an omni-present
monitoring system:
Moscow holds a detailed cadaster on industrial emissions,
as all industries are forced by law to inform the public authority
about their emissions. It has elaborated a map showing the
summary of emissions and evaluation maps considering the
meteorological potential of air pollution.
Milan has elaborated maps indicating the different
emission sources as heating plants, industry, agriculture,
transport and compiled a summarizing map.
Maps on air pollution showing emission sources, pollution
levels and effects on organisms visualize the basic problem of
life quality in urban areas, forcing political decisions on
structural measures (change of heating fuels) and territorial
policies (displacement of industries) and consequently address
the planning.
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