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Showing papers on "Air pollutant concentrations published in 1990"



Book
01 Jan 1990

214 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the acidity of polluted atmospheres, mainly in the USA, and the evidence for the effects of acid air on health is discussed. But no information has been gathered on the health effects of exposure to nitric or nitrous acids so that it is not yet known how harmful car emissions are.
Abstract: This paper discusses the acidity of polluted atmospheres, mainly in the USA, and considers the evidence for the effects of acid air on health. There have been steady increases in the emission of the primary inorganic pollutant gases, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides; car exhausts account for about half the emmisions of nitrogen oxides. Controls on car emissions, required by the Clean Air Act, have stabilised annual nitrogen oxides emissions at 21 million tons. However, these emissions are expected to rise sharply during the next 50 years, due to the increasing number of vehicle miles travelled in the USA, combined with the projected increase in electric power generation. Ambient concentrations of acids are also expected to rise, and the increased number of cars in use has led to substantial rises in nitric acid concentrations in large cities throughout the USA. Although millions of North Americans are breathing acidic air pollutants, there is only circumstantial evidence that these exposures harm their health. This evidence is derived from in vivo and in vitro laboratory experiments and from controlled human exposure studies. Almost no information has been gathered on the health effects of exposure to nitric or nitrous acids so that it is not yet known how harmful car emissions are. The needs for further research on public health impacts of acidic air are stated. (TRRL)

133 citations


Book
01 Jan 1990

26 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a cross media treatment technique for the treatment of groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to solve the air pollution problem created by air stripping.
Abstract: Air emissions from the treatment of volatile organic compound (VOC) - contaminated groundwater are a growing problem in the US. Historically, air stripping has been used to remove VOCs from contaminated groundwater. Air stripping technology is a cross media treatment technique, i.e., it solves a groundwater problem by transferring contamination to the atmosphere. In response to the air pollution problem created by air stripping, the public, air quality regulatory agencies, the federal government and private industry are exerting pressure to eliminate and/or reduce air emissions from the clean-up of contaminated groundwater. These forces make it desirable to consider alternative and innovative technologies for the treatment of groundwater contaminated with VOCs.

12 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed revised new source performance standards for new municipal waste combustion (MWC) units and guidelines for existing sources and compared the proposed regulations with the test results to quantify air pollutant emissions from MWC units.
Abstract: On December 20, 1989, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed revised new source performance standards for new municipal waste combustion (MWC) units and guidelines for existing sources. The proposed national regulations require tighter particulate matter control and address precombustion, combustion, and post-combustion controls, the latter two depending on capacity and age of the facility. The air pollutants of concern when municipal solid waste (MSW) is burned will be discussed. Generally, particulate control is an inherent part of the systems used to limit the emissions of these air pollutants. The relationships between MWC air emissions (acid gases, trace organics, and trace heavy metals) control and particulate control will be discussed. Test results to quantify air pollutant emissions from MWC units and their control will be presented and compared with the proposed regulations.

12 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The AERAM risk assessment model (AERAM) is a computerized methodology developed by EPRI for the electric utility industry, used to assess cost-benefit trade-offs for various control technologies.
Abstract: The release of toxins occurs from a multitude of sources both with and without air pollution control These sources have become of more concern The value of pollution control for toxicants can be addressed from a risk benefit methodology The risks can be estimated from the Air Emission Risk Assessment Model (AERAM), a computerized methodology developed by EPRI for the electric utility industry, used to assess cost-benefit trade-offs for various control techologies This methodology considers particle-size class emissions, dispersion, and health impacts, and has been used to evaluate trade-offs for fuel switching at a coal-fueled electric-power generating station in the Northeastern United States

4 citations


Journal ArticleDOI

4 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The United States Environmental Protection Agency developed databases such as the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) and the National Air Toxics Information Clearinghouse (NATICH) and a technical assistance response system called the Air Risk Information Support Center (AIR RISC), in addition, to help in implementation of the National air toxics Program by state and local regulators.
Abstract: Noncriteria air pollutants are synonymous with hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), air toxics or toxic air pollutants (TAPs). The term noncriteria pollutants refers to all air pollutants except for the criteria pollutants (SOx, PM, NOx, CO, O3, and Pb). Air toxics are pervasive in our environment worldwide in varying degrees. Uses of these chemicals are varied and numerous; their emissions are ubiquitous, and they include organic compounds such as chlorinated hydrocarbons, dioxins, aldehydes, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, and heavy metals such as chromium, nickel, cadmium, and mercury. There are more than 70,000 chemicals that are in use commercially in the United States, and we know relatively little about their ambient concentrations, persistence, transport and transformation as well as their effects on health and the environment, many of which take decades to emerge. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, under the authority of Section 112 of the Clean Air Act, is mandated to regulate any air pollutant which, in the Administrator's judgment, "causes, or contributes to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to result in an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness." For such regulatory decision-making, EPA's Office of Health and Environmental Assessment (OHEA) provides scientific assessment of health effects for potentially hazardous air pollutants. In accordance with risk assessment guidelines developed by OHEA over the years, Health Assessment Documents (HADs) containing risk assessment information were prepared and were subjected to critical review and careful revision to produce Final Draft HADs which serve as scientific databases for regulatory decision-making by the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS) in its risk management process. EPA developed databases such as the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) and the National Air Toxics Information Clearinghouse (NATICH) and a technical assistance response system called the Air Risk Information Support Center (AIR RISC), in addition, to help in implementation of the National Air Toxics Program by state and local regulators.

4 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a detailed treatment of vehicle evaporative emissions has been implemented in the photochemical trajectory model and the results confirm that the Stage I and II provisions of the Luxembourg Agreement dealing with vehicle exhaust emissions will be important to stem further deterioration in secondary pollutant air quality in the future, taking into account growth in vehicle usage.



Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1990
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed that indoor air pollution would frequently exceed the safe ambient air quality standards because of additional and poorly controlled sources indoors, and they proposed a low-pollution outdoor conditions.
Abstract: Urban industrial air pollution has been the primary concern of the public health authorities in the industrialized countries for a long time. However, during the last 15 years, industrial ambient air pollution control has been established successfully. In general, outdoor exposures to noxious air pollutants are reasonably close to the ambient air quality standards designed by the public health agencies for warranting health safety for the public. Meanwhile, after establishing low-pollution outdoor conditions, it has been increasingly recognized that indoor air pollution would frequently exceed the safe ambient air quality standards because of additional and poorly controlled sources indoors.

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide essential background to and illustration of the procedures available within the PROFIT computer package, which aids the practitioner in selecting an appropriate probability distribution from a set of alternatives to respresent the frequency of air pollutant concentrations; it also estimates the parameters of the distribution, predicts any desired percentile values, and calculates the minimum errors associated with that prediction.
Abstract: This paper provides essential background to and illustration of the procedures available within the PROFIT computer package. The package aids the practitioner in selecting an appropriate probability distribution from a set of alternatives to respresent the frequency of air pollutant concentrations; it also estimates the parameters of the distribution, predicts any desired percentile values, and calculates the minimum errors associated with that prediction. As an illustration, two- and three-parameter gamma, Weibull and lognormal distributions are applied to annual sets of air pollutant concentrations recorded at several monitoring sites in Melbourne, Australia. Six types of pollutants, namely carbon dioxide, nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and β-scattering, from up to five monitoring stations are analysed using a comprehensive model selection procedure. This procedure incorporates recently developed estimation and discrimination methods, together with analysis of the effects of misspecifying the distribution and of errors in estimation of observed upper percentile values. The emphasis is placed on how to select an appropriate distribution for a given pollutant over different years and, whenever possible, over different sites. An important issue addressed here is the need for compromise between using discrimination criteria and analysing relative root mean square values in fitting percentiles. The results are useful for general purposes, such as summarizing or smoothing data, particularly the upper percentiles, as well as providing statistical information to construct hybrid models when the data contain trends.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used distributed filtering theory and GDMH-method for short-term prediction of air pollutant concentrations by using the advection-diffusion equation but in the stochastic version.