Showing papers on "Air pollutant concentrations published in 1995"

Air pollution and health.

Abstract: The haze of photochemical smog that collects over cities has been seen by most people during hot summer spells. Media reports on adverse health effects abound, and in Britain last week the environment minister asked motorists to leave their cars at home. Is this wise advice or overreaction? The fact that air pollution can be harmful has been accepted in Britain since 4000 excess deaths were recorded during the smog in December 1952.1 The public outcry that followed led to the Clean Air Act of 1957. Air quality improved to the extent that the Clean Air Council was abolished in 1979, the Medical Research Council's Air Pollution Unit was closed a year later, and the monitoring network was largely disbanded. Classic industrial air pollution was made up largely of smoke and sulphur dioxide from the burning of coal and generally occurred in winter. In Britain this has mainly been replaced by pollution from the combustion of petrol and diesel, which predominantly takes place in vehicles. Vehicle exhausts emit oxides of nitrogen (particularly nitrogen dioxide), carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, particulates, and lead. On hot, still days these accumulate over cities, together with low concentrations of industrial pollutants, and undergo further reactions catalysed …

Monetary values of air pollutant emissions in various u.s. regions

Abstract: Monetary values of emissions of criteria pollutants are needed for evaluating the costs and benefits associated with technologies that have the potential to reduce emissions. Emission values can be estimated by using either a damage value method or a control cost method. With the damage value method, emission values are estimated on the basis of estimated emissions, air quality simulation, damage identification, and valuation of damages. With the control cost method, the marginal control cost--the cost of controlling the last unit of emissions for meeting a given air quality standard--is estimated; the estimated marginal cost is treated as the value of emission reductions achieved by a given control technology. Although studies have been conducted to estimate emission values in some U.S. areas, emission values are still lacking in many others. Estimating emission values for various U.S. areas by using either method can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Regression relationships are developed between emission values and air pollutant concentrations and population exposed with emission values already estimated for some U.S. areas. On the basis of the developed relationships, emission values have been estimated for various U.S. areas that lack them. These estimates can serve as interim values for these areas until detailed, original estimates become available.

Status of ambient measurement methods for hazardous air pollutants.

Abstract: T he 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) have refocused attention on ambient air toxics. Title III of the CAAA seeks to reduce the public health risks from 189 hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in ambient air through congressionally mandated riskreduction timetables and goals for HAP emission controls and other requirements (i). Health risk determination and the quantification of reductions in health risks requires knowledge of ambient HAP concentrations and, by extension, the availability of adequate ambient HAP measurement methods. However, a ssessments of the current da tabase of information available on ambient concentrations and transformation products, recently reported in ES&T (2), found a paucity of data needed to conduct adequate health risk assessments for many HAPs (3, 4). For example, the survey showed no ambient data for 74 of the 189 HAPs. The principal reason for the absence of ambient data for many HAPs has been suggested as a lack of suitable ambient air sampling and analysis methods.

Measuring hazardous air pollutants

Abstract: The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAAs) represent the most dramatic environmental legislation to impact US manufacturing to date. The CAAAs force manufacturers to reconsider their approach toward the reduction and the elimination of emissions. Perhaps the most significant aspect of CAAAs is the manner in which they are to be enforced. For the first time the federal government, through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has the authority to penalize any company that compromises the air quality standards. Congress has modified the EPA approach and cited 189 air toxics that require monitoring and emissions reduction even though threshold limits for these species may not be established. the overall approach of the CAAAs is to move away from complete emissions elimination and toward a finite reduction of all air toxics through the use of existing technologies to achieve maximum air quality improvements. The suitability of mass spectrometry with a capillary sampling system has been investigated for the accurate detection of a broad range of emissions, including nitrogen oxides, sodium oxides, and sulfur oxides.

Control of Air Emissions

Abstract: For any industry faced with the prospect of having to implement new emission control procedures the important question is what technique or technology should be used. This paper discusses both source reduction and abatement techniques and provides an overview of the technologies. It is concluded that:

Concentrations of air pollutants in the U.K.

Abstract: 4.1 In 1992 the Department of the Environment (DoE) established the Quality of Urban Air Review Group (QUARG) under the Chairmanship of Professor Roy Harrison. The Group published a report in January 1993, entitled 'Urban Air Quality in the United Kingdom' (available from Air Quality Division, Department of the Environment, Romney House, 34 Marsham Street, London SWIP 3PY, UK) which provides a detailed account of current monitoring and levels of a wide range of air pollutants. The following account draws heavily upon the QUARG report on a pollutant by pollutant basis. Only the major air pollutants: nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulphtir dioxide and particulate material are included. Data on levels of air pollutants and information on monitoring sites are reproduced by courtesy of the Warren Spring Laboratory.

Health impacts from traffic related air pollution in danish urban areas

Abstract: In most of the European cities air pollution has changed in recent years; previously the most serious problem was sulphur dioxide and soot from minor domestic heating plants; this has largely been solved by introduction of cleaner fuels and change in infrastruc ture. Now the increasing traffic emissions, notably of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, with the ensuing photochemical air pollution, attract most attention. Denmark has, for a series of geographical and meteorological reasons, relatively clean air. In urban areas, however, where the emission density is high and the dispersion of pollution is limited, impacts on human health and well-being must be con sidered. In the planning of a rational abatement strategy, including emission and air quality standards, it is not sufficient to determine pollution levels, it is also important to investigate to what extent people are actually exposed to them. Further, it is necessary to establish the relative contributions from various human activities.

Air quality assessment at hazardous waste sites

Abstract: Human health risks due to exposures to an area of contamination are needed to be addressed both onsite and offsite risks through inhalation of the ambient air associated with the contaminated sites. The onsite human health risk is identified through the volatilization factor defined in the USEPA Human Health Manual. The offsite exposure risk can be investigated through the use of direct ambient air monitoring and air dispersion modeling. Air quality dispersion modeling is especially valid for areas in which sources of the air quality impact are not clearly defined. Air emission rate estimation for the detected compounds is necessary in order to calculate the on‐site and off‐site risks through the volatilization factor and air dispersion model runs.