Air pollutant concentrations

About: Air pollutant concentrations is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1652 publications have been published within this topic receiving 36138 citations.

An Evaluation of Taxes on Air Pollutants Emissions: an Applied General Equilibrium Approach

Abstract: All political parties in Germany agree that pollution controls by market instruments should become an increasingly important part of government regulatory activities. As environmental quality goals are sometimes in conflict with other objectives such as full employment, economic growth orprice stability, there arises the question of the economic impact of these activities. At the current state of the debate, the ecological reform of the German tax system should be neutral in its effect on the income distribution, on government budget deficit, on the international competitiveness of the German industry, on location decisions and to foreign direct investment. It should, of course, provide an incentive to conserve energy, to reduce discharge of waste to the atmosphere and water, to stimulate substitution in the structure of goods and inputs; and it should be a signal for world-wide effort in environmental policy. The objective of this paper is to identify and to measure the traderoffs between the various goals of environmental and economic policy. This requires information on the economic impacts of various environmental objectives. Since environmental quality programs have impacts on prices, and hence on supply and demand, a general equilibrium model with pollution specifications is an appropriate methodological approach to identify the economic impacts of pollution control policies. By integrating environmental variables directly into models of producers' and consumers' behavior, structural changes arising from environmental programs can be properly taken into account Such an approach models price-responsiveness on the demand side for consumption goods and production inputs as well as endogenous changes in factor incomes in a fully closed and consistent way. In contrast to the fixed-price approach in the Leontief model where abatement activities have in any case a positive impact on growth^ in a price-responsive approach higher abatement costs can dampen the growth effect or even reverse iL Incorporating environmental regulation and its impact in general equilibrium models has by now a twenty years long tradition. In 1970, LEONTIEF extended his input-output approach to quantify environmental repercussions on the economic structure. Since then generalized input-output programming models have been developed for quantifying environmental policy packages (see THOSS and DÖLLEKES [1974], THOSS [1976], MÜLLER [1979]). The shortcomings of these models like fixed coefficients in technologi-

Air Pollution: Current and Future Challenges

Abstract: Despite the dramatic progress to date, air pollution continues to threaten Americans’ health and welfare. The main obstacles are climate change, conventional air pollution, and ozone layer depletion.

A Damaging Source of Air Pollution

Abstract: Scientce serves its readers as a forum for the presentation and discussion of important issues related to the advancement of science, including the presentation of minority or conflicting points of view, rather than by publishing only material on which a consensus has been reached. Accordingly, all articles published in Science-including editorials, news and comment, and book reviews-are signed and reflect the individuLal views of the authors and not official points of view adopted by the AAAS or the instittutions with which the auithors are affiliated.

Air quality and meteorological patterns of an early spring heatwave event in an industrialized area of Attica, Greece

Abstract: Heatwaves—excessively hot ambient conditions that are considered a serious threat to human health—are often associated with poor air quality. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of an early heatwave episode in an industrialized plain in the eastern Mediterranean region (Thriasio, Greece) on human thermal discomfort and urban air quality. The heatwave occurred in mid (15–20) May 2020, shortly after some of the restrictions that were improsed to halt the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Greece were lifted (on 4 May). The discomfort index (DI) and the daily air quality index (DAQI) were calculated on an hourly basis throughout spring 2020 (March, April, May) using data from two stations that measure meteorological parameters and air pollutant concentrations in the Thriasio Plain. The analysis showed that the air temperature increased during 7–17 May to levels that were more than 10 °C above the monthly average value (25.8 °C). The maximum measured air temperature was 38 °C (on 17 May). The results showed a high level of thermal discomfort. The DI exceeded the threshold of 24 °C for several hours during 13–20 May. Increased air pollution levels were also identified. The average DAQI was estimated as 0.83 ± 0.1 and 1.14 ± 0.2 at two monitoring stations in the region of interest during the heatwave. Particulate matter (diameter < 10 μm) appeared to contribute significantly to the poor air quality. Significant correlations between the air temperature, DI, and AQSI were also identified.