Public Awareness and Concern with Air Pollution in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area

The public attitudes survey involving St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and Madison and St. Clair Counties, Illinois, was completed and published in the fall of 1964. A total of 1002 respondents gave needed information for the development of an acceptable abatement program. Substantial proportions from the study area expressed the view that they have had some negative reaction to the quality of the air. These respondents indicated that air pollution meant, primarily, odor and smoke with residents of some localities indicating other significant elements. The interviewed persons felt that factories and businesses were the prime causal agents in the existence of air pollution. Over 90 percent of all respondents felt that some governmental agency should do something about air pollution in the St. Louis area, with some bi-state metropolitan agency being the principal choice. The residents also expressed a willingness to pay minimal tax support for such a program. Indications as to the significance of air pollution in a general problems context, difference in attitudes between sub-sections of the study area, and more detailed analysis of the problem, its causes, and possible cures are contained in the study r     

An air pollution modeling study using three surface coverings near the New International Airport of Mexico City

The dry lakebed of what once was the lake of Texcoco is the location selected for the New International Airport of Mexico City. This project will generate an important urban development near the airport with regional implications on air quality. Using a prognostic air quality model, the consequences of photochemical air pollution in the metropolitan area of Mexico City resulting from three possible coverings for the areas of the lakebed that are not occupied by the runway and terminal building are investigated. These coverings are desert, grassland, and water and occupy an area of 63 km2. This study is based on a representative high pollution episode. In addition to reducing the emission of primary natural particles, the water covering generates a land-water breeze capable of maintaining enough ventilation to reduce pollutant concentrations over a localized region of the metropolitan area and may enhance the wind speed on the coasts of the proposed lake.     

Evaluation of risks from urban air pollutants in the southeast Chicago area

Region V of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has conducted a comprehensive study of cancer risks from urban exposure to air pollutants in the Southeast Chicago area. This study estimated emissions of a list of 30 air carcinogens from a broad range of nontraditional, as well as traditional, source types. Using dispersion modeling and applying the appropriate unit risk factors and population data, this study estimated the risks at each receptor location and the total number of cancer cases attributable to air pollution in the area. This analysis estimated that current concentrations would cause 77 cases of cancer over the next 70 years, an average risk of 2.0 X 10(-4). Contributions from different source types and different pollutants were estimated. The total contribution from nontraditional source types was less than 0.3 percent. Although these estimates are highly uncertain, the study does suggest the nature and general magnitude of cancer risks from air pollution in the urban area studied.     

An Air Pollution Modeling Study Using Three Surface Coverings Near the New International Airport of Mexico City

Abstract

The dry lakebed of what once was the lake of Texcoco is the location selected for the New International Airport of Mexico City. This project will generate an important urban development near the airport with regional implications on air quality. Using a prognostic air quality model, the consequences of photochemical air pollution in the metropolitan area of Mexico City resulting from three possible coverings for the areas of the lakebed that are not occupied by the runway and terminal building are investigated. These coverings are desert, grassland, and water and occupy an area of 63 km². This study is based on a representative high pollution episode. In addition to reducing the emission of primary natural particles, the water covering generates a land-water breeze capable of maintaining enough ventilation to reduce pollutant concentrations over a localized region of the metropolitan area and may enhance the wind speed on the coasts of the proposed lake.     

An investigation of distributed lag models in the context of air pollution and mortality time series analysis

In particulate air pollution mortality time series studies, the particulate air pollution exposure measure used is typically the current day's or the previous day's air pollution concentration or a multi-day moving average air pollution concentration. Distributed lag models (DLMs) that allow for differential air pollution effects that are spread over multiple days are seen as an improvement over using a single- or multi-day moving average air pollution exposure measure. However, at the current time, the statistical properties of DLMs as a measure of air pollution exposure have not been investigated. In this paper, a simulation study is used to investigate the performance of DLMs as a measure of air pollution exposure in comparison with single- and multi-day moving average air pollution exposure measures under various forms for the true effect of air pollution on mortality. The simulation study shows that DLMs offer a more robust measure of the effect of air pollution on mortality and avoid the potential for a large negative bias compared with single- or multi-day moving average air pollution exposure measures. This is important information. In many U.S. cities, particulate air pollution concentrations are observed only once every six days, meaning it is often only possible to use single-day particulate air pollution exposure measures. The results from this paper will help quantify the magnitude of the negative bias that can result from using single-day exposure measures. The implications of this work for future air pollution mortality time series studies are discussed. The data used in this paper are concurrent daily time series of mortality, weather, and particulate air pollution from Cook County, IL, for the period 1987-1994.     

A Cost-Benefit Approach to Air Pollution Control

Air pollution has plagued the urban areas of our Nation for many years, both as a serious health hazard and as a costly economic burden. Users of the air as a waste disposal medium have treated it as a free resource with no regard for the damages incurred by receptors of the dirty air. Unfortunately, no self-regulating market forces exist that will bring this diseconomy into an acceptable equilibrium. An outside regulating force, which can affect abatement of air pollution, is needed to achieve control of air pollution to a level acceptable to a community. A prerequisite of any proposed regulatory action to be applied by an outside force, however, is the need to define an acceptable level of pollution. One means of accomplishing the task is to apply an economic evaluation, in the form of a cost-benefit analysis, to the problem. Previous analyses of the economic aspects of air pollution have stressed only one side of the problem. That is, they have dealt only with the cost of control or the damages caused by air pollution. No analysis has combined both aspects into a meaningful analysis of the overall economic impact. The objective of this paper is to present a technique that can be used to find the level of pollution abatement in an area that balances the cost of controlling pollution with the benefits received from its control. To present a clearer picture of this technique and its results, it has been applied to the Washington, D. C. area to find the optimum level of particulate abatement. This method is generally applicable to any area, in which an air pollution problem exists.     

Ambient Air Pollution and Daily Pediatric Hospitalizations for Asthma (5 pp)

Background, Aim and Scope A series of severe air pollution episodes in Europe and North America prior to 1960 have focused scientific and regulatory attention on the adverse effects of air pollution on human health. As a consequence of significant reductions in ambient air pollution levels in the intervening years, scientists and public health officials have become more concerned with the potential health effects of exposure to routine concentrations of air pollution. Several recent time series studies conducted world-wide have found relatively low levels of air pollutants that are below national standards were associated with adverse effects on mortality and morbidity. This study examined the effects of ambient air pollution indicators on the daily rate of pediatric hospital admissions for asthma in the Oklahoma City Metropolitan area from 2001-2003. Results: Negative binomial regression analysis revealed significant relationships between the total number of hospitalizations per day and the one-hour maximum NO2 level, the proportion of susceptible children < 5 years old, and the ratio of temperature to humidity. Discussion: This study of the total number of children aged ≤ 14 years old experiencing hospitalizations on a daily basis in the Oklahoma City area from 2001-2003 underscores factors other than ambient air pollution, especially when concentrations are low, affect hospitalizations for pediatric asthma. For example, information related to indoor air quality, health care, family history, and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and other irritants are not obtainable. Yet, those factors are risk drivers for asthma. Similarly, health privacy requirements prevented obtaining data on physiological factors specific to each child such as differentials in airways functional capacity or other impairments influenced asthma exacerbation. This makes calculating relative risk inappropriate. Conclusions: Although ambient air pollution concentrations and meteorological conditions influence pediatric asthma hospitalizations, they are not the major predictors in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. This is consistent with other research that finds limited effects associated with low levels for concentrations of the criteria pollutants.     

Evaluation of Risks from Urban Air Pollutants in the Southeast Chicago Area

Region V of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has conducted a comprehensive study of cancer risks from urban exposure to air pollutants in the Southeast Chicago area. This study estimated emissions of a list of 30 air carcinogens from a broad range of nontraditional, as well as traditional, source types. Using dispersion modeling and applying the appropriate unit risk factors and population data, this study estimated the risks at each receptor location and the total number of cancer cases attributable to air pollution in the area.

This analysis estimated that current concentrations would cause 77 cases of cancer over the next 70 years, an average risk of 2.0 × 10^?4. Contributions from different source types and different pollutants were estimated. The total contribution from nontraditional source types was less than 0.3 percent. Although these estimates are highly uncertain, the study does suggest the nature and general magnitude of cancer risks from air pollution in the urban area studied.     

Surface Air Pollutant Concentration Frequency Distributions: Implications for Urban Modeling

With the development of ambient air quality standards (AAQS), the need arises to describe the characteristics of regional surface air-pollutant concentration frequency distributions. In the evaluation of land use plans, numerous agencies will be concerned with evaluating the effectiveness of emission zoning and/or control actions. On a regional basis, one means of performing this assessment lies in determining the changes in the pollutant frequency distributions resulting from control actions.

This study presents new data concerning the surface air-pollutant concentration frequency distributions observed for area sources and continuous point sources, and compares these distributions with those of the pertinent meteorological variables describing the transport and diffusion of the pollutant. The observed surface air pollutant frequency distributions are compared to those corresponding to simple modeling concepts from either an urban area source or a continuous point source. For an urban source and a relatively inert pollutant like CO, we found that the observed frequency distribution for CO surface air concentration parallels the approximately log-normal frequency distribution of the reciprocal of the wind speed. We show that the constant relating these two well-correlated frequency distributions can be determined either experimentally or with a numerical simulation model of air pollution. The usefulness of numerical models in air pollution is discussed.     

Statistical distributions for air pollution applied to the study of the particulate problem in Santiago

An expression relating the distribution of concentrations of air pollutants to the emission levels is derived and applied to the study of the air pollution problem of Santiago de Chile. Features specific to the area, like the geography and meteorology are included in a stochastic framework. The resulting distribution is simple. It has two parameters which can be easily estimated from the data. It fits well the data from Santiago and is a powerful tool to analyze pollution data and design a mitigation strategy. The methodology developed here can be applied to any city.     

Critique of the Article: Effectiveness of Odor Counteractants for the Treatment of Stack Gases

In the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto which covers 240 square miles there are over 600,000 automobiles, 350,000 domestic and industrial oil and coal-burning installations, 5000 apartment and industrial incinerators, and other numerous sources of air pollution, many of which create serious problems and contribute to the total air pollution level. The area includes 13 municipalities comprising Metropolitan Toronto and 13 additional surrounding urban and rural localities in an area of 720 square miles. The population of the planning area is 1,965,000 and is expected to increase to 2,800,000 by 1980. The Planning Board showed its recognition of the problem by a statement of policy designed to reduce pollution from fuel-burning equipment and incinerators, to develop a coordinated transportation system, to encourage central heating plants, and to control apartment development in mixed commercial areas. The Board advises and assists the individual planning boards, and building and property departments.     

Current and historical relationships between the tissue nitrogen content of a snowbed bryophyte and nitrogenous air pollution

Snowbed vegetation is under threat from atmospheric pollution. Most of the late lying snowbeds in Britain are in the central highlands of Scotland, coinciding with an area of very high deposition of nitrogenous air pollutants. Snow is a very efficient scavenger of atmospheric pollution and, due to the dynamics of snowmelt, much of the pollution load of a snow pack is released at very high concentrations in episodes known as 'acid flushes'. This study demonstrates the existence of a positive relationship between duration of snow-lie and tissue nitrogen content of Kiaeria starkei, a bryophyte characteristic of late snowbeds. An increase in the tissue nitrogen content of this bryophyte over this century is also shown, reflecting increasing air pollution. Maximum tissue nitrogen concentration in K. starkei is up to 50% greater than that recorded in other upland bryophyte species, demonstrating the exceptional threat of pollution to snowbed bryophytes. This has implications for the critical loads approach to pollution emission controls, as it indicates that some mountain communities are receiving higher pollution loadings than previously realised and therefore current exceedence of critical loads is probably greater than recognised at present.     

Application of back-trajectory techniques to the delimitation of urban clean air zones

Following a request by environmental authorities in New Zealand, atmospheric modelling has been applied to delimitation of clean air zones for urban areas. This approach involved the integration of a kinematic trajectory model with an atmospheric mesoscale model to identify the spatial extent of the catchment of air affecting air pollution concentrations in Christchurch on nights of high air pollution. The Regional Atmospheric Modelling System (RAMS) was configured for the region and idealised simulations performed to obtain predicted wind fields for synoptic situations typical of winter smog events. The predicted surface wind fields on two grids, with horizontal resolutions of 1.5 and 0.5 km, respectively, were then used to derive back-trajectories from the late evening peak of pollution over the central city (around 2200 NZST) to the time at which people tend to first light their domestic fires (around 1800 NZST). The results indicate that although winds are often light, the air tends to travel from a significant distance outside the city boundary over this time period. In particular, cold air typically travels up to 20 km from the Canterbury Plains to the west into the city during these air pollution events, as well as from small valleys in the Port Hills to the south of the city. This research illustrates the significance of upstream sources of air for providing relatively clean air to the city, and acting as buffer zones. It is, therefore, possible to identify the area around the city to which urban air quality is particularly sensitive. This area could either be designated as a buffer zone, or included within the clean air zone of the city. This technique also provides a useful tool for identifying the role of different components of the local wind field responsible for air pollution dispersion and transport in different parts of the area.     

The contribution of ship emissions to air pollution in the North Sea regions

As a consequence of the global distribution of manufacturing sites and the increasing international division of labour, ship traffic is steadily increasing and is becoming more and more important as an origin of air pollution.This study investigates the impact of ship emissions in coastal areas of the North Sea under conditions of the year 2000 by means of a regional chemistry transport model which runs on a sufficiently high resolution to study air pollution in coastal regions. It was found that northern Germany and Denmark in summer suffer from more than 50% higher sulphate, nitrate and ammonium aerosol concentrations due to contributions from ships. The implementation of a sulphur emission control area (SECA) in the North Sea, as it was implemented at the end of 2007, directly results in reduced sulphur dioxide and sulphate aerosol concentrations while nitrate aerosol concentrations are slightly increased.     

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy based modelling for prediction of air pollution daily levels in city of Zonguldak

Air pollution is a growing problem arising from domestic heating, high density of vehicle traffic, electricity production, and expanding commercial and industrial activities, all increasing in parallel with urban population. Monitoring and forecasting of air quality parameters in the urban area are important due to health impact. Artificial intelligent techniques are successfully used in modelling of highly complex and non-linear phenomena. In this study, adaptive neuro-fuzzy logic method has been proposed to estimate the impact of meteorological factors on SO2 and total suspended particular matter (TSP) pollution levels over an urban area. The model forecasts satisfactorily the trends in SO2 and TSP concentration levels, with performance between 75-90% and 69-80 %, respectively.     

Biodiversity of epiphytic lichens and air pollution in the town of Siena (central Italy).

The results of a biomonitoring survey carried out in the town of Siena (central Italy) using the biodiversity of epiphytic lichens as indicator of air pollution are reported. The general picture was rather good, with more than 60% of the study area being in the categories "semi-natural" or "natural" according to a calibrated scale of environmental naturality/alteration. Compared with the situation of 1995, ameliorating conditions were found as a result of an improvement in air quality over time.     

use of 1970 census of population data for air pollution research

Today, many more communities in the United States are in a better position to undertake the study of the possible health effects of the air pollution in their environment than has been possible before. Further, such study may furnish baseline data for evaluating the efficacy of air pollution control activity in those cities.

Assessment by city and county control officials can be accomplished by examining the relationship between the demographic characteristics of the area as reported in the 1970 Census of Population, the aerometric measurements now being made routinely in many areas, and mortality in the population as reported to the state office of vital statistics. From the census, detailed demographic or population data will be available by census tract in urban areas. These areas include virtually every U. S. city with a population of 50,000 or more.

The procedures used in the Buffalo and Nashville Air Pollution Studies are discussed with a view toward possible replication by other geographic areas. The need to take account of differences in socio-economic status is emphasized, as is the desirability of obtaining smoking histories. Another major type of air pollution research which is again made possible by the 1970 Census is the comparison of mortality experience, on an agespecific and an age-adjusted basis centered around 1970, for the more than 200 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States.     

The Black Triangle area--fit for Europe? Numerical air quality studies for the Black Triangle area

The "Black Triangle" area (covering northern Bohemia, southern Saxony and part of lower Silesia) has been one of the most polluted areas in Central Europe. The area was named mainly because of high emissions of sulfur and dust. After the political changes at the end of the 1980s a significant improvement in air quality has been achieved. In this study, we have investigated the future development of air pollution in the region of Saxony and northern Bohemia with special regard to the species sulfur dioxide, ozone, and aerosol particles. Relevant limit values for protection of human health defined or suggested in directives by the European Commission were checked in worst-case scenarios for the year 2005. It can be estimated, that the remaining air pollution problems in the Black Triangle area are more or less the same as in the other EU-countries and can be solved only by joint efforts.     

Economic damages of ozone air pollution to crops using combined air quality and GIS modelling

This study aims at presenting a combined air quality and GIS modelling methodological approach in order to estimate crop damages from photochemical air pollution, depict their spatial resolution and assess the order of magnitude regarding the corresponding economic damages. The analysis is conducted within the Greater Thessaloniki Area, Greece, a Mediterranean territory which is characterised by high levels of photochemical air pollution and considerable agricultural activity. Ozone concentration fields for 2002 and for specific emission reduction scenarios for the year 2010 were estimated with the Ozone Fine Structure model in the area under consideration. Total economic damage to crops turns out to be significant and estimated to be approximately 43 M€ for the reference year. Production of cotton presents the highest economic loss, which is over 16 M€, followed by table tomato (9 M€), rice (4.2 M€), wheat (4 M€) and oilseed rape (2.8 M€) cultivations. Losses are not spread uniformly among farmers and the major losses occur in areas with valuable ozone-sensitive crops. The results are very useful for highlighting the magnitude of the total economic impacts of photochemical air pollution to the area’s agricultural sector and can potentially be used for comparison with studies worldwide. Furthermore, spatial analysis of the economic damage could be of importance for governmental authorities and decision makers since it provides an indicative insight, especially if the economic instruments such as financial incentives or state subsidies to farmers are considered.     

The influence of meteorological conditions and stringent emission control on high TSP episodes in istanbul

Istanbul has faced serious air pollution problems since the mid-80s. This is mainly due to particulate air pollution coming from poor quality lignite in areas, which are heavily populated and industrialized. As a consequence of severe air pollution problems, stringent control on the emissions in the city started in the year of 1994. In this work, in order to study the relationship between emissions and meteorological conditions, an assessment of air pollution episodes and air pollution potential in the city is presented for the terms at the changed emission schedule as the influence of an emission reduction strategy. The influence of meteorological conditions on the TSP (total suspended particulates) levels is considered for two consecutive winter periods. On this occasion, the city has faced different TSP levels and episode characteristics depending on stringent emission reductions covering the banned, poor-quality lignite and fuel switching. For this purpose, climatological conditions and air quality analyses were performed.