Nationwide Air Pollution Control Training Efforts: Status Quo vs. Needs

This paper briefly reviews the historical development of air pollution training activities in the U. S. It describes the various types of training programs currently available, such as short courses, specialized programs, and university training at the graduate level. The level of financial support and the number of individuals enrolled in these programs are discussed. The paper concludes with an outline of future needs in terms of changes in existing training programs, extension into new areas, and the critical problem of recruitment of qualified candidates for training.     

The Crisis in Air Pollution Manpower Development

There is a crisis in air pollution manpower development within the United States today. This is the conclusion drawn from a series of three studies recently conducted by the National Air Pollution Manpower Development Advisory Committee. These studies, designed to define the essential components of a total manpower development program and to evaluate current efforts on specific segments of such a program, showed that the existing Federal manpower program fails to address many of the problem areas needing attention, that greater effort needs to be directed to meeting the air pollution educational requirements of State highway departments and planning agencies, and that the quality of most graduate level university programs in air pollution control is on the decline because of the withdrawal of Federal financial support.     

A Dynamic Air Resource Management Program,City of Chicago

A review of air pollution control activities since 1881, and the current needs to change from a smoke abatement to an air resource management program are presented. The rapid and dynamic transition made by the City of Chicago since 1962 in its air pollution control activities are explored in terms of organizational changes, training of professional and nonprofessional personnel, ambient air quality measurements, emission inventory of commercial and industrial operations directed toward issuance of certificates of operation, evaluation of health effects and materials damage, modifications to the municipal code, and the interrelationship of air pollution control activities with urban planning and the regional complex. The multidiscipline Public Health Service, Division of Air Pollution, Technical Assistance program initiated in October 1962, and planned for a period of five years, is discussed. The achievements, particularly since 1962, in the many faceted Chicago air resource management program together with some of its longrange plans are delineated.     

Career Guide For Air Pollution Control

This guide to career opportunities in air pollution control includes resource information in this area and provides a listing of colleges and universities offering environmental science programs. The guide was prepared by the S-11 Education and Training Committee of the Air Pollution Control Association.     

State and Local Air Pollution Control Agency Salary Levels—1971

This paper is an examination of the range of salary levels of state, local, and multijurisdictional air pollution control agencies for specific occupational categories. It is based on a manpower and training survey of such agencies conducted by the Office of Air Programs of the Environmental Protection Agency during 1971. Since inadequate salaries have been identified as a primary obstacle in staffing air pollution control agencies, an analysis of salary levels was among the focal points for the survey.

Salaries were found to vary according to occupational category, type of agency, and size of agency. In most instances, salary levels increase as the size of the agency increases. Mean starting salaries have risen significantly since 1968, and salaries for chemists and engineers are becoming more competitive with salaries in private industry.     

State and Local Manpower Resources and Requirements for Air Pollution Control

A recent survey discloses that the total number of professional and technical personnel currently employed in state and local air pollution control agencies is small relative to the total employment of scientists, engineers, and technicians in state and local government generally. The data also indicate that very few positions in control agencies require specialized formal training in air pollution control prior to employment. In general, the future demand for qualified personnel to staff state and local programs depends fundamentally upon our national air quality objectives and the abatement strategy for achieving these objectives. Not until air quality objectives have been made operational and a comprehensive control strategy has been adopted will it be possible to make meaningful forecasts of future state and local manpower requirements. State and local control agencies could probably meet their present requirements by attracting qualified scientists, engineers, and technicians from other fields, if they had salary structures which were competitive with those of industry and the federal government.     

Government/Industry Cost Sharing for Air Pollution Control

Several existing federal and state provisions act to reduce the cost to in dustry of controlling air pollution. Included are the federal corporate income tax, depreciation allowances, investment credits, small Business Administration loans, Economic Development Administration aid, and state tax laws. These provisions give government assistance to industry amounting to as much as 59 percent of the cost of air pollution control. Numerous bills have been introduced in Congress that would give additional government aid to industry in the form of special across-the-board tax allowances for air pollution control equipment. A typical bill of this type would result in the government bearing an additional 11 percent of these costs. There are several possible objectives for this kind of additional aid; however, none of these seem valid when the amount of present assistance is recognized. From this analysis, it would seem that additional across-the-board tax subsidies for air pollution control equipment are neither required nor advisable. Future studies and/or experience may show certain firms or industries for which air pollution control will be too great a burden and for which additional government assistance is advisable. When such cases are found, legislation should be enacted only after the pros and cons of the various assistance methods are considered.     

A model for interprovincial air pollution control based on futures prices

Based on the current status of research on tradable emission rights futures, this paper introduces basic market-related assumptions for China’s interprovincial air pollution control problem. The authors construct an interprovincial air pollution control model based on futures prices: the model calculated the spot price of emission rights using a classic futures pricing formula, and determined the identities of buyers and sellers for various provinces according to a partitioning criterion, thereby revealing five trading markets. To ensure interprovincial cooperation, a rational allocation result for the benefits from this model was achieved using the Shapley value method to construct an optimal reduction program and to determine the optimal annual decisions for each province. Finally, the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region was used as a case study, as this region has recently experienced serious pollution. It was found that the model reduced the overall cost of reducing SO₂ pollution. Moreover, each province can lower its cost for air pollution reduction, resulting in a win–win solution. Adopting the model would therefore enhance regional cooperation and promote the control of China’s air pollution.

Implications: The authors construct an interprovincial air pollution control model based on futures prices. The Shapley value method is used to rationally allocate the cooperation benefit. Interprovincial pollution control reduces the overall reduction cost of SO₂. Each province can lower its cost for air pollution reduction by cooperation.     

The development of effects-based air quality management regimes

This paper considers the evolution of attempts to control and manage air pollution, principally but not exclusively focussing upon the challenge of managing air pollution in urban environments. The development and implementation of a range of air pollution control measures are considered. Initially the measures implemented primarily addressed point sources, a small number of fuel types and a limited number of pollutants. The adequacy of such a source-control approach is assessed within the context of a changing and challenging air pollution climate. An assessment of air quality management in the United Kingdom over a 50-year timeframe exemplifies the range of issues and challenges in contemporary air quality management. The need for new approaches is explored and the development and implementation of an effects-based, risk management system for air quality regulation is evaluated.     

Air Pollution Effects of Incinerator Firing Practices and Combustion Air Distribution

A survey of academic programs in air pollution control was made. Results from the 127 schools reporting are tabulated by state. Faculty involved in air pollution instruction are identified. Some conclusions and recommendations are presented.     

The Province of Ontario’s Air Pollution Control Program

The Province passed an Air Pollution Control Act in 1958 which delegated control of all types of air pollution to the municipalities. This was amended in 1963 with the Province assuming control of industrial sources of air pollution and the municipalities retaining control of combustion sources. The paper outlines the comprehensive program adopted by the Province. It points out that while control is a primary function, other functions such as ambient air quality sampling, the collection of micro meteorological data, co-operation with other governmental agencies in agriculture, planning and zoning, economics and development, and water pollution are a vital part of the program. In light of the experience to date, an attempt is made to predict the organization necessary for the future.     

Epidemiological Aspects of Air Pollution

An urban air pollution incident, like a natural or man-made catastrophe, presents a crisis situation which can only be relieved if adequate contingency plans have been prepared in advance and an effective control organization is in a state of operational readiness to meet the threatened emergency. Although many air pollution incident control plans have been proposed in the past, most have remained in the conceptual or theoretical stages of preparation, because the relative infrequency of serious urban air pollution crises and the disruptive nature of major emission control operations tend to limit the opportunities available for field testing of these plans. In this respect, air pollution incident control planning is analogous to strategic planning for a military operation, where the only completely legitimate test of a strategy is applied on the battlefield. In order to accomplish the transition from conceptual planning to a practical, operational field strategy for air pollution incident control, a program of incident control tests has been initiated in Chicago. These field tests, which use the city as a laboratory for the development of control strategies, are analogous to a series of military war games in which communication systems, command and control organizational structures, personnel roles, surveillance and monitoring equipment, control resources and pollution source controllability are tested under conditions which approximate as closely as possible the situation which prevails during an actual air pollution incident. This paper discusses the evolution of an incident control strategy from an initial, fixed response emission control exercise, through a meteorologically initiated control test to a fairly realistic war game series which is still developing.     

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.     

Epa Looks At “Fugitive Emissions”

The various aspects of two similar but indeed different air pollution problems are discussed. Both fugitive emissions (industrial) and fugitive dust emissions represent problems affecting attainment of national standards. Both are difficult to quantify so as to determine the relative magnitude of the problem. Both have been generally overlooked in the past in relation to developing an effective and widespread air pollution control program. Both problems will generally require the use of non-conventional air pollution control measures. Both are also becoming the subject of more intensive investigation as more knowledge is being gathered to implicate such emissions as significant air pollution problems.     

An Analysis of State Air Pollution Conrol Expenditures

Air pollution control, a significant problem facing state governments, receives a varying amount of fiscal resources in each state. The purpose of this paper is to examine social, economic, and political factors that may be related to state air pollution control expenditures. The indicators of the social-economic factors are urbanization, industrial pollution potential, income, and industrialization. The indicators of the political system are interparty competition, malapportionment, voter participation, local control effort, and general state expenditure efforts. The findings show that the few states expending for air pollution control in 1963 were, for the most part, characterized by a high level of economic development. In 1967, states at all levels of economic development allocated revenues for air pollution, although the more developed continued to hold an edge. In neither year did the political variables differentiate between levels of expenditure. The reasons advanced for the expenditure behavior in 1963 are the historical predominance of local control and the structural limitations of state governments. The wider, and increased, expenditures in 1967 are assessed to be the result of federal grants, the vigorous effort put forth by state control officials, and the increased public concern for the problem.     

国家重点环保实用技术地区差异分析

本研究通过统计分析 1992— 1999年国家重点环保实用技术数据 ,得到了重点环保实用技术、大气污染防治及水污染防治重点环保实用技术分布的地区差异规律 ,探讨了其分布不均衡性问题 ,并给出了相应的对策建议     

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.     

Air pollution and health studies in China--policy implications

During the rapid economic development in China, ambient air pollutants in major cities, including PM10 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < or =10 microm) and SO2 have been reduced due to various measures taken to reduce or control sources of emissions, whereas NO2 is stable or slightly increased. However, air pollution levels in China are still at the higher end of the world level. Less information is available regarding changes in national levels of other pollutants such as PM2.5 and ozone. The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection (MOEP) set an index for "controlling/reducing total SO2 emissions" to evaluate the efficacy of air pollution control strategy in the country. Total SO2 emissions declined for the first time in 2007. Chinese epidemiologic studies evidenced adverse health effects of ambient air pollution similar to those reported from developed countries, though risk estimates on mortality/morbidity per unit increase of air pollutant are somewhat smaller than those reported in developed countries. Disease burden on health attributable to air pollution is relatively greater in China because of higher pollution levels. Improving ambient air quality has substantial and measurable public health benefits in China. It is recommended that the current Chinese air quality standards be updated/revised and the target for "controlling/reducing total SO2 emissions" be maintained and another target for "reducing total NO2 emissions" be added in view of rapid increase in motor vehicles. Continuous and persistent efforts should be taken to improve ambient air quality.     

Net Waste Reduction Analysis Applied to Air Pollution Control Technologies

Post-combustion air pollution control technologies were evaluated to determine total waste produced by the operation of these systems. A continuum of air pollution control technology choices providing increasing levels of control is presented and the quantity of waste produced by each air pollution control option has been calculated. In addition, this analysis accounts for waste produced indirectly by the generation of energy required for operation of the control technologies. This type of analysis can be used to select optimal control levels and to demonstrate why a goal of zero air emissions may not be environmentally desirable.