Distributional analysis of regional benefits and cost of air quality control

The methodology and results of an analysis of benefits and costs of air quality control for an urban region in Florida are given. The machinery used considers the spatial distribution of (a) emission sources, (b) the ambient levels resulting from local meteorological conditions and geographic features, and (c) the socioeconomic characteristics of the impacted population groups. This facilitates an examination of the distributional aspects of costs and benefits associated with various control scenarios. With appropriate adaptation and inputs the steps in our analysis should apply to a distributional benefit/cost analyses for any region.     

An integrated optimization and simulation approach for air pollution control under uncertainty in open-pit metal mine

Air Pollution Control model is developed for open-pit metal mines. Model will aid decision makers to select a cost-effective solution. Open-pit metal mines contribute toward air pollution and without effective control techniques manifests the risk of violation of environmental guidelines. This paper establishes a stochastic approach to conceptualize the air pollution control model to attain a sustainable solution. The model is formulated for decision makers to select the least costly treatment method using linear programming with a defined objective function and multi-constraints. Furthermore, an integrated fuzzy based risk assessment approach is applied to examine uncertainties and evaluate an ambient air quality systematically. The applicability of the optimized model is explored through an open-pit metal mine case study, in North America. This method also incorporates the meteorological data as input to accommodate the local conditions. The uncertainties in the inputs, and predicted concentration are accomplished by probabilistic analysis using Monte Carlo simulation method. The output results are obtained to select the cost-effective pollution control technologies for PM_2.5, PM₁₀, NO_x, SO₂ and greenhouse gases. The risk level is divided into three types (loose, medium and strict) using a triangular fuzzy membership approach based on different environmental guidelines. Fuzzy logic is then used to identify environmental risk through stochastic simulated cumulative distribution functions of pollutant concentration. Thus, an integrated modeling approach can be used as a decision tool for decision makers to select the cost-effective technology to control air pollution.     

Exploratory techniques for the determination of potential dose-response relationships between human health and air pollution

This paper seeks to verify the usefulness of selected multivariate statistical techniques for exploring new dose-response relationships between human health and air pollution. We do so by comparing our results with those already established in the literature through hypothesis testing procedures or laboratory work. This use of multivariate techniques is pretheoretical and should be interpreted as suggesting relationships which warrant further investigation with more traditional methodologies. Our results conform very well with those existing in the literature and lend credence to the use of such pretheoretical statistical methods.     

Assessment of urban air pollution and it's probable health impact

The present study deals with the quantitative effect of vehicular emission on ambient air quality during May 2006 in urban area of Lucknow city. In this study SPM, RSPM, SO2, NOx and 7 trace metals associated with RSPM were estimated at 10 representative locations in urban area and one village area for control. Beside this, air quality index (AQI), health effects of different metals and mortality were assessed. The 24 hr average concentration of SPM, RSPM, SO2 and NOx was found to be 382.3, 171.5, 24.3 and 33.8 microg m(-3) respectively in urban area and these concentrations were found to be significantly (p < 0.01) higher by 94.8, 134.8, 107.4 and 129.6% than control site respectively The 24 hr mean of SPM and RSPM at each location of urban area were found to be higher than prescribed limit of National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) except SPM for industrial area. The 24 hr mean concentration of metals associated with RSPM was found to be higher than the control site by 52.3, 271.8, 408.9, 75.81, 62.7, 487.54 and 189.5% for Fe, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Mn and Cr respectively. The inter correlation of metals Pb with Mn, Fe and Cr; Zn with Ni and Cr; Ni with Cr; Mn with Fe and Cu with Cr showed significant positive relation either at p < 0.05 or p < 0.01 level. Metals Pb, Mn and Cr (p < 0.01) and Cu (p < 0.05) showed significant positive correlation with RSPM. These results indicate that ambient air quality in the urban area is affected adversely due to emission and accumulation of SPM, RSPM, SO2, NOx and trace metals. These pollutants may pose detrimental effect on human health, as exposure of these are associated with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, neurological impairments, increased risk of preterm birth and even mortality and morbidity.     

Understand the local and regional contributions on air pollution from the view of human health impacts

• PM_2.5-related deaths were estimated to be 227 thousand in BTH & surrounding regions. • Local emissions contribute more to PM_2.5-related deaths than PM_2.5 concentration. • Local controls are underestimated if only considering its impacts on concentrations. • Rural residents suffer larger impacts of regional transport than urban residents. • Reducing regional transport benefits in mitigating environmental inequality. The source-receptor matrix of PM_2.5 concentration from local and regional sources in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) and surrounding provinces has been created in previous studies. However, because the spatial distribution of concentration does not necessarily match with that of the population, such concentration-based source-receptor matrix may not fully reflect the importance of pollutant control effectiveness in reducing the PM_2.5-related health impacts. To demonstrate that, we study the source-receptor matrix of the PM_2.5-related deaths instead, with inclusion of the spatial correlations between the concentrations and the population. The advanced source apportionment numerical model combined with the integrated exposure–response functions is used for BTH and surrounding regions in 2017. We observed that the relative contribution to PM_2.5-related deaths of local emissions was 0.75% to 20.77% larger than that of PM_2.5 concentrations. Such results address the importance of local emissions control for reducing health impacts of PM_2.5 particularly for local residents. Contribution of regional transport to PM_2.5-related deaths in rural area was 22% larger than that in urban area due to the spatial pattern of regional transport which was more related to the rural population. This resulted in an environmental inequality in the sense that people staying in rural area with access to less educational resources are subjected to higher impacts from regional transport as compared with their more resourceful and knowledgeable urban compatriots. An unexpected benefit from the multi-regional joint controls is suggested for its effectiveness in reducing the regional transport of PM_2.5 pollution thus mitigating the associated environmental inequality.     

北京市空气污染季节变化规律研究及污染控制建议

北京市的空气质量问题直接关系到首都的经济发展和生态环境建设,也影响着北京在世界大都市的地位.近几年,中央政府和北京市对首都空气质量的改善也越来越重视.根据北京市环保局下设的27个测站点从2005年末到2008年初的观测资料,借助SPSS统计软件,通过对北京市各区域不同时间段的空气污染指数进行对比分析和研究,旨在探索北京市空气污染的季节性变化规律及其污染控制埘策.研究结果表明:北京的首要污染物为可吸入颗粒物;在一年当中,6-8月份的气象条件有利于大气污染物的稀释和扩散,大气环境质量相对最好:冬季受气象条件和采暖的影响.春季季风段受西北部沙尘暴的影响,大气环境质量相对较差.根据这个规律,为确保北京市中长期大气环境保护工作目标的实现,进一步降低污染排放、改善城市空气质量提出了具体的对策和建议.     

The effect of low emission zones on air pollution and infant health

This paper investigates the effect of low emission zones on air quality and birth outcomes in Germany. The staggered introduction of the policy measure creates a credible natural experiment and a natural control group for births and air pollution measurements in cities that enact low emission zones. I show that the introduction of the most restrictive type of low emission zone decreases average levels of fine particulate matter by about 4 percent and by up to 8 percent at a city's highest-polluting monitor. Low emission zones also reduce the number of days per year on which legal pollution limits are exceeded by three. However, these reductions are too small to translate into substantial improvements in infant health. My results are not driven by changes in maternal or city specific characteristics, and are robust to variations in specification and to the choice of control group.     

汞污染及人体负荷研究进展

汞污染是个全球性的问题,汞在一些厌氧微生物的作用下会生成毒性较大的甲基汞,对人体健康产生威胁.本文综述了汞污染以及人体负荷的一些研究进展,包括汞对人体的危害、生物学指标、普通人群甲基汞暴露的两条主要途径等.之前普遍认为食用鱼贝类等水产品是造成人体甲基汞暴露的主要途径,但最近有研究发现大米中甲基汞含量偏高,食用大米会造成潜在甲基汞暴露风险.目前大米甲基汞暴露研究大多集中在我国贵州地区,未来非常有必要在更多的地区开展大米中甲基汞水平的调查,评价大米中低剂量甲基汞长期暴露的风险,以保障大米的安全性.     

邯郸市新冠疫情前后空气质量指数(AQI)对比与疫情防控期间大气污染特征分析

2020年初COVID-19疫情爆发,我国采取一系列管控措施使大气污染物排放量明显降低.为了解疫情期间减排活动下邯郸市大气污染特征,采用统计学变量分析方法与特征雷达图对疫情爆发前(12月、1月)、疫情防控期间(2-4月)、疫情防控后(5月、6月)以及2019年同期大气污染情况进行对比分析.并进一步估算防控期间大气污染物...     

Catalytic TiO2 oxidation of ethanethiol for environmentally begnin air pollution control of sulphur compounds

Volatile organic compounds containing reduced sulphur such as thiols and thioethers are released mostly from biological activities and a number of manufacturing processes, such as papermaking and petroleum refining. Environmentally benign and cost-effective air pollution control technology for reduced sulphur compounds is still a topic of research, e.g., in pulp and paper industry. Due to its advantages, photocatalytic oxidation over titanium dioxide presents a potential alternative for the air treatment strategies. The temperature influence on the reaction pathway and kinetics of gas-phase photocatalytic oxidation and thermal catalytic decomposition of ethanethiol over Degussa P25 TiO₂ was established by a continuous flow method in a simple tubular reactor at temperatures from 373 to 453 K. Kinetic parameters for ethanethiol were: adsorption enthalpy −45 kJ mol⁻¹ and activation energy 42 kJ mol⁻¹. Sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, acetic acid and water were identified as by-products.     

The impacts of economic restructuring and technology upgrade on air quality and human health in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in China

Impacts of industrial restructuring and upgrade on air quality & health are assessed. An integrated approach combining different models is used for the assessment. Industrial technology upgrading is more effective than economic restructuring. Ozone is much more difficult to mitigate than PM_2.5. In this study, we have analyzed possible policy options to improve the air quality in an industrialized region—Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei (BTH) in China. A comprehensive model framework integrating GAINS-China, GEOS-Chem, and IMED/HEL is established to investigate the impacts of various policies on air pollution and health effects. The model establishes a data interface between economic input/output data and the emission inventory of atmospheric pollutants in the BTH region. Based on in-depth analyses of pollutant emission standards, industrial structure, pollution-intensive industries, and emission intensities in BTH and Pearl River Delta, several scenarios are constructed to explore the effectiveness of policy pathways in improving air quality in the BTH region. These scenarios include two categories: the category of “Industrial Technology Upgrade Policy” scenarios that focuses on reducing the emission intensity of industries vs. that of “Industrial Structure Adjustment Policy” scenarios that focuses on adjusting the proportion of industrial value-added. Our results show that the policy path of industrial technology upgrading can be effective and feasible, while economic structure adjustment shows complex and mixed effectiveness. We also find that the proposed policies and measures will be efficient to reduce pollution of primary pollutants and fine particles, but may not effectively mitigate ambient ozone pollution. Ozone pollution is projected to become increasingly severe in BTH, placing a challenge to pollution mitigation strategies that requires further adjustments to address it.     

An integrated model of regional and local residential sorting with application to air quality

We examine the interconnectedness of demand for regionally and locally varying public goods using a residential sorting model. We propose a version of the model that describes household choices at the city (MSA) level and, conditional on city, the neighborhood (census tract) level. We use a two-stage budgeting argument to develop an empirically feasible sorting model that allows us to estimate preferences for regionally varying air quality while accounting for sorting at the local level. Our conceptual and empirical approach nests previous sorting models as special cases, allowing us to assess the importance of accounting for multiple spatial scales in our predictions for the cost of air pollution. Furthermore our preferred specification connects the city and neighborhood sorting margins to the upper and lower elements of a nested logit model, thereby establishing a useful correspondence between two stage budgeting and nested logit estimation. Empirically we find that estimates from a conventional model of sorting across MSAs imply a smaller marginal willingness to pay for air quality than estimates from our proposed model. We discuss how the difference is attributable in part to the omitted variable problems arising when tract level sorting is ignored.     

On the potential of iPhone significant location data to characterize individual mobility for air pollution health studies

● We evaluated the accuracy of iPhone data in capturing time-activity patterns. ● iPhone data captured the most important microenvironments and time spent in them. ● iPhone data also accurately captured daily exposure to ambient PM pollution. ● A considerable fraction of the population in the USA may have iPhone data available. ● iPhone data has great potential in air pollution health studies. In many air pollution health studies, the time-activity pattern of individuals is often ignored largely due to lack of data. However, a better understanding of this location-based information is expected to decrease uncertainties in exposure estimation. Here, we showcase the potential of iPhone’s Significant Location (iSL) data in capturing the user’s historical time-activity patterns in order to estimate exposure to ambient air pollutants. In this study, one subject carried an iPhone in tandem with a reference GPS tracking device for one month. The GPS device recorded locations in 10 second intervals while the iSL recorded the time spent in locations the subject visited frequently. Using GPS data as a reference, we then evaluated the accuracy of iSL data in capturing the subject’s time-activity patterns and time-weighted air pollution concentration within the study time period. We found the iSL data accurately captured the time the subject spent in 16 microenvironments (i.e. locations the subject visited more than once), which was 93% of the time during the study period. The average error of time-weighted aerosol optical depth value, a surrogate of particle pollution, is only 0.012%. To explore the availability of iSL data among iPhone users, an online survey was conducted. Among the 349 surveyed participants, 72% of them have iSL data available. Considering the popularity of iPhones, iSL data may be available for a significant portion of the general population. Our results suggest iSL data have great potential for characterizing historical time-activity patterns to improve air pollution exposure estimation.     

Ecosystems and human health: The local benefits of forest cover in Indonesia

This paper documents the effect of primary forest cover loss on increased incidence of malaria. The evidence is consistent with an ecological response. I show that land use change, anti-malarial programs or migration cannot explain the effect of primary forest cover loss on increased malarial incidence. Falsification tests reveal that the effect is specific to malaria, with forest cover having no discernible effect on other diseases with a disease ecology different from that of malaria. Back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that the morbidity-related malaria-reducing local benefits of primary forests are at least $1-$2 per hectare.     

Fully integrated approach: an alternative solution of coupling a GIS and diffuse pollution models

As a tool for management, query, visualization and analysis of spatially referred information, GIS has been recognized as a method to aid the modeling of diffuse pollution and visualize the results in a spatial context. A common question in integrating diffuse pollution models and GIS is to choose a suitable coupling approach, in which the feature of diffuse pollution models should be taken into account. In this paper, we report on our experience in coupling a distributed diffuse pollution model with a GIS. A prototype of fully integrated system is developed in this paper. This system has high flexibility, extendibility and great data management efficiency. Differences in applicability of loose coupling, tight coupling and fully integrated approaches are addressed. It is concluded that the fully integrated approach can avoid tanglesome data exchange and routine execution and more robust than loose and tight coupling approaches and is suitable for distributed diffuse pollution modes.     

Study on particulate matter air pollution,source origin,and human health risk based of PM10 metal content in Volos City,Greece

Investigations on the fluctuation in PM₁₀ air pollution in Volos, a medium-sized industrialized port city in the Mediterranean, are presented for the 5-year period between 2009 and 2014. The levels detected have been examined in relation to legislatively set limits, sampling year, and day of the week. A PM₁₀ spring sampling campaign has been performed in 2014 and metals and other elements in the PM₁₀ mass have been quantified. Source origin has been attempted for the latter sampling campaign and human health risk has been assessed. Results show compliance with the mean annual value of 40 μg m^?3 of 2008/50/EC for the city; however, exceedances of the daily quality standard of 50 μg m^?3 were frequently recorded. Shifts in PM₁₀ concentrations and in contributing sources have been recorded; nevertheless, longer duration data series are needed for safe deductions. Element measurements have enabled source identification for early summer of 2014, with Earth's crust minerals and anthropogenic sources being the main factors. Cumulative non-carcinogenic risk may exceed the threshold value of 1. Possible involvement of sea salt aerosol and desert dust long-range transport has also been assessed. These results may furnish databases on PM pollution of Greek cities as well as other Mediterranean urban centers with similar characteristics.     

Development of an integrated decision-support model for density management within jack pine stand-types

The objectives of this study were to (1) develop a modular-based structural stand density management model (SSDMM) and corresponding algorithmic analogue for natural (naturally regenerated stands without a history of density regulation) and managed (naturally or artificially regenerated stands with a history of density regulation) jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) stand-types, and (2) demonstrate the utility of the model in operational density management decision-making. Employing an Ontario-centric database consisting of 262 and 221 tree-list measurements obtained from 91 and 139 permanent and temporary sample plots situated within natural and managed stand-types, respectively, combined with data derived from density control experiments and sawmill simulation studies, six integrated estimation modules were constructed: Module A consisted of the parameterization of the core yield–density relationships which together drive the entire yield prediction system (e.g., size–density relationships for quadratic mean diameter, dominant height, mean volume, and mean live crown ratio, and site-specific height–age relationships); Module B consisted of the development of Weibull-based parameter prediction equation systems for recovering diameter distributions and composite height-diameter equations for height estimation; Module C consisted of the development of composite taper equations for predicting log products and stem volumes; Module D consisted of the development of allometric-based composite biomass equations for each above-ground component (bark, stem, branch and foliage) from which biomass estimates and associated carbon-based equivalents were derived; Module E consisted of the development of sawmill-specific composite equations for estimating chip and lumber volumes; and Module F consisted of the development of composite equations for estimating wood density and mean maximum branch diameter. The utility of the model was demonstrated by simultaneously contrasting a set of complex density management regimes (commercial thinning and variable planting densities) in terms of a broad array of stand-level yield outcomes and performance measures: overall productivity, log-product distributions, biomass production and carbon yields, recoverable products (chip and lumber volumes) and associated monetary values, economic efficiency, duration of optimal site occupancy, structural stability, and fibre attributes (wood density and mean maximum branch diameter). In summary, the modular-based SSDMM provides the analytical foundation for evaluating the likelihood of realizing a multitude of stand-level objectives when designing density control regimes for jack pine stand-types.     

Valuation of human health: An integrated model of willingness to pay for mortality and morbidity risk reductions

This paper develops and applies an integrated model of mortality and morbidity valuation that is consistent with the principles of welfare economics. To obtain the integrated model, the standard one-period expected utility model of one person facing the prospect of either being alive or dead is extended to incorporate (1) a third health state (sick) with a utility level that is intermediate to utility if healthy and utility if dead, (2) a family perspective in which a parent makes choices about risk exposure both for herself and for a child, and (3) a multi-period framework that allows for possible parent/child differences in illness latency. Monetary benefits of health risk reduction obtained from the integrated model are compared with those that would be computed using the standard model. The integrated model then is applied using data obtained from two field studies of skin cancer and leukemia to demonstrate how it can be used to estimate health benefits of reduced illness and death risks.