Technical Information Resources in the Air Pollution Field

In common with other technical fields and disciplines, the air pollution area has “information explosion” problems, compounded by the interdisciplinary nature of the field and the current increased emphasis on air pollution and its control. The development of technical information programs to meet these needs is traced, with emphasis on the Air Pollution Technical Infor-mation Center established by the National Air Pollution Control Administration of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The Center is based on a delegation of responsibility by the Office of Science and Technology, Executive Office of the President, and now contains over 12,000 current references, with an acquisition rate of approximately 200 per month. In addition to the U. S. journal literature, particular emphasis is placed on the foreign literature and on U. S. Government research reports. Other programs discussed include the Air Pollution Control Association, Bay Area Air Pollution Control District, Center for Air Environment Studies at Penn State, and centers serving particular industries. Services available from each are described.     

The National Air Pollution Technical Information Center: Its Operation and Services

This report describes the operations of the National Air Pollution Technical Information Center of the Division of Air Pollution, Public Health Service, U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; and discusses the Center’s expanding coverage of the world’s journal literature and the report literature from four major clearinghouses. Also reported are efforts to complete the development of an effective information storage and retrieval system, including vocabulary control and hardware testing. A brief analysis is made of the relationships between the Air Pollution Control Association (APCA) ana the Air Pollution Technical Information Center (APTIC) and the benefits to be derived from an effective technical literature program.     

Air Pollution and Health

The use of multistage, dry, fluidized beds of continuously recycled, coal-based activated carbon appears technically and economically attractive for both adsorption of stack gas So₂ and sequential conversion to elemental sulfur. Conceptual design details and economic factors are discussed for the treatment of power plant or oil refinery SO₂ effluents with by-product sulfur recovery.     

Daily Mortality and Air Pollution in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

We studied the association of daily mortality with short-term variations in the ambient concentrations of major gaseous pollutants and PM in the Netherlands. The magnitude of the association in the four major urban areas was compared with that in the remainder of the country. Daily cause-specific mortality counts, air quality, temperature, relative humidity, and influenza data were obtained from 1986 to 1994. The relationship between daily mortality and air pollution was modeled using Poisson regression analysis. We adjusted for potential confounding due to long-term and seasonal trends, influenza epidemics, ambient temperature and relative humidity, day of the week, and holidays, using generalized additive models.

Influenza episodes were associated with increased mortality up to 3 weeks later. Daily mortality was significantly associated with the concentration of all air pollutants. An increase in the PM₁₀ concentration by 100 u.g/m³ was associated with a relative risk (RR) of 1.02 for total mortality. The largest RRs were found for pneumonia deaths. Ozone had the most consistent, independent association with mortality. Particulate air pollution (e.g., PM₁₀, black smoke [BS]) was not more consistently associated with mortality than were the gaseous pollutants SO₂ and NO₂. Aerosol SO₄ ^-2, NO₃ ^-, and BS were more consistently associated with total mortality than was PM₁₀. The RRs for all pollutants were substantially larger in the summer months than in the winter months. The RR of total mortality for PM₁₀ was 1.10 for the summer and 1.03 for the winter. There was no consistent difference between RRs in the four major urban areas and the more rural areas.     

Air Pollution Acronyms

Abstract

Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis of the thermal flow in the combustion chamber of a solid waste incinerator provides crucial insight into the incinerator’s performance. However, the interrelation of the gas flow with the burning waste has not been adequately treated in many CFD models. A strategy for a combined simulation of the waste combustion and the gas flow in the furnace is introduced here. When coupled with CFD, a model of the waste combustion in the bed provides the inlet conditions for the gas flow field and receives the radiative heat flux onto the bed from the furnace wall and gaseous species. An unsteady one-dimensional bed model was used for the test simulation, in which the moving bed was treated as a packed bed of homogeneous fuel particles. The simulation results show the physical processes of the waste combustion and its interaction with the gas flow for various operational parameters.     

室内空气污染与控制

论述了造成室内空气污染的主要原因，分析了室内空气污染的特点及其危害，并结合房屋建筑过程以及人们日常生活的各个方面，提出了预防及控制室内空气污染的具体方法。     

Air Pollution in the Republic of Korea

This paper discusses the potential for using commercially available treatment techniques to remove VOCs from hazardous waste streams and addresses some of the issues associated with making waste treatment a viable VOC emission control technique for hazardous waste management facilities. It discusses the waste streams of concern because of their volatile constituents and describes potentially applicable treatment techniques. The use of models for treatment process design is described. Finally, the paper discusses treatment cost, treatment residuals, and considerations of importance in choosing where in the life cycle of a hazardous waste stream to treat it.     

Air Pollution Abatement in the Ceramic Industry

Air pollution abatement has been a constant concern for the ceramic indudry over the last four decades. The multiplicity of materials involved, numbering in the hundreds of fluxes and refractories for the manufacture of many different types of glasses, results in gaseous as well as particulate reaction products. Methods of abatement through various means have been developed and are in use in the United States and world-wide today.     

Careers in Air Pollution Control

Abstract

The destruction of parts per million (ppm) levels of volatile organic compounds in a dry air stream by high–energy electron–beam irradiation has been investigated in a pilot plant at the University of Tennessee Space Institute, Tullahoma, Tennessee. In a series of experiments, dry air contaminated with various VOCs in the concentration range of 50–1000 ppm were treated in the UTSI pilot plant to determine the extent of destruction at various electronbeam dose levels.

The destruction removal efficiency was determined as a function of the electron beam irradiation dose. The results suggest a charge transfer reaction as the major decomposition mechanism. A theoretical foundation of the process, along with a simple first–generation reaction kinetics model, a summary of the results from the pilot plant flow reactor, and a preliminary cost analysis for a fullscale detoxification plant using currently available electronbeam gun technology are presented in this paper.     

Urban Air Pollution in Latin America and the Caribbean

Urban air pollution has become an increasing problem in Latin America and the Caribbean. One reason is the rapid expansion in the size of the urban population. This phenomenon is associated with an increase in the number of vehicles and in energy utilization which, in addition to industrial processes often concentrated in the cities, are the primary sources of air pollution in Latin American cities. The air quality standards established in such countries are frequently exceeded although control programs have been implemented. The urban areas more affected by anthropogenic pollutant emissions are Sao Paulo, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; and Mexico City. In Latin America, the population of cities with high priority air pollution problems include approximately 81 million people or 26.5 percent of the total urban population of Latin America, corresponding to 30 million children (< 15 years), 47 million adults (15-59 years) and 4 million elderly people (≧60 years) who are exposed to air pollutant levels that exceed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for adequate health protection.