Air quality measurements from the Fresno Supersite

The Fresno Supersite intends to 1) evaluate non-routine monitoring methods, establishing their comparability with existing methods and their applicability to air quality planning, exposure assessment, and health effects studies; 2) provide a better understanding of aerosol characteristics, behavior, and sources to assist regulatory agencies in developing standards and strategies that protect public health; and 3) support studies that evaluate relationships between aerosol properties, co-factors, and observed health end-points. Supersite observables include in-situ, continuous, short-duration measurements of 1) PM2.5, PM10, and coarse (PM10 minus PM2.5) mass; 2) PM2.5 SO4(-2), NO3-, carbon, light absorption, and light extinction; 3) numbers of particles in discrete size bins ranging from 0.01 to approximately 10 microns; 4) criteria pollutant gases (O3, CO, NOx); 5) reactive gases (NO2, NOy, HNO3, peroxyacetyl nitrate [PAN], NH3); and 6) single particle characterization by time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Field sampling and laboratory analysis are applied for gaseous and particulate organic compounds (light hydrocarbons, heavy hydrocarbons, carbonyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAH], and other semi-volatiles), and PM2.5 mass, elements, ions, and carbon. Observables common to other Supersites are 1) daily PM2.5 24-hr average mass with Federal Reference Method (FRM) samplers; 2) continuous hourly and 5-min average PM2.5 and PM10 mass with beta attenuation monitors (BAM) and tapered element oscillating microbalances (TEOM); 3) PM2.5 chemical speciation with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) speciation monitor and protocol; 4) coarse particle mass by dichotomous sampler and difference between PM10 and PM2.5 BAM and TEOM measurements; 5) coarse particle chemical composition; and 6) high sensitivity and time resolution scalar and vector wind speed, wind direction, temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, and solar radiation. The Fresno Supersite is coordinated with health and toxicological studies that will use these data in establishing relationships with asthma, other respiratory disease, and cardiovascular changes in human and animal subjects.     

Air quality in Yanbu,Saudi Arabia

Yanbu, on the Red Sea, is an affluent Saudi Arabian industrial city of modest size. Substantial effort has been spent to balance environmental quality, especially air pollution, and industrial development. We have analyzed six years of observations of criteria pollutants O₃, SO₂, particles (PM_2.5 and PM₁₀) and the known ozone precursors—volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x). The results suggest frequent VOC-limited conditions in which ozone concentrations increase with decreasing NO_x and with increasing VOCs when NO_x is plentiful. For the remaining circumstances ozone has a complex non-linear relationship with the VOCs. The interactions between these factors at Yanbu cause measurable impacts on air pollution including the weekend effect in which ozone concentrations stay the same or even increase despite significantly lower emissions of the precursors on the weekends. Air pollution was lower during the Eids (al-Fitr and al-Adha), Ramadan and the Hajj periods. During Ramadan, there were substantial night time emissions as the cycle everyday living is almost reversed between night and day. The exceedances of air pollution standards were evaluated using criteria from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), World Health Organization (WHO), the Saudi Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) and the Royal Commission Environmental Regulations (RCER). The latter are stricter standards set just for Yanbu and Jubail. For the fine particles (PM_2.5), an analysis of the winds showed a major impact from desert dust. This effect had to be taken into account but still left many occasions when standards were exceeded. Fewer exceedances were found for SO₂, and fewer still for ozone. The paper presents a comprehensive view of air quality at this isolated desert urban environment.

Implications: Frequent VOC-limited conditions are found at Yanbu in Saudi Arabia that increase ozone pollution if NO_x is are reduced. In this desert environment, increased nightlife produces the highest levels of VOCs and NO_x at night rather than the day. The effects increase during Ramadan. Fine particles peak twice a day—the morning peak is caused by traffic and increases with decreasing wind, potentially representing health concerns, but the larger afternoon peak is caused by the wind, and it increases with increasing wind speeds. These features suggest that exposure to pollutants must be redefined for such an environment.     

Environmental and public health co-benefits of consumer switches to immunity-supporting food

During COVID-19, there has been a surge in public interest for information on immunity-boosting foods. There is little scientific support for immunity-supporting properties of specific foods, but strong evidence for food choice impacts on other health outcomes (e.g. risk of non-communicable disease) and environmental sustainability. Here, we relate online recommendations for “immunity-boosting” foods across five continents to their environmental and human health impacts. More frequently recommended food items and groups are plant based and have lower land use and greenhouse gas emission impacts plus more positive health outcomes (reducing relative risks of mortality or chronic diet-related diseases) per serving of food. We identify trade-offs between environmental outcomes of increasing consumption of recommended food items, with aquatic environment impacts increasing with food recommendation frequency. People’s reliance on the Internet for health information creates an opportunity to consolidate behaviour change towards consuming foods with multiple co-benefits. Our study identifies win–win options for nudging online information-seeking behaviour towards more sustainable choices for terrestrial biodiversity conservation and human health.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01693-w.     

Air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

China is taking major steps to improve Beijing's air quality for the 2008 Olympic Games. However, concentrations of fine particulate matter and ozone in Beijing often exceed healthful levels in the summertime. Based on the US EPA's Models-3/CMAQ model simulation over the Beijing region, we estimate that about 34% of PM_2.5 on average and 35–60% of ozone during high ozone episodes at the Olympic Stadium site can be attributed to sources outside Beijing. Neighboring Hebei and Shandong Provinces and the Tianjin Municipality all exert significant influence on Beijing's air quality. During sustained wind flow from the south, Hebei Province can contribute 50–70% of Beijing's PM_2.5 concentrations and 20–30% of ozone. Controlling only local sources in Beijing will not be sufficient to attain the air quality goal set for the Beijing Olympics. There is an urgent need for regional air quality management studies and new emission control strategies to ensure that the air quality goals for 2008 are met.     

上海市空气质量变化的多重分形分析

以上海市2000年7月至2006年6月的污染指数时间序列为基础数据,引入多重分形分析方法对上海市的大气污染特征及其变化趋势进行了研究.研究表明,上海市的3种主要大气污染物(SO2、NO2和PM10)在整个时间尺度上均表现出标度不变性,具有完全不同的多重分形特征.多重分形分析方法不仅能确认序列中的标度不变性,而且能说明3种大气污染物序列中概率分布的标度变化,这对于描述大气污染物时间序列的动力学变化具有现实意义.另外,进一步应用3个多重分形谱参数(B、△a和△f),研究了3种大气污染物各年的多重分形谱的变化,并结合上海市采取的大气环境治理措施,对其变化的原因进行了分析.结果表明,多重分形谱参数可作为一个评价城市空气质量演变程度的综合定量指标.为分析城市空气质量的演变提供了一条新的途径,对于认识上海市城市空气质量的变化过程和科学制订环境保护决策具有重要意义.     

Air quality impacts of power plant emissions in Beijing

The CALMET/CALPUFF modeling system was applied to estimate the air quality impacts of power plants in 2000 and 2008 in Beijing, and the intake fractions (IF) were calculated to see the public health risks posed. Results show that in 2000 the high emission contribution induced a relatively small contribution to average ambient concentration and a significant impact on the urban area (9.52 microg/m(3) of SO(2) and 5.29 microg/m(3) of NO(x)). The IF of SO(2), NO(x) and PM(10) are 7.4 x 10(-6), 7.4 x 10(-6) and 8.7 x 10(-5), respectively. Control measures such as fuel substitution, flue gas desulfurization, dust control improvement and flue gas denitration planned before 2008 will greatly mitigate the SO(2) and PM(10) pollution, especially alleviating the pressure on the urban area to reach the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). NO(x) pollution will be mitigated with 34% decrease in concentration but further controls are still needed.     

The role of green innovations,environmental policies and carbon taxes in achieving the sustainable development goals of carbon neutrality

The green innovations, environmental policies, and carbon taxes are the tools to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the mitigation process. This study is intended to examine the impact of innovation, carbon pricing (CTAX), environmental policies (EP), and energy consumption (ECON) on PM_2.5 and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission for Central-Eastern European countries. The panel effect during 2000–2018 is tested using a dynamic panel data model while the Granger causality approach obtains country-related outcomes. The outcomes reveal that eco-friendly innovations have a more profound effect on carbon mitigation. Environmental policies reduce emissions by 2.7% in the short run and 17.4% in the long run. Similarly, CTAX mitigates GHG emissions by 8.6% in the short-run and PM2.5 by 0.9% and 5.7% in the short and long run. However, urbanization, energy consumption and trade openness are the leading polluters in the region. The main findings remain dominant in the country-specific results and find unidirectional and bidirectional causality evidence among variables. The research concludes that green innovations and strict environmental policy can lead towards achieving sustainable development goals using carbon taxes as a tool on the way.

Graphical abstract

     

Air quality modeling and decisions for ozone reduction strategies

Despite the widespread application of photochemical air quality models (AQMs) in U.S. state implementation planning (SIP) for attainment of the ambient ozone standard, documentation for the reliability of projections has remained highly subjective. An "idealized" evaluation framework is proposed that provides a means for assessing reliability. Applied to 18 cases of regulatory modeling in the early 1990s in North America, a comparative review of these applications is reported. The intercomparisons suggest that more than two thirds of these AQM applications suffered from having inadequate air quality and meteorological databases. Emissions representations often were unreliable; uncertainties were too high. More than two thirds of the performance evaluation efforts were judged to be substandard compared with idealized goals. Meteorological conditions chosen according regulatory guidelines were limited to one or two cases and tended to be similar, thus limiting the extent to which public policy makers could be confident that the emission controls adopted would yield attainment for a broad range of adverse atmospheric conditions. More than half of the studies reviewed did not give sufficient attention to addressing the potential for compensating errors. Corroborative analyses were conducted in only one of the 18 studies reviewed. Insufficient attention was given to the estimation of model and/or input database errors, uncertainties, or variability in all of the cases examined. However, recent SIP and policy-related regional modeling provides evidence of substantial improvements in the underlying science and available modeling systems used for regulatory decision making. Nevertheless, the availability of suitable databases to support increasingly sophisticated modeling continues to be a concern for many locations. Thus, AQM results may still be subject to significant uncertainties. The evaluative process used here provides a framework for modelers and public policy makers to assess the adequacy of contemporary and future modeling work.     

Air quality in Brunei Darussalam during the 1998 haze episode

Regional haze from biomass burning in SE Asia is a recurring air pollution phenomenon with a potential impact on the health of several hundred million people. Air quality data in Brunei Darussalam during the 1998 haze episode revealed that only particulate matter is a significant pollutant. The WHO guideline of 70 μg m⁻³ for PM₁₀ (24 h average) was exceeded on 54 days during the haze episode which lasted from 1 February to 30 April 1998. Concentrations of SO₂, NO₂, and O₃ were all below WHO guidelines and the 8 h guideline for CO was exceeded on only seven occasions. Average daily PM₁₀ concentrations were below 450 μg m⁻³ but concentrations greater than 600 μg m⁻³ persisted for several hours at a time and total exposure to such high concentrations could add up to several days over the course of a haze episode. Airborne particles exhibited diurnal variation, typically rising through the night to very high levels in the early morning and thereafter decreasing due largely to meteorological factors. The pollutant standards index (PSI), widely used to report urban air quality, may not be suitable for haze from forest fires as it does not take into account short-term exposure to extremely high particle concentrations of up to 1 mg m⁻³.     

Assessment of air quality benefits from national air pollution control policies in China. Part II: Evaluation of air quality predictions and air quality benefits assessment

Following the meteorological evaluation in Part I, this Part II paper presents the statistical evaluation of air quality predictions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA)’s Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (Models-3/CMAQ) model for the four simulated months in the base year 2005. The surface predictions were evaluated using the Air Pollution Index (API) data published by the China Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) for 31 capital cities and daily fine particulate matter (PM_2.5, particles with aerodiameter less than or equal to 2.5 μm) observations of an individual site in Tsinghua University (THU). To overcome the shortage in surface observations, satellite data are used to assess the column predictions including tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) column abundance and aerosol optical depth (AOD). The result shows that CMAQ gives reasonably good predictions for the air quality.The air quality improvement that would result from the targeted sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x) emission controls in China were assessed for the objective year 2010. The results show that the emission controls can lead to significant air quality benefits. SO₂ concentrations in highly polluted areas of East China in 2010 are estimated to be decreased by 30–60% compared to the levels in the 2010 Business-As-Usual (BAU) case. The annual PM_2.5 can also decline by 3–15 μg m^?3 (4–25%) due to the lower SO₂ and sulfate concentrations. If similar controls are implemented for NO_x emissions, NO_x concentrations are estimated to decrease by 30–60% as compared with the 2010 BAU scenario. The annual mean PM_2.5 concentrations will also decline by 2–14 μg m^?3 (3–12%). In addition, the number of ozone (O₃) non-attainment areas in the northern China is projected to be much lower, with the maximum 1-h average O₃ concentrations in the summer reduced by 8–30 ppb.     

Air quality modeling of hazardous pollutants: current status and future directions

The current requirements and status of air quality modeling of hazardous pollutants are reviewed. Many applications require the ability to predict the local impacts from industrial sources or large roadways as needed for community health characterization and evaluating environmental justice concerns. Such local-scale modeling assessments can be performed by using Gaussian dispersion models. However, these models have a limited ability to handle chemical transformations. A new generation of Eulerian grid-based models is now capable of comprehensively treating transport and chemical transformations of air toxics. However, they typically have coarse spatial resolution, and their computational requirements increase dramatically with finer spatial resolution. The authors present and discuss possible advanced approaches that can combine the grid-based models with local-scale information.     

Air quality management in Portugal: example of needs and available tools

The Framework Directive (FWD) and the proposed Daughter Directives are the newest legislative instruments concerning a new political strategy and air quality management approach for Europe. Additionally, the member countries of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe have included the concepts of critical load and level for planning air pollution abatement strategies and as a base of international agreements concerning limitation of the emissions of air pollutants. These concepts imply an accurate knowledge about pollutants deposition fluxes. The paper describes the main needs and the tools available to define a strategy of air quality management in Portugal. Two study cases are presented: (1) extensive monitoring plan to assess the impact of an urban incinerator plant; and (2) contribution to a methodology to estimate critical levels for a coastal region in Portugal. These different approaches allowed illustrating the complexity of the implementation of an air pollution management strategy.