This book presents the most up-to-date research and information regarding the origin, chemistry, fate and health impacts of airborne particulate matter in urban areas, a topic which has received a great deal of attention in recent years due to documented relationships between exposure and health effects such as asthma. With internationally recognised researchers and academics presenting their work and key concepts and approaches from a variety of disciplines, including environmental and analytical chemistry, biology, toxicology, mineralogy and the geosciences, this book addresses the topic of urban airborne particulate matter in a comprehensive, multidisciplinary manner. Topics and research addressed in the book range from common methodological approaches used to sample and analyse the composition of airborne particulates to our knowledge regarding their potential to impact human health and the various policy approaches taken internationally to regulate particulate matter levels.
Despite more than 20 years of regulatory efforts, concern is widespread that ozone pollution in the lower atmosphere, or troposphere, threatens the health of humans, animals, and vegetation. This book discusses how scientific information can be used to develop more effective regulations to control ozone. Rethinking the Ozone Problem in Urban and Regional Air Pollution discusses: The latest data and analysis on how tropospheric ozone is formed. How well our measurement techniques are functioning. Deficiencies in efforts to date to control the problem. Approaches to reducing ozone precursor emissions that hold the most promise. What additional research is needed. With a wealth of technical information, the book discusses atmospheric chemistry, the role of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in ozone formation, monitoring and modeling the formation and transport processes, and the potential contribution of alternative fuels to solving the tropospheric ozone problem. The committee discusses criteria for designing more effective ozone control efforts. Because of its direct bearing on decisions to be made under the Clean Air Act, this book should be of great interest to environmental advocates, industry, and the regulatory community as well as scientists, faculty, and students.
Pollution: Causes, Effects and Control is the fourth edition of a best-selling introductory level book dealing with chemical and radioactive pollution in its broadest sense. The scope of the book ranges from the sources of pollutants and their environmental behaviour, to their effects on human and non-human receptors, to the technologies and strategies available for control. The fourth edition has been wholly revised and updated from the previous edition due to the rapid pace of developments in this field. Topics covered include chemical pollution of freshwater and marine environments, drinking water quality, water pollution biology, sewage and its treatment, toxic wastes, air pollution and atmospheric chemistry, control of pollutant emissions, land contamination, solid waste management, clean technologies, persistent organic pollutants in the environment, environmental radioactivity, health effects of environmental chemicals, legal control of pollution and integrated pollution control. There is a completely new chapter on Clean Technologies and Industrial Ecology, reflecting the growing importance of pollution prevention as opposed to end-of-pipe solutions. Whilst originally intended as an introductory reference work for professionals within the field, the book has been widely adopted for teaching purposes at the undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Non-Exhaust Emissions: An Urban Air Quality Problem for Public Health comprehensively summarizes the most recent research in the field, also giving guidance on research gaps and future needs to evaluate the health impact and possible remediation of non-exhaust particle emissions. With contributions from some of the major experts and stakeholders in air quality, this book comprehensively defines the state-of-the-art of current knowledge, gaps and future needs for a better understanding of particulate matter (PM) emissions, from non-exhaust sources of road traffic to improve public health. PM is a heterogeneous mix of chemical elements and sources, with road traffic being the major source in large cities. A significant part of these emissions come from non-exhaust processes, such as brake, tire, road wear, and road dust resuspension. While motor exhaust emissions have been successfully reduced by means of regulation, non-exhaust emissions are currently uncontrolled and their importance is destined to increase and become the dominant urban source of particle matter by 2020. Nevertheless, current knowledge on the non-exhaust emissions is still limited. This is an essential book to researchers and advanced students from a broad range of disciplines, such as public health, toxicology, atmospheric sciences, environmental sciences, atmospheric chemistry and physics, geochemistry, epidemiology, built environment, road and vehicle engineering, and city planning. In addition, European and local authorities responsible for air quality and those in the industrial sectors related to vehicle and brake manufacturing and technological remediation measures will also find the book valuable. - Acts as the first book to explore the health impacts of non-exhaust emissions - Authored by experts from several sectors, including academia, industry and policy - Gathers the relevant body of literature and information, defining the current knowledge, gaps and future needs
"Around the world, cities provide plenty of opportunities such as better education, advanced health treatment facilities, better employment, commerce, and trade as compared to rural areas. Therefore, more than half the world's people live and work together in urban communities, and it is projected that by the year 2030, three out of five people will stay in cities. The unrestrained and rapid growth of cities has also brought environmental degradation and causes many serious problems such as worsening of air quality, loss of natural habitat and species diversity, and increased human health risks associated with heat waves, noise and crowding. In most urban areas of developing countries, a variety of harmful air pollutants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen and sulfur oxides, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are emitted from a variety of sources, mainly the burning of wood, fossil fuels and vehicular emissions, which adversely affects the health of human beings, animals, and other living creatures. In the urban environment, trees provide many economic, social, and environmental benefits to people, such as aesthetic beauty, improvement of property values, erosion prevention, storm water management, noise reduction, mental health development and crime reduction. In addition, trees help cool the air by shading surfaces that otherwise would absorb the sun's energy and then reradiate it out as heat. Trees also cool the ambient air. Urban trees on average reduce air temperatures on summer days by 2-4 °F, although in some circumstances the cooling effect can be even larger. Trees also sequester carbon, helping to mitigate climate change. The efficiency of atmospheric cleansing by trees in congested cities could be improved by planting more trees other than shrubs or herbs. Generally, avenue trees act as living filters to decrease pollution through absorption, accumulation, and detoxification. Trees remove gaseous air pollutants such as ozone, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide mainly by uptake via leaf stomata, although some gases are removed by the plant surface. Once inside the leaf, gaseous air pollutants diffuse into intercellular spaces and may be absorbed by water films to form acids or react with inner leaf surfaces. Though some particles can be absorbed into the tree, most particles settle on the branches, leaves and twigs of plants and are washed out by the rain. Throughout the world, different advanced technologies such as smog-free towers in the Netherlands and adhesive roads for particulate matter in London have been applied. However, these technologies are extremely costly and unaffordable for countries like India and therefore the most eco-friendly and cost-effective way is plantation of tolerant tree species alongside highways, city streets, in parks, and in residential yards"--
In concise and distilled prose, Lemus presents a collection of still lifes, landscapes, and portraits of a challenging year that threatened all she loved most. “A love story that’s profoundly rooted in the emotional, geographical, and sociopolitical terrain of today . . . Like song lyrics or snapshots, her wisps and fragments of language take on a coded and otherworldly atmosphere, one that conveys wonder and dread almost subliminally . . . Particulate Matter is a moving example of how to write about climate change, not didactically, but with the deep impact of both personal loss and literary elegance.” —NPR Books “A tiny, powerful flame of a book. Lemus’ writing lands like sparks and ash, fragmented and tinged with grief . . . Particulate Matter is . . . an exploration of the simultaneity of delight, yearning, grief and confusion of being in love with a person and a place. Of being alive at all.” —San Francisco Chronicle Particulate Matter is the story of a year in Felicia Luna Lemus’s marriage when the world turned upside down. It’s set in Los Angeles, and it’s about love and crisis, loss and grief, the city and the ocean, ancestral ghosts and history haunting. Nature herself seemed to howl. Fires raged and covered the house Lemus and her spouse shared in ash. Everything crystallized. It was the most challenging and terrifying time she had ever experienced, and yet it was also a time when the sublime beauty of the everyday shone through with particular power and presence.
Examining sources of particles in the atmosphere and their impact on human health, this is an important reference for policymakers and academics working in pollution.
Airborne particulate matter - especially aerosols, its origin, its impact on our environment, and its properties - has been of great scientific and public concern for many years. In this volume experts discuss in depth all relevant issues of airborne particulate matter, including the characterisation of aerosols by modern physical and chemical methods.
This book is about airborne particulate matter, sources, chemistry and health and contained a complete information about their emission source, transport, atmospheric chemistry, distribution at local, regional and global levels, and their level in indoor and outdoor settings. Primary and secondary particulate matters in the ambient atmosphere also describe in detail. Analytical techniques, statistical tools and mathematical models used in airborne particulate research is also described. This book also covers the important aspects of the particulate matter chemistry in atmosphere, and their adverse impact on plant and human health. A detailed insight about the harmful impact of airborne particulate matter (biogenic and anthropogenic both) on different human system is described in detail. The toxicological significance of particulate matter on human body was also mentioned. The mitigation, management and regulatory policies to control ambient particulate matter is also provided. This book is also written in simple language with helpful photographs, diagrams, tables and flowcharts which will make the reader comfortable in understanding the concepts a more relatively easier way. Overall, the present book is a valuable tool for students working in the fields of Atmospheric Science, Environmental Science, Biological Sciences, Epidemiology and Agriculture Science. This book also a unique resource for environmental consultants, researchers, policymakers and other professionals involved in air quality, plant and human health.
This book presents the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop which was also financially supported by the National Research Council of Italy. The Workshop was held from October 9 to 15, 1994, at the Centro Ettore Maiorana in Erice, Italy. Over 40 researchers from a wide variety of fields attended the Workshop, which brought to attention the ongoing research on various phenomena related to urban air pollution. The presence of high levels of atmospheric pollutants in the air of several urban centres of developed and developing countries causes a great concern among authorities and public opinion. Some 20% of the European population live in cities of more than 500,000 inhabitants and about 40% in cities of more than 50,000. Since exceedance of the Air Quality Guidelines has been observed to occur worldwide, a great effort has been addressed to the control of primary pollutants, but many problems related to secondary pollutants such as nitrogen containing species (nitrogen oxides, nitric and nitrous acid, ni trates) and photochemical oxidants (ozone, PAN and others) are far from being solved. The importance of atmospheric chemistry in understanding the processes occurring in urban atmospheres has been well recognised, thus there is a strong need to exchange experiences and results from urban centres in different Countries. Indeed, atmospheric pollution is very much dependent on the type of emissions which are very different according to the economic development of the urban centre under consideration.
