Air Pollution: Wikis




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Air pollution from World War II production.
Smog over Santiago





Schematic drawing, causes and effects of air pollution: (1) greenhouse effect, (2) particulate contamination, (3) increased UV radiation, (4) acid rain, (5) increased ozone concentration, (6) increased levels of nitrogen oxides






Major primary pollutants produced by human activity include:

  • Persistent free radicals connected to airborne fine particles could cause cardiopulmonary disease.[2][3]
  • Toxic metals, such as lead, cadmium and copper.

Secondary pollutants include:


Minor air pollutants include:



Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas




Natural sources


Emission factors


The United States Environmental Protection Agency has published a compilation of air pollutant emission factors for a multitude of industrial sources.[4] The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and many other countries have published similar compilations, as well as the European Environment Agency.[5][6][7][8][9]

Indoor air quality (IAQ)





Health effects

The World Health Organization states that 2.4 million people die each year from causes directly attributable to air pollution, with 1.5 million of these deaths attributable to indoor air pollution.[11] "Epidemiological studies suggest that more than 500,000 Americans die each year from cardiopulmonary disease linked to breathing fine particle air pollution. . ."[12] A study by the University of Birmingham has shown a strong correlation between pneumonia related deaths and air pollution from motor vehicles.[13] Worldwide more deaths per year are linked to air pollution than to automobile accidents.[citation needed] Published in 2005 suggests that 310,000 Europeans die from air pollution annually.[citation needed] Direct causes of air pollution related deaths include aggravated asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, lung and heart diseases, and respiratory allergies.[citation needed] The US EPA estimates that a proposed set of changes in diesel engine technology (Tier 2) could result in 12,000 fewer premature mortalities, 15,000 fewer heart attacks, 6,000 fewer emergency room visits by children with asthma, and 8,900 fewer respiratory-related hospital admissions each year in the United States.[citation needed]




Diesel exhaust (DE) is a major contributor to combustion derived particulate matter air pollution. In several human experimental studies, using a well validated exposure chamber setup, DE has been linked to acute vascular dysfunction and increased thrombus formation.[17][18] This serves as a plausible mechanistic link between the previously described association between particulate matter air pollution and increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

Effects on cystic fibrosis


Effects on COPD




The Great Smog of 1952

The Great Smog of 1952 in London.


Effects on children


Health effects in relatively "clean" areas

Even in areas with relatively low levels of air pollution, public health effects can be substantial and costly. This is because effects can occur at very low levels and a large number of people can potentially breathe in such pollutants. A 2005 scientific study for the British Columbia Lung Association showed that a 1% improvement in ambient PM2.5 and ozone concentrations will produce a $29 million in annual savings in the region in 2010[28]. This finding is based on health valuation of lethal (mortality) and sub-lethal (morbidity) effects.

Reduction efforts



Control devices


  • Particulate control
    • Mechanical collectors (dust cyclones, multicyclones)
  • Mercury control
    • Sorbent Injection Technology
    • Electro-Catalytic Oxidation (ECO)
    • K-Fuel

Legal regulations

Smog in Cairo



In Canada, air quality is typically evaluated against standards set by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME), an inter-governmental body of federal, provincial and territorial Ministers responsible for the environment. The CCME has set Canada Wide Standards(CWS).[29][30] These are:



European Union

A report from the European Environment Agency shows that road transport remains Europe’s single largest air polluter [31] .

National Emission Ceilings (NEC) for certain atmospheric pollutants are regulated by NECD Directive 2001/81/EC (NECD).[32] As part of the preparatory work associated with the revision of the NECD, the European Commission is assisted by the NECPI working group (National Emission Ceilings – Policy Instruments).[33]

Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (the new Air Quality Directive) has entried into force 2008-06-11 [34].

Individual citizens can force their local councils to tackle air pollution, following an important ruling in July 2009 from the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The EU’s court was asked to judge the case of a resident of Munich, Dieter Janecek, who said that under the 1996 EU Air Quality Directive (Council Directive 96/62/EC of 27 September 1996 on ambient air quality assessment and management [35]) the Munich authorities were obliged to take action to stop pollution exceeding specified targets. Janecek then took his case to the ECJ, whose judges said European citizens are entitled to demand air quality action plans from local authorities in situations where there is a risk that EU limits will be overshot.[31] .

United Kingdom

Air quality targets set by the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) are mostly aimed at local government representatives responsible for the management of air quality in cities, where air quality management is the most urgent. The UK has established an air quality network where levels of the key air pollutants[36] are published by monitoring centers.[37] Air quality in Oxford, Bath and London[38] is particularly poor. One controversial study[39] performed by the Calor Gas company and published in the Guardian newspaper compared walking in Oxford on an average day to smoking over sixty light cigarettes.

More precise comparisons can be collected from the UK Air Quality Archive[40] which allows the user to compare a cities management of pollutants against the national air quality objectives[41] set by DEFRA in 2000.

Localized peak values are often cited, but average values are also important to human health. The UK National Air Quality Information Archive offers almost real-time monitoring of "current maximum" air pollution measurements for many UK towns and cities.[42] This source offers a wide range of constantly updated data, including:

  • Hourly Mean Ozone (µg/m³)
  • Hourly Mean Nitrogen dioxide (µg/m³)

DEFRA acknowledges that air pollution has a significant effect on health and has produced a simple banding index system[43] is used to create a daily warning system that is issued by the BBC Weather Service to indicate air pollution levels.[44] DEFRA has published guidelines for people suffering from respiratory and heart diseases.[45]

United States





  • particulate emissions fell by 80%
  • lead emissions fell by more than 98%

In an October 2006 letter to EPA, the agency's independent scientific advisors warned that the ozone smog standard “needs to be substantially reduced” and that there is “no scientific justification” for retaining the current, weaker standard. The scientists unanimously recommended a smog threshold of 60 to 70 ppb after they conducted an extensive review of the evidence.[47]

The EPA has proposed, in June 2007, a new threshold of 75 ppb. This is less strict than the scientific recommendation, but is more strict than the current standard.

Some industries are lobbying to keep the current standards in place. Environmentalists and public health advocates are mobilizing to support the scientific recommendations.[citation needed]



Libertarians typically suggest propertarian methods of stopping pollution. They advocate strict liability which would hold accountable anyone who causes polluted air to emanate into someone else's airspace. This offense would be considered aggression, and damages could be sought in court under the common law, possibly through class action suits.[49] Since in a libertarian society, highways would be privatized under a system of free market roads, the highway owners would also be held liable for pollution emanating from vehicles traveling along their property. This would give them a financial incentive to keep the worst polluters off of their roads.


Most polluted cities

Air pollution is usually concentrated in densely populated metropolitan areas, especially in developing countries where environmental regulations are relatively lax or nonexistent. However, even populated areas in developed countries attain unhealthy levels of pollution.

Carbon dioxide emissions

Most Polluted World Cities by PM[50]
μg/m³ (2004)
169 Cairo, Egypt
150 Delhi, India
128 Kolkata, India (Calcutta)
125 Tianjin, China
123 Chongqing, China
109 Kanpur, India
109 Lucknow, India
104 Jakarta, Indonesia
101 Shenyang, China
Total CO2 emissions
Countries with the highest CO2 emissions
Country Carbon dioxide emissions per
year (106 Tons) (2006)
Percentage of global total
China 6,103 21.5%
United States 5,752 20.2%
Russia 1,564 5.5%
India 1,510 5.3%
Japan 1293 4.6%
Germany 805 2.8%
United Kingdom 568 2.0%
Canada 544 1.9%
South Korea 475 1.7%
Italy 474 1.7%

Per capita CO2 emissions[51]
Countries with the highest per capita CO2 emissions
Country Carbon dioxide emissions per year
(Tons per person) (2006)
 Qatar 56.2
 United Arab Emirates 32.8
 Kuwait 31.2
 Bahrain 28.8
 Trinidad and Tobago 25.3
 Luxembourg 24.5
 Netherlands Antilles 22.8
 Aruba 22.3
 United States 19
 Australia 18.1

Atmospheric dispersion






Environmental impacts of greenhouse gas pollutants

The greenhouse effect is a phenomenon whereby greenhouse gases create a condition in the upper atmosphere causing a trapping of heat and leading to increased surface and lower tropospheric temperatures. Carbon dioxide from combustion of fossil fuels is the major problem. Other greenhouse gases include methane, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and ozone.



See also


  1. ^ EPA: Air Pollutants
  2. ^ [ Newly detected air pollutant mimics damaging effects of cigarette smoke]
  3. ^ Infant Inhalation Of Ultrafine Air Pollution Linked To Adult Lung Disease
  4. ^ AP 42, Volume I
  5. ^ United Kingdom's emission factor database
  6. ^ European Environment Agency's 2005 Emission Inventory Guidebook
  7. ^ Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (reference manual)
  8. ^ Australian National Pollutant Inventory Emissions Estimation Technique Manuals
  9. ^ Canadian GHG Inventory Methodologies
  10. ^ Duflo, E., Greenstone, M., and Hanna, R. (2008) “Indoor air pollution, health and economic well-being”. S.A.P.I.EN.S. 1 (1)
  11. ^ Estimated deaths & DALYs attributable to selected environmental risk factors, by WHO Member State, 2002
  16. ^ ,,0,5432723.story ,
  24. ^ Nielsen, John (2002-12-12). "The Killer Fog of ’52: Thousands died as Poisonous Air Smothered London". National Public Radio. 
  25. ^ "On this Day: 1952 London Fog Clears After days of Chaos". BBC News. 2005-12-09. 
  28. ^ 2005 BC Lung Association report on the valuation of health impacts from air quality in the Lower Fraser Valley airshed
  29. ^ Canada-wide Standards
  30. ^ Canada-Wide Standards for Particulate Matter (PM) and Ozone
  31. ^ a b
  33. ^ Terms of Reference, Working Group on the Revision of National Emissions Ceilings and Policy InstrumentsPDF (24.4 KiB)
  34. ^
  35. ^ OJ L 296, 21.11.1996, p. 55. Directive as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1); Directives 96/62/EC, 1999/30/EC, 2000/69/EC and 2002/3/EC shall be repealed as from 11 June 2010
  36. ^ The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA): Air Pollution
  37. ^ LAQM Air Quality Management Areas
  38. ^ London
  39. ^ Taking the Oxford air adds up to a 60-a-day habit (a newspaper article in The Guardian)
  40. ^ UK Air Quality Archive
  41. ^ UK National Air Quality Objectives
  42. ^ Current Air Pollution Bulletin
  43. ^ Air Pollution Bandings and Indexes
  44. ^ BBC Weather Service
  45. ^ Air Pollution - What it means for your health
  46. ^ Wall Street Journal article, May 23, 2006
  47. ^ American Lung Association, June 2, 2007
  48. ^ Wall Street Journal article, July 20, 2007
  49. ^ Rothbard, Murray. "Conservation, Ecology, and Growth". For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto. pp. 256–257. 
  50. ^ World Bank Statistics
  51. ^ International Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Carbon Intensity Energy Information Administration

External links

Air quality science and general information
Air quality modelling
Effects on human health

Simple English

File:Claude Monet
Claude Monet's drawing of London smog, which is made because of air pollution. Sometimes air pollution can become so dangerous that people have to wear surgical masks when they go outside.

Air pollution is a change in the air that can influence the health, survival, or activities of organisms, including humans. Many of the world's large cities today have bad air quality.[1] Even 2,000 years ago, the Romans were complaining about the bad air in their cities (at that time, the air was thick with smoke from fires and the smell of sewers).[1] Air pollution has been for a long time a danger to human health and Earth's many ecosystems.


Air quality

Even "clean" air is not really clean. It has many pollutants (things that pollute the air) from natural sources. These pollutants include dust, sea salt, volcanic ashes and gases, smoke from forest fires, pollen, and many other materials.[1] In fact, there are many more natural pollutants than pollutants that human make.[1] However, humans have adapted to most of these natural pollutants.[1]

Most of the air pollution that people worry about is what is made by human activities. Pollutants caused by human activities can be solids, liquids, or gases--and most of it comes from cars and factories.[2][1] Most of the air pollution in cities is human-made air pollution.[1] As more people move to cities, the air pollution increases.

Types of air pollution

File:MSH80 eruption mount st helens
Ash from volcanic eruptions is an example of primary pollutants.

Air pollutions are usually described as either primary pollutants or secondary pollutants. Primary pollutants are pollutants that are put directly into the air by humans or natural sources. For instance, exhaust (gas) from cars, soot from smoke, duststorms and ash from volcanic eruptions (as seen in the picture on the left), are all examples of primary pollutants.[1]

Secondary pollutants are pollutants that are made from chemical reactions when primary pollutants mix with other primary pollutants or natural substances like water vapor.[1] Many secondary pollutants are made when a primary pollutant reacts with sunlight. Ozone and smog are secondary pollutants. Ozone is a gas that is helpful and takes in harmful rays from the sun. When it is near the ground, though, ozone is a dangerous pollutant that influences the health of all organisms.[1]

Sources of Human-made air pollution

File:Air Pollution-Causes&
There are many problems caused by air pollution, like greenhouse effect and acid rain.

Human-made air pollution comes from many things. Most air pollution made by humans today is because of transportation. Cars, for instance, make about 60% of the human-made air pollution in the United States. The gases inside car exhaust, like nitrogen oxide, make smog and acid rain.

Industrial air pollution

Many industrial power plants burn fossil fuels to get their energy. But burning fossil fuels can make lots of oxides (chemical compounds that have oxygen and other elements inside). In fact, the burning of fossil fuels makes 96% of the sulfur oxides in the atmosphere.


Indoor air pollution

Air pollution is not only on the outside. Homes, schools, and buildings can have lots of air pollution, too. Sometimes the air inside a building is even worse than the air outside.[1] Many things we use every day pollute the air. Compounds inside carpets, paints, building materials, and furniture also pollute the air, especially when they are new.

In buildings where the windows are tightly shut to stop air leaks and so the payment for electricity will be less, pollutants can be higher than outside.[1]

Air pollution problem

Air pollution is a problem everywhere in the world. Local air pollution, like smog, usually influences big cities. Air pollution becomes a worldwide worry when local pollution moves away from where it came from because of wind. For example, winds carry air pollution made in the middle of the western part of the United States to Canada, like acid precipitation.

Acid precipitation

Acid precipitation is precipitation, like rain, sleet, or snow, that has acids from air pollution. When fossil fuels are burned, they let out oxides into the air. When these oxides mix with water in the atmosphere, they make acid, which fall as precipitation.[1] Acid precipitation can kill living things, like fish and trees, by making the place where they live too acidic. Acid rain can also damage buildings made by limestone and concrete.

Ozone hole

Other global concerns because of air pollution include the greenhouse effect and the ozone hole in the stratosphere. The ozone layer in the stratosphere is supposed to protect people from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. But in the 1970s, scientists found out that some chemicals let out into the atmosphere makes the ozone turn into oxygen, which makes more ultraviolet rays reach the earth. During the 1980s, scientists found that the ozone layer above the South Pole had thinned by 50 to 98 percent.

Human health

On March 17, 1992, in Mexico City, all children under the age of 14 could not go to school because of air pollution. This does not often happen, but being exposed to air pollution every day can make people have many health problems. Children, elderly (old) people, and people with allergies especially, can have a lot of problems because of air pollution. Studies from the University of Birmingham showed that deaths because of pneumonia and air pollution from motor vehicles like cars are related.[3] The World Health Organization said that 2.4 million people died because of direct problems of air pollution.[4][5]Some of the problems include:[1]

  • Dizziness
  • Headaches
  • Burning, scratchy eyes
  • Runny nose
  • Coughing and hard breathing
  • Lung cancer and lung diseases
  • Sore throat
  • Chest pains, colds, and allergies


  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Earth Science. 1120 South Capital of Texas Highway, Austin, Texas 78746-6487: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 2001. ISBN 0-03-055667-8. 
  2. EPA: Air Pollutants
  3. "Study links traffic pollution to thousands of deaths" (in English). The Guardian (London, UK: Guardian Media Group). 2008-04-15. Retrieved 2008-04-15. 

Other Websites

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Air quality science and general information
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