Air Pollution

Think air pollution causes problems? What basic prerequisite do human beings need to survive?

All life needs clean air to survive, and there is no substitute for air. A person can go hours without food and water, but without air life ends in a few minutes. The importance of air cannot be overstated.

Indeed, one needs lots of air to survive. How much? The arithmetic is quite simple. Each of us breathes around 3,000 gallons of air a day. In a year, it adds up to 1,095,000 gallons of air per person. With billions of humans inhabiting the earth, you can imagine how large our need for air is!

It stands to reason that for us to maintain a high quality of life we need good quality clean air. Air pollution causes illness and death in some cases. There simply cannot be any ifs and buts on this vital issue. Since air is so important, we, as a species, need to understand air pollution causes so mankind can control it and keep our planet inhabitable.

Problems arise from several types of air pollution source. But the biggest single factor giving the atmosphere extra volatile organic compounds and other harmful pollutants is emissions from motor vehicles.

Indeed half of current-day pollution in the atmosphere comes from this single factor. That’s why so many credible information sources point towards motor vehicles as the main culprit. Cars cause over half of nitrogen-oxide emissions as well as for over 75 per cent of carbon monoxide emissions in the United States. And the problem is growing at a galloping pace.

Between 1970 and 2005 vehicular air emissions grew by 178 per cent. With the advent of gas guzzling vans and sports utility vehicles, SUVs, which consume more gasoline than cars and pollute more, the air quality problem continues to get worse year by year.

But that’s not all. Business and government policy makers must not forget that air pollution also comes from many other sources like factories, power plants, dry cleaners, buses, trucks and even windblown dust and wildfires.

What are the adverse effects of air pollution on our health? Well, there are many and they are quite frightening. Today, 30 million children and adults in the United States suffer from asthma, a disease directly related to inhalation. These asthmatics suffer badly by breathing polluted air. Asthma, heart and respiratory diseases are all aggravated by contaminated air

Toxic chemicals such as vinyl chloride or benzene released in the air can cause birth defects, long-term injury to the lungs, cancer, nerve and brain damage or even death. As you can well realize, health, environmental, and economic impacts of air pollution inevitably lead to thousands of major and minor illnesses causing countless lost days at school and work.

In fact, air pollution causes cuts in commercial forest yields and agricultural crops by billions of dollars every year and enormous loss to the economy. It further dampens things by causing health problems that result in increased sick leave and extended absences.

Fundamentals of Air Pollution, Fourth Edition
by: Daniel Vallero
publisher: Academic Press, published: 2007-10-15
ASIN: 0123736153
EAN: 9780123736154
sales rank: 337683
price: $64.14 (new), $43.66 (used)

Fundamentals of Air Pollution is an important and widely used textbook in the environmental science and engineering community. Written shortly after the passage of the seminal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the third edition was quite timely. Surprisingly, the text has remained relevant for university professors, engineers, scientists, policy makers and students up to recent years. However, in light of the transition in the last five years from predominantly technology-based standards (maximum achievable control technologies or MACTs) to risk-based regulations and air quality standards, the text must be updated significantly.

The fourth edition will be updated to include numerous MACTs which were not foreseen during the writing of the third edition, such as secondary lead (Pb) smelting, petroleum refining, aerospace manufacturing, marine vessel loading, ship building, printing and publishing, elastomer production, offsite waste operations, and polyethylene terephthalate polymer and styrene-based thermoplastic polymers production. Overall, revisions will reflect the numerous changes in the understanding of air pollution and the development of new technologies that has occurred in the past twelve years.

* Focuses on the process of risk assessment, management and communication, the key to the study of air pollution.
* Provides the latest information on the technological breakthroughs in environmental engineering since last edition
* Updated inforamtion on computational and diagnostic and operational tools that have emerged in recent years.

Air Pollution: Its Origin and Control (3rd Edition)
by: Kenneth Wark
publisher: Prentice Hall, published: 1997-11-23
ASIN: 0673994163
EAN: 9780673994165
sales rank: 84156
price: $119.00 (new), $127.18 (used)

A truly classic air pollution text, this book is suitable for a variety of engineers and scientists who wish to gain an introduction to the field of air pollution. Known for its detailed development and application of equations, the text emphasizes an understanding of the relationship between sources and control of air pollution, rather than being a simple “handbook” on the subject. The book presents information on four broad areas of interest in the air pollution field: the effects of pollutants on health and welfare; the laws and regulations that have been passed in efforts to improve air quality; the modeling of atmospheric dispersion of pollutants; the approaches to the control of emmisions (from both stationary and mobile sources). The third edition of this text has been modified in a number of ways. New material has been added to bring the text up to date on the latest regulations including the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. The latest standards for ambient air quality and emission have been included in this revision.The authors continue to expose students to both the quantitative and the qualitative aspects of air quality management and air pollution control with several new questions and problems, with SI units emphasized to a greater extent than in the previous edition. The internet is also introduced as a valuable source of additional information. A web page is maintained by the authors which provides links to sources of interest to both instructors and students.

Air Pollution Control: A Design Approach
by: C. David Cooper
publisher: Waveland Pr Inc, published: 2010-09-01
ASIN: 157766678X
EAN: 9781577666783
sales rank: 33746
price: $73.00 (new), $65.00 (used)

A 25-year tradition of excellence is extended in the Fourth Edition of this highly regarded text. In clear, authoritative language, the authors discuss the philosophy and procedures for the design of air pollution control systems. Their objective is twofold: to present detailed information on air pollution and its control, and to provide formal design training for engineering students.

New to this edition is a comprehensive chapter on carbon dioxide control, perhaps the most critical emerging issue in the field. Emphasis is on methods to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and the technologies for carbon capture and sequestration. An expanded discussion of control technologies for coal-fired power plants includes details on the capture of NOx and mercury emissions. All chapters have been revised to reflect the most recent information on U.S. air quality trends and standards. Moreover, where available, equations for equipment cost estimation have been updated to the present time. Abundant illustrations clarify the concepts presented, while numerous examples and end-of-chapter problems reinforce the design principles and provide opportunities for students to enhance their problem-solving skills.

Not-for-sale instructor resource material available to college and university faculty only; contact publisher directly.

Common Air Pollutants and their Sources
Part 1 of the ”Making a Difference: Air Quality and Your Health” series. Brought to you by the Sunshine Coast Clean Air Society in British Columbia Canada. For more videos or information on air quality, visit us online at: www.cleanaironthecoast.com

Air Pollution

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 9th, 2011 at 10:03 AM and is filed under Health issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.