Chapter 10- Air Pollution

As the example of Delhi, India, shows, poor air quality in the burgeoning cities of the
developing world is a serious threat to human health. In many Indian cities airborne dust,
smoke, and soot often are 20 times higher than levels considered safe for human health.
According to the WHO, 10 of the world’s 20 smoggiest cities are in India. India’s urban
residents are six times more likely than rural people to die of lung cancer. Respiratory
ailments, cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, infant mortality, and miscarriages are as much
as 50 percent higher in countries with high pollution levels than in those with cleaner air. In
2018, a group of 40 distinguished health experts concluded that air pollution kills some 6.5
million people worldwide. About 92 percent of those deaths occur in low income countries,
where pollution control policies are weak and health care is uncertain.
Air pollution studies over southern Asia reveal that a 3 km (2 mi) thick cloud of ash, acids,
aerosols, dust, and smog covers the entire Indian subcontinent for much of the year. Produced
by forest fires, the burning of agricultural wastes, and dramatic increases in the use of fossil
fuels, this smog layer cuts the amount of solar energy reaching the earth’s surface beneath it
by up to 15 percent. Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen predicts that this smog layer—80 percent of
which is human-made—could disrupt monsoon weather patterns and cut rainfall over
northern Pakistan, Afghanistan, western China, and central Asia by up to 40 percent.
When this “Asian Brown Cloud” drifts out over the Indian Ocean at the end of the monsoon
season, it cools sea temperatures and may be changing regional climate patterns in the Pacific
Ocean as well. This plume of soot and gases can travel halfway around the globe in a week,
with unknown impacts on the world’s climate and environmental quality. Worldwide, air
pollution emissions add up to billions of metric tons per year. Air pollution impairs human
health, damages crops and ecosystems, and corrodes buildings and infrastructure. Greenhouse
gases are altering our climate. Aesthetic degradation, such as odors and lost visibility, are
also important consequences of air pollution. These factors rarely threaten life or health
directly, but they can strongly impact our quality of life. They also increase stress, which
affects health.
Many people don’t remember that only a few decades ago, many American and European
cities also endured conditions similar to those currently experienced today in Delhi, Beijing,
and other large cities in the developing world. Chronic bad air, and occasional severe smog
events, gradually led to the adoption of pollution controls. Legal enforcement has improved,
and many students today don’t realize how bad air quality once was in their hometowns.
Many American and European cities still have bad air: Major port cities, oil and gas
extraction areas, and industrial cities are particularly bad. But in the past 40 years, air quality
protections have increased in number and in effectiveness, greatly improving public health. In
most developed economies, there are established, legally enforceable rules to protect the air
we all breathe. Industry has also relocated to hungry regions of the developing world, where
environmental and health protections are poorly enforced.

The Clean Air Act regulates major pollutants

Air pollution control has evolved gradually. The U.S. Clean Air Act of 1963 was the first
national legislation in the United States aimed at air quality. The act provided federal grants
to aid states in pollution control but was careful to preserve states’ rights to set or enforce air
quality regulations. It soon became obvious that piecemeal, local standards did not resolve
the problem, because neither pollutants nor the markets for energy and industrial products are
contained within state boundaries.
Amendments to the law in 1970 designated new standards, to be applied equally across the
country, for six major pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, ozone
(and its precursor volatile organic compounds), lead, and particulate matter. These six
are referred to as conventional or criteria pollutants, and they were addressed first because
they contributed the largest volume of air quality degradation and are considered the most
serious threat to human health and welfare. Transportation and power plants are the dominant
sources of most criteria pollutants. National ambient air quality standards (NAAQS)
designated allowable levels for these pollutants in the ambient air (the air around us). Primary
standards are intended to protect human health. Secondary standards are also set to protect
crops, materials, climate, visibility, and personal comfort.

In addition to the six conventional pollutants, the Clean Air Act regulates an array of
unconventional pollutants, compounds that are produced in less volume than conventional
pollutants but that are especially toxic or hazardous, such as asbestos, benzene, mercury,
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and vinyl chloride. Most of these are uncommon in
nature or have no natural sources.

Many pollutants come from a point source, such as a smokestack. Fugitive, or nonpoint-
source, emissions are those that do not go through a smokestack. Leaking valves and pipe
joints contribute as much as 90 percent of the hydrocarbons and volatile organic chemicals
emitted from oil refineries and chemical plants, and increasingly from natural gas wells. Dust,
as from mining, agriculture, and building construction and demolition, is also considered
fugitive emissions.

Primary pollutants are substances that are harmful when released. Secondary pollutants, by
contrast, become harmful after they react with other gases or substances in the air. In
particular, photochemical oxidants (compounds created by reactions driven by solar energy)
and atmospheric acids are probably the most important secondary pollutants.

Most conventional pollutants are produced primarily by burning fossil fuels, especially in
coal-powered electric plants and in cars and trucks, as well as in processing natural gas and
oil. Others, especially sulfur and metals, are byproducts of mining and manufacturing
processes. Of the 188 air toxics listed in the Clean Air Act, about two-thirds are volatile
organic compounds, and most of the rest are metal compounds. In this section we will discuss
the characteristics and origin of the major pollutants.

A special category of toxins is monitored by the U.S. EPA because they are particularly
dangerous even in low concentrations. Called hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), these
chemicals cause cancer and nerve damage as well as disrupt hormone function and fetal
development. These persistent substances remain in ecosystems for long periods of time and
accumulate in animal and human tissues. Most of these chemicals are either metal
compounds, chlorinated hydrocarbons, or volatile organic compounds. Gasoline vapors,
solvents, and components of plastics are all HAPs that you may encounter on a daily basis.
Many HAPs are emitted by chemical-processing factories that produce gasoline, plastics,
solvents, pharmaceuticals, and other organic compounds. Benzene, toluene, xylene, and other
volatile organic compounds are among these. Dioxins, carbon-based compounds containing
chlorine, are released mainly by burning plastics and medical waste containing chlorine. The
EPA reports that 100 million Americans (one-third of us) live in areas where the cancer rate
from HAPs is ten times the normally accepted standard for action (1 in 1 million). Benzene,
formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and 1,3 butadiene are responsible for most of this HAP cancer
risk. To help the public track local air quality levels, the EPA recently estimated the
concentration of HAPs in localities across the continental United States. You can check
pollutant levels and types in your own community by looking online for the Environmental
Defense Fund HAP scorecard.
To help inform communities about toxic substances produced and handled in their area,
Congress established the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) in 1986. This inventory collects
self-reported statistics from 23,000 factories, refineries, hard rock mines, power plants, and
chemical manufacturers to report on toxin releases (above certain minimum amounts) and
waste management methods for 667 toxic chemicals. Although this total is less than 1 percent
of all chemicals registered for use, and represents a limited range of sources, the TRI is
widely considered the most comprehensive source of information about toxic pollution in the
United States.

Mercury is a key neurotoxin

Airborne metals originate mainly from combustion of fuel, especially coal, which contains
traces of mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and other metals, as well as sulfur and other trace
elements. Airborne mercury has received special attention because it is a widespread and
persistent neurotoxin (a substance that damages the brain and nervous system). Minute doses
can cause nerve damage and other impairments, especially in young children and developing
fetuses. Some 70 percent of airborne mercury is released by coal-burning power plants. Metal
ore smelting and waste combustion also produce airborne mercury and other metals.
About 75 percent of human exposure to mercury comes from eating fish. This is because
aquatic bacteria are mainly responsible for converting airborne mercury into methyl mercury,
a form that accumulates in living animal tissues. Once methyl mercury enters the food web, it
bioaccumulates in the flesh and bloodstream of predators. As a consequence, large, long-
lived, predatory fish contain especially high levels of mercury in their tissues. Contaminated
tuna fish alone is responsible for about 40 percent of all U.S. exposure to mercury Swordfish,
shrimp, and other seafood are also important mercury sources in our diet.

A 2009 report by the United States Geological Survey found that mercury levels in Pacific
Ocean tuna have risen 30 percent in 20 years, with another 50 percent rise projected by 2050.
Increased coal burning in which continues to build new coal-burning power plants, is
understood to be the main cause of growing global mercury emissions in the Pacific.
However, U.S. coal plants also produce mercury that is deposited across North America, in
the Atlantic, and across Europe. Long-range transport of mercury through the air is even
causing bioaccumulation in aquatic ecosystems in remote, high-Arctic areas. There, mercury
poisoning can be a serious risk for people and wildlife in whose food chain is based on fish.
Freshwater fish also carry risks. Mercury contamination is the most common cause of
impairment of U.S. rivers and lakes, and 45 states have issued warnings against frequent
consumption of fresh-caught fish. A 2007 study tested more than 2,700 fish from 636 rivers
and streams in 12 western states, and mercury was found in every one of them.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates that between 300,000 and 600,000 of
the 4 million children born each year in the United States are exposed in the womb to
mercury levels that could cause diminished intelligence or developmental impairments.
According to the NIH, elevated mercury levels cost the U.S. economy $8.7 billion each year
in higher medical and educational costs and in lost workforce productivity.
Mercury became fully regulated by the Clean Air Act in 2000, after decades of debate. Since
then emissions have declined in many areas, as the metal is captured before it leaves the
smokestack, but globally mercury is still a growing problem.
Indoor air can be worse than outdoor air
We have spent a considerable amount of effort and money to control the major outdoor air
pollutants, but indoor air pollution is a growing concern. With increasing use of volatile
organic compounds in carpets, furniture, cleaning products, paints, and other substances, the
U.S. EPA often finds high indoor concentrations of toxic air pollutants. Compounds such as
chloroform, benzene, carbon tetrachloride, formaldehyde, and styrene can be 70 times greater
in indoor air than outdoor air. Many homes have concentrations that would be illegal in the
workplace. Because most of us now spend more time inside than outside, we also have higher
exposure.
Cigarette smoke is without doubt the most important air contaminant in developed countries
in terms of human health. The U.S. surgeon general has estimated that 400,000 people die
each year in the United States from emphysema, heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer, or other
diseases caused by smoking. These diseases are responsible for 20 percent of all mortality in
the United States, or four times as much as infectious agents. Total costs for early deaths and
smoking-related illnesses are estimated to be $100 billion per year. Eliminating smoking
probably would save more lives than any other pollution-control measure.
In the less-developed countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where such organic fuels
as firewood, charcoal, dried dung, and agricultural wastes make up the majority of household
energy, smoky, poorly ventilated heating and cooking fires are the worst sources of indoor air
pollutiοn. The World Health Organization estimates that 3 billion people are affected,
especially women and small children, who spend long hours each day around open fires or
unventilated stoves in enclosed spaces. More than half of all air pollution-related deaths
worldwide are thought to be caused by bad indoor air.

Air Pollution and the Climate

Physical processes in the atmosphere transport, concentrate, and disperse air pollutants.
Greenhouse Gases (GHG): the best-known case of interaction between anthropogenic
pollutants and the atmosphere.

Air pollutants travel the globe

Dust and fine aerosols can be carried great distances by the wind. Pollution from the
industrial belt between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River Valley regularly contaminates the
Canadian Maritime Provinces and sometimes can be traced as far as Ireland. Similarly, dust
storms from China’s Gobi and Takla Makan Deserts routinely close schools, factories, and
airports in Japan and Korea, and often reach western North America. In one particularly
severe dust storm in 1998, chemical analysis showed that 75 percent of the particulate
pollution in Seattle, Washington, air came from China. Similarly, dust from North Africa
regularly crosses the Atlantic and contaminates the air in Florida and the Caribbean Islands.
This dust can carry pathogens and is thought to be the source of diseases attacking Caribbean
corals. Soil scientists estimate that 3 billion tons of sand and dust are blown around the world
every year.
Industrial contaminants are increasingly common in places usually considered among the
cleanest in the world. Samoa, Greenland, and even Antarctica and the North Pole all have
heavy metals, pesticides, and radioactive elements in their air. Since the 1950s, pilots flying
in the high Arctic have reported dense layers of reddish-brown haze clouding the arctic
atmosphere. Aerosols of sulfates, soot, dust, and toxic heavy metals, such as vanadium,
manganese, and lead, travel to the pole from the industrialized parts of Europe and Russia.
Soot and particulates that settle out on arctic snowfields also absorb the sun’s heat, rather
than reflecting it as snow does. This “black carbon” is an important factor in global climate
change.
Circulation of the atmosphere tends to transport contaminants toward the poles. Like mercury
(discussed above), volatile compounds (VOCs) evaporate from warm areas, travel through
the atmosphere, then condense and precipitate in cooler regions. Over several years,
contaminants migrate to the coldest places, generally at high latitudes, where they
bioaccumulate in food chains. Whales, polar bears, sharks, and other top carnivores in polar
regions have been shown to have dangerously high levels of pesticides, metals, and other
hazardous air pollutants in their bodies. A study of Inuit people of Broughton Island, well
above the Arctic Circle, found higher levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in their
blood than any other known population except victims of industrial accidents. Far from any
source of this industrial by-product, these people accumulate PCBs from the flesh of fish,
caribou, and other animals they eat.

Until recently CO2 emissions were not regulated, even though it has been clear since the
1990s that reducing CO2 emissions is necessary for slowing climate change. At normal
concentrations, CO2 is harmless, but emissions are rising steadily, at about 0.5 percent per
year, due to human activities. Warming temperatures directly affect human health in several
ways: Rates of heat stroke and dehydration soar during heat waves, as do deaths of the
elderly and ill. Pollutant levels rise with increasing temperatures. Water resources decline as
temperatures rise, and particulate matter in the atmosphere increases with drought.
For health reasons such as these, the EPA has been charged with defining allowable limits
for CO2 emissions. Rules were first proposed in the 1990s, but industry opposition, mainly
from coal and oil producers, has blocked the development and implementation of rules. In
2011 Congress threatened to slash EPA funding by one-third, in part to prevent pollution
monitoring and regulation.
Part of the debate has involved the belief that economic growth requires constant increases in
fossil fuel use. That assumption no longer holds: In recent years, emissions in many regions
have stabilized while GDP has continued to rise. Germany, an industrial producer, reduced its
greenhouse gas emissions 28 percent between 1991 and 2016, while its GDP grew nearly 50
percent. Objections also arise in states and industries whose economies depend on fossil
fuels. Transitioning away from a lucrative industry is always difficult, even when the industry
endangers public health.

The Supreme Court has charged the EPA with controlling greenhouse gases
The question of whether the EPA should regulate greenhouse gases was so contentious that it
went to the Supreme Court in 2007. The Court ruled that it was the EPA’s responsibility to
limit these gases, on the grounds that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare
within the meaning of the Clean Air Act. The Court, and subsequent EPA documents, noted
that these risks include increased drought, more frequent and intense heat waves and
wildfires, sea level rise, and harm to water resources, agriculture, wildlife, and ecosystems.
In addition to these risks, the U.S. military has cited climate change as a growing security
threat. A coalition of generals and admirals signed a report from the Center for Naval
Analyses stating that climate change “presents significant national security challenges,”
including violence resulting from scarcity of water and migration from sea level rise and crop
failure.
Since the Supreme Court ruling, the EPA is charged with regulating six greenhouse gases:
carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur
hexafluoride. These are gases whose emissions have grown dramatically in recent decades.
Three of these six gases contain halogens, a group of lightweight, highly reactive elements
(fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine). These gases are far more potent greenhouse gases
per molecule than CO2. Because they are generally toxic in their elemental form, they are
commonly used as fumigants and disinfectants, but they also have hundreds of uses in
industrial and commercial products. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have been banned for most
uses in industrialized countries, but about 600 million tons of these compounds are used
annually worldwide in spray propellants, in refrigeration compressors, and for foam blowing.
They diffuse into the stratosphere, where they release chlorine and fluorine atoms, which
destroy the ozone shield that protects the earth from ultraviolet radiation.
How do we reduce emissions of greenhouse gases? Reducing fuel use through conservation
and alternative energy is a first step. Changing subsidy systems that support coal burning is
another. A cap-and-trade system, involving a market for trading in emission rights, or
“credits,” has been the most popular strategy but markets have generally failed to set a price
that effectively discourages CO2 production. Carbon taxes, or fees charged on the sale of
fossil fuels, are widely supported. Because Congress refused to consider cap-and-trade
systems or carbon taxes for reducing greenhouse gases, President Obama turned to regulatory
limits. Under the Clean Power Rule the EPA set CO2 limits on power plants, with a target of
30 percent lower emissions by 2030 than in 2005. However, administrative actions can easily
be overturned. The Trump administration eliminated this rule immediately upon taking office
in 2017. 

CFCs also destroy ozone in the stratosphere

Controlling chlorofluorocarbon emissions is critical for the climate, but concern about CFCs initially
focused on an entirely different issue: stopping the growth of an ozone “hole” (a region of reduced
concentration) in the stratospheres. This phenomenon was discovered in 1985 but has probably been
developing since at least the 1960s. Chlorine-based aerosols, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and
hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), are the principal agents of ozone depletion. Nontoxic,
nonflammable, chemically inert, long-lasting, and cheaply produced, these compounds were
extremely useful as industrial gases and in refrigerators, air conditioners, Styrofoam insulation, and
aerosol spray cans for many years. From the 1930s until the 1980s, CFCs were used all over the world
and widely dispersed through the atmosphere.

Ozone (O3) is a pollutant near the ground because it irritates skin and plant tissues, but ozone
in the stratosphere is valuable. The O3 molecule is especially effective at absorbing
ultraviolet (UV) radiation as it enters the atmosphere from space. UV radiation damages plant
and animal cells, potentially causing mutations that produce cancer. A 1 percent loss of ozone
could result in about a million extra human skin cancers per year worldwide. Excessive UV
exposure could reduce agricultural production and disrupt ecosystems. Scientists worry, for
example, that high UV levels in Antarctica could reduce populations of plankton, the tiny
floating organisms that form the base of a food chain that includes fish, seals, penguins, and
whales in Antarctic seas.
Antarctica’s exceptionally cold winter temperatures (–85° to –90°C) help break down ozone.
During the long, dark winter months, strong winds known as the circumpolar vortex circle the
pole. These winds isolate Antarctic air and allow stratospheric temperatures to drop low
enough to create ice crystals at high altitudes—something that rarely happens elsewhere in
the world. Ozone and chlorine-containing molecules are absorbed on the surfaces of these ice
particles. When the sun returns in the spring, it provides energy to liberate chlorine ions,
which readily bond with ozone, breaking it down to molecular oxygen. It is only during the
Antarctic spring (September through December) that conditions are ideal for rapid ozone
destruction. During that season, temperatures are still cold enough for high-altitude ice
crystals, but the sun gradually becomes strong enough to drive photochemical reactions.
As the Antarctic summer arrives, temperatures warm slightly. The circumpolar vortex
weakens, and air from warmer latitudes mixes with Antarctic air, replenishing ozone
concentrations in the ozone hole. Slight decreases worldwide result from this mixing,
however. Ozone re-forms naturally, but not nearly as fast as it is destroyed. Since the chlorine
atoms are not themselves consumed in reactions with ozone, they continue to destroy ozone
for years, until they finally precipitate or are washed out of the air.

CFC control has had remarkable success

The discovery of stratospheric ozone losses brought about a remarkably quick international
response. In 1987 an international meeting in Montreal, Canada, produced the Montreal
Protocol, the first of several major international agreements on phasing out most use of CFCs
by 2000. As evidence accumulated, showing that losses were larger and more widespread
than previously thought, the deadline for the elimination of all CFCs (halons, carbon
tetrachloride, and methyl chloroform) was moved up to 1996, and a $500 million fund was
established to assist poorer countries in switching to non-CFC technologies. Fortunately,
alternatives to CFCs for most uses already exist. The first substitutes are
hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), which release much less chlorine per molecule. Many
refrigerant and air conditioning systems also use ammonia (NH3), which is much safer for
the climate.
There is evidence that the CFC ban is already having an effect. CFC production in most
industrialized countries has fallen sharply since 1988, and CFCs are now being removed from
the atmosphere more rapidly than they are being added. In 50 years or so, stratospheric ozone
levels are expected to be back to normal.

Acid deposition results from SO4 and NOx

Deposition of acidic droplets or particles, from rain, fog, snow, or aerosols in the atmosphere,
became recognized as a widespread pollution problem only since the 1980s. But the effects of
air pollution on plants, especially sulfuric acid deposition, have been known in industrial
areas since at least the 1850s. In the early days of industrialization, fumes from furnaces,
smelters, refineries, and chemical plants destroyed vegetation and created desolate, barren
landscapes around mining and manufacturing centers. The copper-nickel smelter at Sudbury,
Ontario, is a spectacular example. Starting in 1886, open-bed roasting was used to purify
sulfide ores of nickel and copper. The resulting sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid destroyed
nearly all plant life within about 30 km of the smelter. Rains washed away the exposed soil,
leaving a barren moonscape of blackened bedrock. This pattern has been widespread in
mining and smelting regions around the world.
Pollutant levels too low to produce visible symptoms of damage may still have important
effects. Field studies show that yields in some crops, such as soybeans, may be reduced as
much as 50 percent by currently existing levels of oxidants in ambient air. Some plant
pathologists suggest that ozone and photochemical oxidants are responsible for as much as 90
percent of agricultural, ornamental, and forest losses from air pollution. The total costs of this
damage may be as much as $10 billion per year in North America alone.
Acidic deposition is now understood to affect forests and croplands far from industrial
centers. Rain is normally slightly acidic, owing to reactions of CO2 and rainwater, which
produce a mild carbonic acid. Industrial emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), sulfate (SO4), and
nitrogen oxides (NOx) can acidify rain, fog, snow, and mist to pH 4 or lower. Ongoing
exposure to acid fog, snow, mist, and dew causes permanent damage to plants, lake
ecosystems, and buildings. Acidity causes forest decline partly by damaging leaf tissues and
weakening seedlings. Acidity also reduces nutrient availability in forest soils, and it mobilizes
toxic concentrations of metals in soils, especially aluminum. Weakened trees become
susceptible to other stressors such as diseases and insect pests.
Lakes in Scandinavia were among the first aquatic ecosystems discovered to be damaged by
acid precipitation. Prevailing winds from Germany, Poland, and other parts of Europe deliver
acids generated by industrial and automobile emissions—principally H2SO4 and HNO3. The
thin, acidic soils and nutrient-poor lakes and streams in the mountains of southern Norway
and Sweden have been severely affected by this acid deposition. Most noticeable is the
reduction of trout, salmon, and other game fish, whose eggs and young die below pH 5.
Aquatic plants, insects, and invertebrates also suffer. Many lakes in Sweden are now so
acidic that they will no longer support game fish or other sensitive aquatic organisms. Large
parts of Europe and eastern North America have also been damaged by acid precipitation.
High-elevation forests are most severely affected. Mountain tops often have thin, often acidic
soils under normal conditions, with little ability to neutralize acidic rain, snow, and mist. On
Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, nearly all the trees above 2,000 m (6,000 ft) have lost
needles, and about half are dead. Damage has been reported throughout Europe, from the
Netherlands to Switzerland, as well as in China and the states of the former Soviet Union. In
1985 West German foresters estimated that about half the total forest area in West Germany
(more than 4 million ha) was declining. The loss to the forest industry is estimated to be
about 1 billion Euros per year.

A vigorous program of pollution control has been undertaken by Canada, the United States,
and several European countries since the widespread recognition of acid
rain. SO2 and NOx emissions from power plants have decreased dramatically over the past
three decades over much of Europe and eastern North America as a result of pollution-control
measures.

Although acid precipitation has decreased dramatically in the United States, it remains high
in other places. In cities throughout the world, air pollution is destroying some of the oldest
and most glorious buildings and works of art. Smoke and soot coat buildings, paintings, and
textiles. Acids dissolve limestone and marble, destroying features and structures of historic
buildings. The Parthenon in Athens, the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Coliseum in Rome, and
medieval cathedrals in Europe are slowly dissolving and flaking away because of acidic
fumes in the air. Acid deposition also speeds corrosion of steel in reinforced concrete,
weakening buildings, roads, and bridges. Limestone, marble, and some kinds of sandstone
flake and crumble.

Urban areas endure inversions and heat islands

In urban areas, pollution is most extreme when temperature inversions develop, concentrating
dangerous levels of pollutants within cities (as in the opening case study). A temperature
inversion is a situation in which stable, cold air rests near the ground, with warm layers
above. This situation reverses the normal conditions: Usually, air is warmed by heat re-
emitted from the ground surface, and it cools with elevation above the earth’s surface.
Warming air rises, mixing the atmospheric layers and helping pollution to disperse from its
sources. When cool, dense air lies below a warmer, lighter layer, air remains stable and still,
and pollutants accumulate near the ground, where they irritate our lungs and eyes. Stable
inversion conditions are usually created by rapid nighttime cooling, especially in a valley,
where air movement is restricted.
Los Angeles has ideal conditions for inversions. Mountains surround the city on three sides,
reducing wind movement; heavy traffic and industry create a supply of pollutants; skies are
generally clear at night, allowing rapid radiant heat loss, and the ground cools quickly.
Surface air layers are cooled by contact with the cool ground surface, while upper layers
remain relatively warm, and an inversion results. As long as the atmosphere is still and stable,
pollutants accumulate near the ground, where they are produced and where we breathe them.
Abundant sunlight in Los Angeles initiates photochemical oxidation in the concentrated
aerosols and gaseous chemicals in the inversion layer. A brown haze of ozone and nitrogen
dioxide quickly develops. Although recent air quality regulations have helped tremendously,
on summer days, ozone concentrations in the Los Angeles basin still can reach unhealthy
levels.
Heat islands and dust domes occur in cities even without inversion conditions. With their low
albedo, concrete and brick surfaces in cities absorb large amounts of solar energy. A lack of
vegetation or water results in very slight evaporation (latent heat production); instead,
available solar energy is turned into heat. As a result, temperatures in cities are frequently 3°
to 5°C (5° to 9°F) warmer than in the surrounding countryside, a condition known as an
urban heat island. Tall buildings create convective updrafts that sweep pollutants into the air.
Stable air masses created by this heat island over the city concentrate pollutants in a dust
dome.

Smog and haze reduce visibility

Smog doesn’t just afflict cities, such as Delhi, India. We have only recently realized that
pollution also affects rural areas. Even supposedly pristine places such as our national parks
are suffering from air pollution. Grand Canyon National Park, where maximum visibility
used to be 300 km (185 mi), is now so smoggy on some winter days that visitors can’t see the
opposite rim only 20 km (12.5 mi) across the canyon. Mining operations, smelters, and power
plants (some of which were moved to the desert to improve air quality in cities such as Los
Angeles) are the main culprits
Huge regions are affected by pollution. A gigantic “haze blob” as much as 3,000 km (about
2,000 mi) across covers much of the eastern United States in the summer, cutting visibility as
much as 80 percent. People become accustomed to these conditions and don’t realize that the
air once was clear. Studies indicate, however, that if all human-made sources of air pollution
were shut down, the air would clear up in a few days, and there would be about 150-km (90-
mi) visibility nearly everywhere, rather than the 15 km to which we have become
accustomed.
Recent studies have found that rural sources also impact urban areas. In some parts of Los
Angeles, for example, ammonia (NH3) drifting from nearby dairy feedlots causes as much
smog as cars do. Dust, pulverized manure, and methane are additional airborne pollutants that
drift from dairy feedlots into the city. Windblown dust from cultivated fields is also a
dominant cause of impaired visibility in some regions, especially during spring and summer.
The best strategy is reducing production
Since most air pollution in the developed world is associated with transportation and energy
production, the most effective strategy would be conservation: Reducing electricity
consumption, insulating homes and offices, and developing better public transportation, and
more alternative energy, all greatly reduce air pollution at the source. Pollutants can also be
captured from effluent after burning.

Particulate removal involves filtering air emissions. Filters trap particulates in a mesh of

cotton cloth, spun glass fibers, or asbestos-cellulose. Industrial air filters are generally giant
bags through which effluent gas is blown, much like the bag on a vacuum cleaner. Bags can
be huge, 10 to 15 m long and 2 to 3 m wide. In power plants, electrostatic precipitators are
the most common particulate controls. Ash particles pick up an electrostatic surface charge as
they pass between large electrodes. The electrically charged particles then precipitate
(collect) on an oppositely charged collecting plate. These precipitators consume a large
amount of electricity, but maintenance is relatively simple, and collection efficiency can be as
high as 99 percent. The ash collected by both of these techniques is sometimes reusable as
construction material, but often it is hazardous waste because it contains mercury, lead, or
arsenic captured from coal smoke. This waste must be buried in landfills.

Sulfur removal is important because sulfur oxides are among the most damaging of all air
pollutants for human health, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Switching from soft coal with a
high sulfur content to low-sulfur coal is the surest way to reduce sulfur emissions. But high-
sulfur coal is often used for political reasons or because it is cheap. In the United States, high-
sulfur coal comes mainly from Appalachia, a region with political leverage because of its
chronic poverty and its powerful coal interests (which now use the controversial process of
mountaintop removal to mine coal). In China, much domestic coal is rich in sulfur, and
companies use it because it is both cheap and convenient. Coal can also be cleaned: It can be
crushed, washed, and gasified to remove sulfur and metals before combustion. These
measures improve heat efficiency, but they also replace air pollution with solid waste and
water pollution, and they are expensive.
Sulfur can be extracted after combustion with catalytic converters, which oxidize or reduce
sulfur in effluent gas. Residues, including elemental sulfur, sulfuric acid, and ammonium
sulfate can be marketable products. This approach can help companies make money instead
of waste, but markets must be reasonably close, and the product must be pure enough for easy
reuse.
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) can be reduced in both internal combustion engines and industrial
boilers by as much as 50 percent by carefully controlling the flow of air and fuel. Staged
burners, for example, control burning temperatures and oxygen flow to prevent formation
of NOx. The catalytic converter on your car uses platinum-palladium and rhodium catalysts
to remove up to 90 percent of NOx, hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide at the same time.
Hydrocarbon controls mainly involve complete combustion or the control of evaporation.
Hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds are produced by incomplete combustion of
fuels or by solvent evaporation from chemical factories, paints, dry cleaning, plastic
manufacturing, printing, and other industrial processes. Closed systems that prevent escape of
fugitive gases can reduce many of these emissions. Controlling leaks from industrial valves,
pipes, and storage tanks can have a significant impact on air quality. Afterburners are often
the best method for destroying volatile organic chemicals in industrial exhaust stacks.
Clean air legislation has been controversial but extremely successful
Through most of human history, the costs of pollution have been absorbed by the public,
which breathes or grows crops in polluted air, rather than by polluters themselves. Rules to
control pollution have often sought to make polluters pay for pollution control, in order to
reduce public losses in sickness, death, degraded resources, and other costs associated with
pollution. Naturally, emitters of pollutants have objected to these rules. It is easier and more
profitable to externalize the costs of pollution, and let the public absorb the expenses. Health
advocates, on the other hand, argue that industries should pay for pollution prevention.
Because of these contrasting interests, clean air laws have always been controversial.
Over time countless ordinances have prohibited objectionable smoke and odors. As far back
as 1306, England’s King Edward tried to ban the burning of smoky coal in London. The ban
failed but was attempted repeatedly over the centuries. It wasn’t until 1956 that better
enforcement—triggered by an episode of unusually lethal air quality in 1952—and alternative
fuels finally made clean air rules effective in London.
In the United States, the Clean Air Act of 1963 was the first national law for air pollution
control. The act provided federal grants to states to combat pollution but was careful to
preserve states’ rights to set and enforce their own standards for air quality and enforcement.
Because this approach was uneven and difficult to enforce, the act was largely rewritten in
the 1970 Clean Air Act amendments, standardizing policies nationally. These amendments
identified the “criteria” pollutants discussed earlier. The 1970 rules also established primary
standards, intended to protect human health, and secondary standards, to protect materials,
crops, climate, visibility, and personal comfort.
One of the most contested aspects of the act is the “new source review,” which was
established in 1977. This provision was originally adopted because industry argued that it
would be intolerably expensive to install new pollution-control equipment on old power
plants and factories that were about to close down anyway. Congress agreed to “grandfather,”
or exempt, existing equipment from new pollution limits with the stipulation that when they
were upgraded or replaced, more stringent rules would apply. The result has been that owners
have kept old facilities operating precisely because they were exempted from pollution
control. In fact, corporations have poured millions into aging power plants and factories,
expanding their capacity rather than build new ones. Decades later, many of those
grandfathered plants are still going strong and continue to be among the biggest contributors
to smog and acid rain.
The 1990 amendments included major changes in incentives as well as rules for additional
pollutants. Among the major provisions were establishment of new controls for ozone-
depleting CFCs, new rules for controlling emissions of benzene, chloroform, and other
hazardous air pollutants, and a requirement that comprehensive federal and state standards be
set for both industrial and transportationbased sources of common pollutants. The 1990
amendments provided incentives and rules to support development of alternative fuels and
technology. These amendments also established the EPA’s right to fine violators of air
pollution standards.
Trading pollution credits is one approach
The 1990 revisions also created new incentives for pollution control. One of these is a
market-based cap-and-trade system. In this approach, the EPA sets maximum emission levels
for pollutants. Facilities can then buy and sell emission “credits,” or permitted allotments of
pollutants. Companies can decide if it’s cheaper to install pollution control equipment or to
simply buy someone else’s credits.
Cap-and-trade has worked well for sulfur dioxide. When trading began in 1990, economists
estimated that eliminating 10 million tons of sulfur dioxide would cost $15 billion per year.
Left to find the most economical ways to reduce emissions, however, utilities have been able
to reach clean air goals for one-tenth that price. A serious shortcoming of this approach is that
while trading has resulted in overall pollution reduction, some local “hot spots” remain where
owners have found it cheaper to pay someone else to reduce pollution than to do it
themselves. This has been the approach adopted for CO2 and for mercury, among other
pollutants.
Presidents and EPA administrators have varied greatly in their enthusiasm for enforcing
rules. Business-friendly administrations tend to rely on voluntary emissions controls and a
trading program for air pollution allowances. Administrations more focused on public health
have sought enforcement of rules, because voluntary action alone rarely reduces pollution.
Amendments have involved acrimonious debate, with bills sometimes languishing in
Congress for years because of disputes over burdens of responsibility and cost and definitions
of risk. A 2002 report concluded that simply by enforcing existing clean air legislation, the
United States could save at least 6,000 lives per year and prevent 140,000 asthma attacks.
Despite controversies, the Clean Air Act has been tremendously successful. Measured only in
economic terms, a comparison of the costs of regulation (about $50 billion) and the economic
benefits of reduced illness, property damage, and increased productivity (about $1,300
billion), the economic benefits had outweighed costs by more than 25 to 1 by 2010 .Like
automobile industry officials who argued that seat belts in cars were technologically
infeasible, unnecessary, and costly, opponents of pollution regulations have often argued that
regulations would be technologically infeasible and would hinder economic growth. The
evidence does not support these arguments when cumulative costs and benefits are taken into
account.

USA
• Although the United States has not yet achieved the Clean Air Act goals in many
parts of the country, air quality has improved dramatically.
• 80% of the US now meets the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
• Most pollutants have declined since the introduction of Clean Air Act rules.
EU
• Vehicles, industry, power plants, agriculture, households, and waste contribute to
Europe's air pollution.
• Emissions of the main air pollutants in Europe have declined; however, deterioration
again with the economic crisis.
• Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) have risen in the EU by around 9% and 11%
respectively over the period 2003 to 2012.[5] Coal & biomass combustion (at
households, commercial sector, other buildings) are now the most important
contributors to total PM emissions in the EU.
Developing countries:
• High rates of urbanization; creation of huge megacities
 • Mexico City is notorious for bad air. Its pollution levels exceed WHO health standards
350 days per year.
• Seven of the ten cities in the world with the worst air quality are in China.
• Delhi, India - one of the world’s ten most polluted cities.
Measures:
• 1990s – catalytic converters in cars required
• 2000 – private cars to meet European standards
• 2002 – more than 80,000 buses, autorickshaws & taxis required to switch from
liquid fuels to natural gas