PARTICULATE POLLUTANTS

1. DUST:
Source: Main sources of dust are mines and quarries, furnaces, power houses, forest
fires, engine exhausts, natural winds etc. The particle size is 1 to 200μm
Effects: respiratory and allergic diseases

2. SMOKE: It is visible cloud of air borne particles derived from incomplete combustion of
chemical reactions and their diameter is less than 1μm (0.01 μm to 1 μm).
Source: locomotives, rails, industrial power plants, open fires, furnaces etc
Effects: Inhalation of smoke leads to cancer and spoiling of exterior of buildings etc
PARTICULATE POLLUTANTS
PARTICULATE POLLUTANTS
1) FLY ASH: It is fine ash from the pulverized coal burned in power stations which
consists of Al2O3, Carbon, CaO, carbonate, Fe2O3 and others
It also causes respiratory diseases and cancer
1) SMOG: It is a mixture of smoke and fog in suspended droplet form.
a) London smog:
 It is the atmospheric haze found many large cities, which is due to the action of
sunlight on hydrocarbons, the nitrogen oxides emitted by factories and Sulphur oxides
from vehicle exhausts with humidity.
 Effects: It causes bronchial irritation and also acid rain as well as it leads road
accidents due poor visibility of atmosphere.

b) Los Angeles Smog (photochemical smog):

This is worst in the sunshine especially afternoon and this is due to the oxides of
nitrogen along with carbon dioxide, unburnt hydrocarbon particles and sulphur
dioxide with moisture causes Los Angels smog.
LONDON SMOG

The Great Smog of London, or Great Smog of 1952

cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless

conditions, collected airborne pollutants

Government medical reports in the weeks following the

event estimated that up to 4,000 people had died as a
direct result of the smog

100,000 more were made ill by the smog's effects on the

human respiratory tract
 PHOTOCHEMICAL SMOG (LOS ANGELES SMOG)
 Photochemical smog was identified in Los Angeles (U.S.A) in 1943
 The materials involved in photochemical smog- Air, NOx, Hydrocarbons, Sunlight
 Hydrocarbons + NOx
 Secondary pollutants (Ozone, Aldehydes, Ketones and Peroxyacyl nitrates (PAN)
MECHANISM

Without Hydrocarbons:
 Step 1: Formation of NO and reactive oxygen from
NO2
 Step II: Formation of Ozone by reacting reactive
oxygen with O2
 Oxidation of NO to NO2 by Ozone
With the presence of Hydrocarbons:
Step I: Formation of acyl radical
Step II: Conversion of acyl radical to peroxyacyl radical
Step III: NO reacts with the acyl radical and increase
Ozone in the atmosphere