AIR POLLUTION

Definition
Air pollution is a gas (or a liquid or solid dispersed through
ordinary air) released in a big enough quantity
• to harm the health of people or other animals,
• kill plants or stop them growing properly,
• damage or disrupt some other aspect of the environment
(such as making buildings crumble), or
• cause some other kind of nuisance (reduced visibility,
perhaps, or an unpleasant odor)
 INTRODUCTION
• Indian cities are reeling under multiple problems, including environmental issues
Most pressing of them all is the issue of air pollution.
• The poor air quality that citizens are forced to breathe- especially in the heavily
polluted cities- has a detrimental impact on their health and well-being
• A World Health Organisation (WHO) study found that fourteen of the twenty
world’s most polluted cities belonged to India.
• Kanpur, in Uttar Pradesh, emerged as the city with the highest PM2.5 level,
standing at 173 (17 times higher than the limit set for safety).
• It is estimated that in 2016, over 9 lakh deaths were caused due to air pollution in
India.
• Some other cities with high PM 2.5 levels include Faridabad, Varanasi, Gaya,
Patna, Delhi, Lucknow and Agra.
              Types of Air Pollutants                        
Any gas could qualify as pollution if it reached a high enough concentration to do harm.
Theoretically, that means there are dozens of different pollution gases. Following are most
harmful
1.Sulfur dioxide: Coal, petroleum, and other fuels are often impure and contain sulfur as well
as organic (carbon-based) compounds. When sulfur burns with oxygen from the air, sulfur
dioxide (SO2) is produced. Coal-fired Power plants are the world's biggest source of sulfur-
dioxide air pollution. it contributes to smog, acid rain, and health problems that include lung
disease.
2.Carbon monoxide: This highly dangerous gas forms when fuels have too little oxygen to
burn completely. It spews out in car exhausts and it can also build up to dangerous levels inside
your home if you have a poorly maintained gas boiler, stove, or fuel-burning appliance.
3.Carbon dioxide: This gas is central to everyday life and isn't normally considered a
pollutant. However, carbon dioxide is also a greenhouse gas released by engines and power
plants. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, it's been building up in Earth's
atmosphere and contributing to the problem of global warming and climate change.
                                            Types of Pollutants-Cont..     
4.Nitrogen oxides: Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and nitrogen oxide (NO) are pollutants produced as
an indirect result of combustion, when nitrogen and oxygen from the air react together. Nitrogen
oxide pollution comes from vehicle engines and power plants, and plays an important role in the
formation of acid rain, ozone and smog.
5.Volatile organic compounds (VOCs): These carbon-based chemicals evaporate easily at
ordinary temperatures and pressures, so they readily become gases. they're used as solvents
in paints, waxes, and varnishes. Unfortunately, they're also a form of air pollution, and have
long-term effects on people's health and also play a role in the formation of ozone and smog.
6.Particulates: These are the sooty deposits. Particulates of different sizes are often referred to
by the letters PM followed by a number, so PM10 means soot particles of less than 10 microns .
The smaller the particulates, the deeper they travel into our lungs and the more dangerous they
are. PM2.5 particulates are much more dangerous. In cities, most particulates come from traffic
fumes.
7.Ozone: Also called trioxygen, At ground level, it's a toxic pollutant that can damage health. It
forms when sunlight strikes a cocktail of other pollution and is a key ingredient of smog.
 CAUSES OF AIR POLLUTION
• When we think of pollution, we tend to think it's a problem that humans cause
through ignorance or willful.
• However, it's important to remember that some kinds of air pollution are
produced naturally. Forest fires, erupting volcanoes, and gases released
from radio active decay of rocks inside Earth, that can have hugely disruptive
effects on people and the planet.
• Forest fires (which often start naturally) can produce huge swathes of smoke that
drift for miles over neighboring cities, countries, or continents.
• Giant volcanic eruptions can spew so much dust into the atmosphere that they
block out significant amounts of sunlight and cause the entire planet to cool
down for a year or more.
• Radioactive rocks can release a gas called radon when they decay, which can build
up in the basements of buildings with serious effects on people's health.
 CAUSES OF AIR POLLUTION-Cont..
• Although we can adapt to natural air pollution, and try to reduce the disruption it
causes, we can never stop it happening completely.

Pic: Forest Fire

Anthropogenic Causes:
• Anything that involves burning things (combustion), using household or industrial
chemicals (substances that cause chemical reactions and may release toxic gases in the
process), or producing large amounts of dust has the potential to cause air pollution.
 CAUSES OF AIR POLLUTION-Cont..
• A century or two centuries ago the cause of most air pollution was filthy factories, powering
the Industrial Revolution. Today, tighter air pollution laws, greater environmental awareness,
and determined campaigns mounted by local communities make it far harder – though not
impossible—for factories to pollute.
• The Major causes or Sources of air pollution in the present century come from Three key
sources
1. Traffic
• There are over one billion cars on the road today. Virtually all of them are powered
by gasoline and diesel engines that burn petroleum to release energy.
• Petroleum is made up of hydrocarbons and, in theory, burning them fully with enough oxygen
should produce nothing worse than carbon dioxide and water.
• In practice, fuels aren't pure hydrocarbons and engines don't burn them cleanly. As a result,
exhausts from engines contain all kinds of pollution, notably
• particulates (soot of various sizes)
• carbon monoxide (CO, a poisonous gas)
 CAUSES OF AIR POLLUTION-Cont..
• nitrogen oxides (NOx),
• volatile organic compounds (VOCs),
• Lead and
• indirectly produce ozone.

• Mix this noxious cocktail together and energize it with sunlight and you get the
sometimes brownish, sometimes blueish fog of pollution we call smog, which can
hang over cities for days on end.

• Vehicles don't release pollution only from their tailpipes. Brake and tire wear and
tear, the slow rubbing away of the road surface as tires rumble over it, and
stirring up of the dust and debris on top of it also release significant amounts of
PM10 and PM2.5 particulates into the air.
.
Traffic Pollution
 CAUSES OF AIR POLLUTION-Cont
2. Power plants
Renewable energy sources such as solar panels and wind turbines are helping
us generate a bigger proportion of our power every year, but the overwhelming
majority of electricity is still produced by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas,
and oil, mostly in conventional power plants.

Like vehicle engines, power plants produce a range of air pollutants, notably
sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates. (They also release huge
amounts of carbon dioxide, a key cause of global warming and climate
change when it rises and accumulates in the atmosphere.
Power Plants Petroleum Industries
 CAUSES OF AIR POLLUTION-Cont..
3. Industrial plants and factories
• Plants that produce the goods we all rely on often release small but significant
quantities of pollution into the air. Industrial plants that produce metals such
as aluminum and steel, refine petroleum, produce cement, synthesize plastic, or make
other chemicals are among those that can produce harmful air pollution.
• Most plants that pollute release small amounts of pollution continually over a long
period of time, though the effects can be cumulative . Sometimes industrial plants
release huge of amounts of air pollution accidentally in a very short space of time. One
notable case happened in Bhopal, India in December 1984, when a large chemical
plant run by the Union Carbide company released a poisonous gas (methyl isocyanate)
that hung over the local area, killing around 3000 people and injuring thousands more.
Other causes of air pollution
• Although traffic, power plants, and industrial and chemical plants produce the majority
of Earth's manmade air pollution, many other factors contribute to the problem. like
 CAUSES OF AIR POLLUTION-Cont..
burning woodfuel for their cooking and heating, and that produces indoor air pollution that
can seriously harm their health
 garbage is incinerated instead of being recycled or landfilled
crop burning,
generation of dust- particularly from construction sites,
depleting tree covers and
poor waste management – all contribute towards the declining air quality.
One of the problems with tackling air pollution solely at the city level is that several factors
which contribute towards increasing pollution levels have their origins in the bordering sub-
urban areas.
For instance, one of the major factors responsible for its declining air quality is paddy straw
burning in its neighbouring areas.
Air pollution does not recognize geographical boundaries. Just as polluted air from rural areas
travels into cities, cities too contribute towards rural pollution. Thus, it is critical for anti-
pollution efforts to be coordinated across different levels.
Open burning of MSW Crop burning
 Impacts of Air Pollution
• Air pollution is now widely known to have impacts over
• Human health, Agriculture, Ecology, Buildings, and Climate.

Human health
• It affects the respiratory, cardiovascular, cardiopulmonary, and reproductive systems and can
also lead to cancer. International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified outdoor
air pollution as carcinogenic to humans.
• Estimated 0.62 million mortalities occur annually in India that could be attributed to PM2.5
pollution in 2010. TERI projected the mortalities to increase to 1.1 million in 2031 and 1.8
million in 2051, in a business as usual scenario.
• IHME (2013) also lists air pollution among the top 10 health risks in India.
• Other than outdoor pollution, biomass used in rural regions and urban slums for cooking and
kerosene for lighting is associated indoor air pollution and with a variety of health diseases
such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, tuberculosis, cataract and adverse pregnancy
outcomes
 Impacts of Air Pollution-Cont..
Buildings
• Other than health, impacts have also been noted on buildings; cultural
monuments and national heritage sites are of particular concern.
• The Taj Mahal is one such example of degradation of a cultural heritage building
due to air pollutants.

Agriculture
• Air pollution, and particularly ground level ozone, also impacts agricultural
productivity of many crops such as wheat, rice, maize, etc.
• It is estimated a relative yield loss of approximately 33 per cent for wheat and
approximately 20 per cent for rice due to ozone pollution in India.
Taj Mahal
 Impacts of Air Pollution-Cont..
Climate
• Some of the air pollutants such as black carbon, ozone, and methane also have
warming potential and are known as short-lived climate pollutants.

• Aerosols reduce the light and heat reaching the Earth’s surface, causing heating of
the atmosphere and cooling of the Earth’s surface .

• This changes evaporation rates and precipitation efficiency of the clouds and can
eventually impact the rainfall patterns in a region, which has implications over
several aspects including rain-fed agriculture.

• Other than these impacts, there could be larger regional impact over the
monsoons in Indian peninsula.
 Strategies for Control of Air Pollution
• In Urban areas for each of the drivers of air pollution (urbanization,
transportation, industrialization, power generation, and agricultural activities),
strategies are discussed below.
Urbanization (City planning and management):
• To an extent, pollution can be abated by urban design, topography, and
meteorological factors, other than control of emissions.
• City planners can effectively plan spatial distribution of point sources of pollution,
such as industries, landfills, treatments plants, transportation routes, open
spaces, which impact the quality of air in an urban region.
• Regional and metropolitan strategies that are long range should go together with
the small-scale short-range location and design strategies.
 Strategies for Control of Air Pollution-Cont..
• Adopting a balanced sub-regional approach for regional and metropolitan
development with integration of mass transit is found to be helpful in reducing
trip lengths, motorized travel, and urban sprawl.
• Land use planning with plans of reduced population density around industrial
zones or in downwind direction can help in reducing exposure to the pollutants
released from industries
• Planning of solid waste management sites also needs to be done carefully and
proactively.
• For large projects, mandatory requirement of prior environmental approval
provides mechanisms for mitigating key adverse environmental impacts.
• Updation of Town and Country planning acts and Master Plan/Development plans
including City Development plans, city mobility plans and other special plans to
strongly focus on optimizing the land use integration with transportation
planning .
 Strategies for Control of Air Pollution-Cont..
Supply of cleaner fuels, stoves to urban areas:
• There is a need to widen the access of LPG or PNG and, wherever appropriate, smaller packaging and safe
refilling options. Several government schemes designed to increase LPG/ PNG access across India have
successfully enhanced the use of clean fuel in urban areas.
• Even as the government aims at providing LPG to all, it is evident that several million households will continue
to depend on traditional biomass for cooking due to economic & supply and delivery constraints. There is a
need for more efficient use of biomass as a cooking fuel through the improved stoves with efficiencies ranging
between 30 and 40 per cent as compared to 8 and 10 per cent of traditional cook stoves.
Controlling refuse burning:
Waste is sometimes burnt both at the site of generation and where it is disposed off.
The per capita waste generation reported in India is 0.45 kg/day in urban areas. At India level, 552 kt/yr of PM2.5
emissions are estimated from refuse burning activity in 2011 , which is projected to grow to 1,452 kt/yr in 2051.
To tackle the issue of solid waste management, a National and State level policy for solid waste management
(SWM) was arrived to address these issues.
Within the SWM policy, mandate can be issued for strict adoption and adherence to the ‘3R (Reduce, Reuse, and
Recycle)’ with an aim to reduce volumes of waste generated and maximize resource recovery and reuse.
 Strategies for Control of Air Pollution-Cont..
To ensure effective enforcement SWM cells were created at state and city levels and State Pollution
Control Boards are monitoring the implementation of action plans.
Further, the SWM cells facilitating the creation of market for recycled products derived from waste.
Bureau of Indian Standards need to formulate standards for the recycled goods based on
international experiences and good practices
Also public and private procurements should incentivize recycled products derived from waste
materials.
Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) is a main feature of waste management Rules notified in
2016. However the enforcement of EPR is currently weak and it can be strengthen either by creating
recycling banks by producers where waste can be recycled or creating Producer Responsibility
Organizations (PRO) for collection, transportation and recycling of waste. ƒ
Improving collection efficiency and segregation:
Collection efficiency of waste is not satisfactory even in urban regions. City Corporations can develop
a mobile application to put up the complaints to the concerned authorities with upload of the actual
site pictures and coordinates. Based on data of complaints, intercity and intra city comparisons can
be made to generate competitive spirit for municipal solid waste management among the cities.
 Strategies for Control of Air Pollution-Cont..
Complete ban on refuse burning: Ban on refuse burning needs to be strictly enforced with
substantial penalties on non-adherence.
State pollution control boards in collaboration with City Corporations can develop a mobile
application for bringing any major refuse burning event to notice in a region.
Waste to energy options:
With proper segregation of high calorific value non-recyclable and non biodegradable waste,
waste-to-energy options with proper pollution controls need to be explored on public private
partnership mode.
Maintaining quality and cleanliness of roads:
Re-suspended road dust is one of the significant contributors to PM10 concentrations in cities.
Dust gets re-suspended in the air due to movement of vehicles. The particles re-suspended
from road side are mainly coarse (>2.5mm) by nature but still can cause respiratory illnesses.
There is a need to ensure quality control in construction of roads through random tests and
checks and IT-based monitoring systems.
 Strategies for Control of Air Pollution-Cont..
Wall-to-wall paving (with provision of rain water percolation) and maintenance of roads can be
ensured with the use of mobile applications to spot and inform irregularities.
Regular and efficient road sweeping is required; vacuum cleaning devices can be used. Unpaved roads
need to be paved and, if not possible, they can be covered with gravel and maintained on annual basis.
Dust control at construction sites:
Different activities at the construction site cumulatively account for generation or re-suspension of
dust.
To control emissions from construction activities, wind speeds need to be reduced and moisture
content can be enhanced at the construction site for reducing the possibilities of dust getting air borne.
This should be done by proper fencing of the construction site with barriers set perpendicular to the
direction of the wind. Trees and shrubs can also act as wind barriers. Depending upon availability of
water, fogging systems could also be used to trap dust particles
Under the EIA guidelines, all major construction projects need to develop and adhere to an
environmental management plan, which lists down the measures to be taken for control of dust at the
construction site.
For enforcement, all the contractors/builders should be asked to provide online continuous air quality
data of the site on their websites.
 Strategies for Control of Air Pollution-Cont..
Transportation :
AVOID–SHIFT–IMPROVE approach needs to be adopted for effective control of vehicular emissions.
While the AVOID strategies aim to reduce travel demands, the SHIFT strategies attempt to move the modal
shares from private/motorized modes to public/ non-motorized options. Shift towards more efficient modes
such as from road to rail are also covered within this. Finally, improved strategies focus on enhancement in
quality of fuels, technologies, and strengthening of the systems for control of pollution.
Use of public transportation can result in 90–95 per cent reduction in CO,VOCs, and 50 per cent reduction in
CO2 and NOx emissions as compared to private vehicles.
The share of public transport in category 6 cities (above 8 million population) was 44 per cent, category 5 (4–
8 million) was 21 per cent, category 4 (2–4 million) was 10 per cent, category 3 (1–2.0 million) was 13 per cent,
and category 2 (0.5–1 million) was 9 per cent;
However, its share is going down in favour of private vehicles due to many reasons. National Urban Transport
Policy (NUTP) 2007 lays special emphasis on encouraging public transport in Indian cities through financial
assistance.
Other important issues that can reduce air pollution by transportation are Usage of electric vehicles Scrap
and retro fitting of old vehicle
Transit by passes, Road to rail shifting of freight movement and Improvised emission standards and strict
implementation
 Strategies for Control of Air Pollution-Cont..
Power
Installed capacity is 284.30 GW (2015) is comprising of:
198.48 GW of thermal (coal, gas, and diesel) power,
42.62 GW of hydropower,
5.78 GW of nuclear power, and
37.42 GW of renewable sources (CEA 2015a), clearly dominated by coal-based capacity
Coal Based produces fly ash; a contributor to air pollution in India. Indian coal has very high ash content (30–50 per
cent).
The thermal-based capacity would continue to dominate and grow to 512 GW by 2031/32 (TERI 2015b) thus posing
a threat of rising levels of pollution.
Agriculture
Urban areas in India are surrounded by rural regions dominated by agricultural activities Emissions are generated in
activities like tilling and agricultural residue burning.
Agricultural burning in fields of Punjab has reportedly been responsible for increase of PM concentrations in urban
areas .
In India, the total contribution of crop residue burning to PM10 and PM2.5 emissions were around 800 kt and 300
kt, respectively.
 Strategies for Control of Air Pollution-Cont..
The following set of policy recommendations is proposed to increase the demand of
crop residues use in industries
There is need to set up State/National level procurement agency for argo- residues
procurement from the farmers.
Involving village level institutions and local entrepreneurs in collection, storage and
supply of biomass materials and to link with MNREGA and PMEGP- Prime Minister’s
Employment Generation Program and setting up biomass depots facilities to address wild
fluctuation of biomass material prices during season and off-season period.
Policy provision for financial incentives and other schemes to encourage
briquettes/pellet industries in States and regulation to make mandatory use of biomass
briquettes in boilers/furnaces/ brick kilns up to 30% in various industries in these States to
create demand of such fuels.
Generation of electricity is one of the attractive options to utilize farm waste. There is
need to make mandatory use of agro-residues as blend fuel in the existing thermal power
plants operating in these States.
 Monitoring Air Quality
• The air quality monitoring network in India is not sufficient as there are insufficient
number of monitoring stations under the National Ambient Air Quality monitoring
programme of the CPCB for the whole country.
• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has listed the criteria for minimum number of
stations in a city. Based on this, 3,300 monitoring stations in 605 Indian cities (having
more than 50 thousand residents), are required.
• The monitoring network needs to be improved gradually not only in terms of number
of stations but also for quality of monitoring.
• Presently, air quality monitoring is carried out in cities only, which should be
extended to rural and regional scales. This is essential for pollutants such as ozone,
which are generally found to be higher in regions outside cities.
• The present network monitors PM10, SO2, and NOx regularly across all stations and
does not cover all the pollutants listed in the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
 Monitoring Air Quality- Cont..
Source apportionment studies:
• While source apportionment studies have been carried out in 6 cities, already
there are 53 cities with a population of over a million where air quality is
deteriorating. In the absence of regular source apportionment studies, despite
several measures taken in past, the air quality in Delhi has deteriorated in the
past 5–10 years.

• Source apportionment studies are the way to understand changing source

contributions and accordingly changing the air quality management plans as per
the growth patterns in the city.

• Hence, it is recommended to carry out source apportionment studies in all million

plus population cities regularly, at least once every five years.
 Monitoring Air Quality- Cont..
Emissions, simulation, and forecasting:
• Other than monitoring of pollutants, modeling capabilities need to be built for
understanding of current and future air quality.
• There is presently no database of emissions at the National/Regional scales. These
inventories need to be developed and maintained.
• TERI has developed national scale inventories for India for current and future years
based on energy and emission models . These inventories can be further refined for
development of national database of emissions for India.
• TERI has simulated air quality at the national scale using state of the art models to
predict PM2.5 and ozone concentrations in India, which shows increase in pollutant
concentrations that may happen in future following a business as usual trajectory. It
also shows the regions under severe pollution levels and the contributing factors.
Accordingly, action plans may be drafted for air quality control at regional scale.
 Monitoring Air Quality- Cont..
• For strategies required to be implemented at central level, the steering committee
headed by the honorable Prime Minister of India, with highest level representation from
states, and the key city governments should be formed.
• For implementation of strategies at state or city level, Department of Environment (DoE)
in assistance with SPCBs should be the nodal agency.
• Under the supervision of DoE, high power committee (HPC) with participation from
different state level departments dealing with sectors contributing to air pollution in the
city should be formed.
• The HPC, should direct and monitor the implementation of the intervention listed in
AQMP in a mission mode.
• The SPCBs should assess the effect of implementation of the strategies and incase,
proposed improvements in air quality haven’t been met, and then suggest the
reformulation of AQMP.
• The DoE, should seek the financial assistance from state governments for
implementation of strategies listed in AQMP.
 Public awareness and participation
• Public awareness needs to be enhanced through display of air quality indices
and spatial air quality maps using print and electronic media.

• Public participation begins with informed citizens with raised awareness

levels who can motivate the government for vigorous implementation or
adoption of mitigation strategies.

• Public awareness is also a key aspect of participative vigilance over emitting

sources.

• Along with the regulatory sticks, enhanced awareness levels will build
additional pressure on the sources to limit their emissions.
 Capacity building & Co-ordination
• Institutional strengthening and Capacity Building of CPCB and SPCBs is
a must to ensure successful and effective implementation of strategies.

Multi-scale and Cross-Sectoral Coordination:

• Considering the enormity of the air pollution problem and its trans-boundary
nature, the national scale should focus on multi-scale and cross-sectoral
coordination to develop and implement national scale strategies for air quality
improvement with annual targets.

• should look for ways to integrate efforts across different Indian Ministries, State
department and city government listed before to take targeted actions
recommended by the National Scale Air Quality Management plans.
THANK YOU