28Air pollution,
water pollution, deforestation, industrial wastewater pollution
Air pollution occurs when harmful or excessive quantities of substances
including gases, particles, and biological molecules are introduced into Earth's atmosphere. It may cause diseases, allergies and even death
to humans; it may also cause harm to other living organisms such as animals and
food crops, and may damage the naturalor built environment.
Both human activity and natural processes can generate air pollution.
Indoor air pollution and poor urban air quality are
listed as two of the world's worst toxic pollution problems in the 2008 Blacksmith
Institute World's Worst Polluted Places report. According
to the 2014 World Health Organization report,
air pollution in 2012 caused the deaths of around 7 million people worldwide, an
estimate roughly echoed by one from the International
Energy Agency
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.
"Epidemiological studies suggest that more than 500,000 Americans die each
year from cardiopulmonary disease linked to breathing fine particle air
pollution. " A study by the University of Birmingham has shown a strong
correlation between pneumonia related deaths and air pollution from motor
vehicles. Worldwide more deaths per year are linked to air pollution than to
automobile accidents.
Published in 2005 suggests that 310,000 Europeans die from
air pollution annually. Causes of deaths include aggravated asthma, emphysema,
lung and heart diseases, and respiratory allergies. 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.
Air pollution is also emerging as a risk factor for stroke, particularly in
developing countries where pollutant levels are highest.
The worst short term civilian pollution crisis in India
was the 1984 Bhopal Disaster. Leaked industrial vapours from the Union Carbide
factory, belonging to Union Carbide, Inc., U.S.A., killed more than 25,000
people outright and injured anywhere from 150,000 to 600,000. The United
Kingdom suffered its worst air pollution event when the December 4 Great Smog
of 1952 formed over London. In six days more than 4,000 died, and 8,000 more
died within the following months. An accidental leak of anthrax spores from a
biological warfare laboratory in the former USSR in 1979 near Sverdlovsk is
believed to have been the cause of hundreds of civilian deaths. The worst
single incident of air pollution to occur in the United States of America
occurred in Donora, Pennsylvania in late October, 1948, when 20 people died and
over 7,000 were injured.
The health effects caused by air pollution may include
difficulty in breathing, wheezing, coughing and aggravation of existing
respiratory and cardiac conditions. These effects can result in increased
medication use, increased doctor or emergency room visits, more hospital
admissions and premature death. The human health effects of poor air quality are
far reaching, but principally affect the body's respiratory system and the
cardiovascular system.
A new economic study of the health impacts and associated
costs of air pollution in the Los Angeles Basin and San Joaquin Valley of
Southern California shows that more than 3800 people die prematurely
(approximately 14 years earlier than normal) each year because air pollution
levels violate federal standards. The number of annual premature deaths is
considerably higher than the fatalities related to auto collisions in the same
area, which average fewer than 2,000 per year.
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. This serves as a
plausible mechanistic link between the previously described association between
particulate matter air pollution and increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) includes diseases such as chronic
bronchitis, emphysema, and some forms of asthma.
Emissions of chemicals leading to
acidification
The most important gas which leads to acidification is
sulfur dioxide. Emissions of nitrogen oxides which are oxidized to form nitric
acid are of increasing importance due to stricter controls on emissions of
sulfur containing compounds. 70 Tg(S) per year in the form of SO2
comes from fossil fuel combustion and industry, 2.8 Tg(S) from wildfires and
7-8 Tg(S) per year from volcanoes.
Alternatives to
pollution
There are
now practical alternatives to the principal causes of air pollution:
·
Areas
downwind (over 20 miles) of major airports more than double total
particulate emissions in air, even when factoring in areas with frequent
ship calls, and heavy freeway and city traffic like Los Angeles. Aviation
biofuelmixed in with jetfuel at a 50/50 ratio can reduce jet derived cruise
altitude particulate emissions by 50-70%, according to a NASA led 2017 study
(however, this should imply ground level benefits to urban air pollution as
well).
·
Ship
propulsion and idling can be switched to much cleaner fuels like natural gas.
(Ideally a renewable source but not practical yet)
·
Combustion
of fossil fuels for space heating can be replaced by using ground source
heat pumps and seasonal thermal energy storage.[100]
·
Electric
power generation from burning fossil fuels can be replaced by power generation
from nuclear and renewables. For poor nations, heating and home stoves that
contribute much to regional air pollution can be replaced by a much cleaner
fossil fuel like natural gas, or ideally, renewables.
·
Motor
vehicles driven by fossil fuels, a key factor in urban air pollution, can be
replaced by electric vehicles. Though lithium supply and cost is a limitation,
there are alternatives. Herding more people into clean public transit such as
electric trains can also help. Nevertheless, even in emission-free electric
vehicles, rubber tires produce significant amounts of air pollution themselves,
ranking as 13th worst pollutant in Los Angeles.[101]
·
Reducing
travel in vehicles can curb pollution. After Stockholm reduced vehicle traffic
in the central city with a congestion tax, nitrogen dioxide and PM10 pollution
declined, as did acute pediatric asthma attacks.[102]
·
Biodigesters can
be utilized in poor nations where slash and burn is prevalent,
turning a useless commodity into a source of income. The plants can be gathered
and sold to a central authority that will break it down in a large modern
biodigester, producing much needed energy to use.
·
Induced
humidity and ventilation both can greatly dampen air pollution in enclosed
spaces, which was found to be relatively high inside subway lines due to
braking and friction and relatively less ironically inside transit buses than
lower sitting passenger automobiles or subways
The Supreme Court-appointed Environmental Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) on Thursday banned the entry
of trucks into Delhi for 24 hours starting Friday night at 11. EPCA, in its report, had said the PM 2.5 level, as recorded
on November 5, is at 837.7 ug/m3 in Delhi, almost 14.4 times higher
than tolerable standard limit of 60 ug/m3.
High pollution in Delhi because of
numbers of vehicles; unchecked construction and road dust and garbage burning;
compounded by Diwali crackers and the burning of paddy residue by farmers in
Punjab and Haryana and near still weather conditions without wind and the onset
of winter."
Initially, the apex court on December 16, 2015 had passed a
slew of directions including banning of registration of diesel-run sports
utility vehicles (SUVs) and high-end private cars with engine capacity of 2000
CC and above in Delhi and National Capital Region along.
Water Contamination Disasters
Industrial
Pollution
Industrial pollution is the cause the most devastating
ocean pollution events. Oil Spill is one of the most reason for the water
contamination. Some of the more major spills in recent times include the Exxon
Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989 and the BP oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 1989
Exxon
Valdez was a VLCC (Very Large Crude
Carrier) oil tanker that ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound,
1989 at Exxon Valdez was carrying 1.26 million barrels of oil at the time
of this collision, and, as a result of its grounding, spilled over one fifth
(about 257,000 barrels) of its cargo. The total volume of the spill could fill
125 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Over four summers were spent on the cleanup
effort, which cost more than $2 billion on Exxon’s account, before the cleanup
effort was abandoned. Some of the beaches remain oiled to this day, while the
original spill covered more than 1,300 miles of shoreline.
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill 2010
Deepwater
Horizon was a semi-submersible oil
drilling rig that was stationed in the Gulf of Mexico near Louisiana and
operated by BP. On April 20, 2010, a blowout aboard Deepwater Horizon caused
an explosion which killed 11 of the crew and displaced the rig from its
attachment to the well at the bottom of the ocean. As a result of this
displacement, the well was left open to vent directly into the sea. The well
was not capped for another 87 days because of the difficulty in sending a probe
more than 5,000 feet beneath the surface. During this time more than 3.19
million barrels of oil were let into the ocean, more than twice as many as
the Exxon Valdez spill from 20 years earlier. Over 1,000 miles of
shoreline along the Gulf were impacted by this spill.
Woburn Massachusetts Water Contamination
Industrial solvent is the reason causing the water pollution of
the river in Woburn Massachusetts. Since 1969 to 1979, there were 12 incidence
of childhood leukemia happening in this area. Other than the leukemia, The
residents show high risks of getting liver, kidney, prostate and urinary
cancer. The risks of congenital abnormalities and birth defects were also
pretty high during that period. The high chemical content has found in the Woburn
water contamination, which are PCE and TCE. They are the major cause of the
diseases above.
Flint Water Crisis
For the past one to two years the city of Flint, Michigan
has been undergoing a drinking water crisis. Since switching the water source
from the Detroit River and Lake Huron to the Flint River, the drinking water in
Flint has been plagued with high levels of lead and other contaminants. Lead
levels up to 10 times higher than average were reported upon further
investigation, with this having many health implications for those effected
including: skin lesions, hair loss, high lead levels in the blood, vision loss,
memory loss, depression and anxiety. This crisis is ongoing, with many national
efforts to correct and prevent similar issues from occurring in the future.
Yamuna India
The river
“Yamuna India”, which takes over 70% of sources of New Delhi”s water supply, is
a perfect example of a polluted river. The water contamination of this Indian
river is horrible. Death, disease, cancer, organ damage appears in people’s
life because of the river. Not only the pesticides cause the pollution of
river, the heavy metals, such as copper, lead, zinc and nickel are also the
causes. Even though the filter and filtering techniques are used by people
right now, but they can not solve the water pollution radically
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