Chapter 11.

Environmental
Pollution
Discussing the importance of Pollution Prevention.
This is a two-part module.
 OVERVIEW QUESTIONS

11.2.1 Why is it important to study Air Pollution and Climate Change?

11.2.2 What are the prevention technologies of Air pollution?

11.2.3 Why is Global Warming and Climate Change an issue?

11.2.1
Why is it important to
study Air Pollution and
Climate Change?
Environmental Pollution Part 2
 Air Quality
Air quality is a descriptive
measure of how clean or
polluted the air is.
Monitoring air quality is
important because polluted
air can be bad for our
health—and the health of
the environment. Air quality
is measured with the Air
Quality Index, or AQI.
Air quality are greatly influenced or set on 3 types of data:

HEALTH PHYSICAL BIOLOGICAL

EFFECTS PROPERTIES PROPERTIES
 Clean Air Act 1970
The Clean Air Act is a United States
federal law designed to control air
pollution on its national level. It
requires the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) to develop and enforce
regulations to protect the general
public from exposure airborne
contaminations that are known to be
hazardous to human health
 Clean Air Act 1970
Carbon Monoxide
The Clean Air Act does not require EPA to
establish primary National Ambient Air Quality Lead
Standards (NAAQS) at a zero-risk level, but
rather at a level that reduces risk sufficiently to
protect public health with an adequate margin
Ground-Level Ozone
of safety.
Particulate Matter
Air quality standards are based on air quality
criteria, with added safety factors as desired.
Nitrogen Dioxide
Here are the six (6) outdoor pollutants
regulated under the Clean Air Act.
Sulfur Dioxide
 Air Pollution
Air pollution may be defined as the presence of
any solid, liquid or gaseous substance including
noise and radioactive radiation in the atmosphere
in such concentration that may be directly and
indirectly injurious to humans or other living
organisms, plants, property or interferes with the
normal environmental processes
Classifications of Air Pollutants

Pollutant Type
Classification

1. Primary
2. Secondary
Classifications of Air Pollutants

Pollutant Origin
Classification

In origin (location), this

can be classified further
into:

1. Natural Sources
2. Stationary Sources
3. Area Sources
4. Mobile Sources
Main Sources of Air Pollution

NATURAL SOURCES ANTHROPOGENIC SOURCES

● Volcanic Eruptions ● Rapid Industrialization
● Forest Fires ● Transportation
● Dust Storms ● Fossil Fuel and Fire Burning
● Oceans ● Deforestation
● Extra Terrestrial/ Cosmic/Asteroids ● Population Growth
● Agricultural Activities
● Solid Waste Disposal
● Construction Activities
● Wars

Air pollutants are of two types (1) suspended particulate matter, and (2) gaseous pollutants
like carbon dioxide (CO2), NOx etc. Both Natural and Anthropogenic sources produce all types.
Particulates

These are particles in the air that consist of solids and/or liquid materials.
Particulate air pollutants, their sources and effects

Pollutants Sources Effects

Depends on specific composition

Suspended Smoke from domestic, Reduces sunlight and visibility,
Particulate industrial and vehicular increases corrosion.
matter/ dust soot Pneumoconiosis, asthma, cancer,
and other lung diseases.

Settles down on vegetation,

Part of smoke released houses. Adds to the suspended
Fly ash from chimneys of factories participate matter (SPM) in the
and power plants air. Leachates contain harmful
material.
Gaseous Pollutants

Power plants, industries, different

types of vehicles – both private
and commercial use petrol, diesel
as fuel and release gaseous
pollutants such as carbon dioxide,
oxides of nitrogen and Sulphur
dioxide along with particulate
matter in the form of smoke. All
of these have harmful effects on
plants and humans.
Gaseous Pollutants
Pollutants Sources Effects
Carbon compound Automobile exhaust burning of wood • Respiratory problems
(CO and CO2) and coal • Green house effect

• Irritation in eyes and lungs

Nitrogen Compound Motor vehicle exhaust atmospheric • Low productivity in plants
(NO and N2O) reaction • Acid rain damages material (metals
• and stone)

Hydrocarbons Automobiles and petroleum • Respiratory problem

(benzene, ethylene) industries • Cancer causing properties

SPM (Suspended • Poor visibility, breathing problems

Particulate Matter) • Lead interferes with the development of
Thermal power plants, Construction
(Any solid and liquid) red blood diseases and cancer.
activities, metallurgical processes and
particles suspended • • Smog (smoke & fog) formation leads to
automobiles.
in the air, (flush, dust, poor visibility and aggravates asthma in
lead) patients.

Fibres (Cotton, wool) Textiles and carpet weaving industries • Lung disorders
 Indoor Air Pollution
Poor ventilation due to faulty
design of buildings leads to
pollution of the confined space.
Paints, carpets, furniture, etc. in
rooms may give out volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) or
harmful gases such as Radon.
Use of disinfectants, fumigants,
etc. may release hazardous
gases.
11.2.2
What are the prevention
technologies of Air
pollution?
Environmental Pollution Part 2
Indoor Air Pollution Prevention

Energy Source House Design Coverings &

Replacement Improvement Segregation
Use of wood and The house designs Segregation of
dung cakes should should incorporate a waste, pretreatment
be replaced by well ventilated at source,
cleaner fuels such as kitchen. sterilization of
biogas, kerosene or rooms will help in
electricity. checking indoor air
pollution.
Prevention & Control of Industrial Air Pollution
Filters – Filters remove particulate matter from the gas
stream. The medium of a filter may be made of fibrous
materials like cloth, granular material like sand, a rigid
material like screen, or any mat like felt pad. Baghouse
filtration system is the most common one and is made
of cotton or synthetic fibers ( for low temperatures) or
glass cloth fabrics (for higher temperature up to 290oC).

Electrostatic precipitators (ESP)- The emanating dust is

charged with ions and the ionized particulate matter is
collected on an oppositely charged surface. The particles
are removed from the collection surface by occasional
shaking or by rapping the surface. ESPs are used in
boilers, furnaces, and many other units of thermal power
plants, cement factories, steel plants, etc.
Prevention & Control of Industrial Air Pollution
Inertial collectors – It works on the principle that
inertia of SPM in a gas is higher than its solvent and
as inertia is a function of the mass of the particulate
matter this device collects heavier particles more
efficiently. ‘Cyclone’ is a common inertial collector
used in gas cleaning plants.

Scrubbers – Scrubbers are wet collectors. They

remove aerosols from a stream of gas either by
collecting wet particles on a surface followed by their
removal, or else the particles are wetted by a
scrubbing liquid. The particles get trapped as they
travel from supporting gaseous medium across the
interface to the liquid scrubbing medium.
Control of Vehicular Pollution
1. The emission standards for automobiles have been set which if followed will
reduce the pollution. Standards have been set for the durability of catalytic
converters which reduce vehicular emission.

2. Securing a permit from government agencies at regular intervals. This ensures

that levels of pollutants emitted from vehicle exhaust are not beyond the
prescribed legal limits.

3. The price of diesel is much cheaper than petrol which promotes use of diesel.
To reduce emission of sulphur dioxide, sulphur content in diesel has been
reduced to 0.05%.

4. Earlier lead in the form of tetraethyl lead was added in the petrol to raise
octane level for smooth running of engines. Addition of lead in petrol has
been banned to prevent emission of lead particles with the vehicular emission.
11.2.3
Why is Global Warming
and Climate Change an
issue?
Environmental Pollution Part 2
The Atmosphere

About 99% of our atmosphere is made of oxygen

(O2) at 21% and nitrogen (N2) at 78% .
These gases are transparent to both visible light
from the sun and thermal infrared light from the
earth.
Greenhouse gases (GHG), like water vapor, carbon
dioxide and methane, are vitally important for
keeping our planet warm.
Although these gases are found in small
concentrations, they are vitally important in
maintaining a globally averaged temperature of
15oC.
The atmosphere is thin and sustains life, yet it is a
reacting vessel of natural processes. Any imbalance
of its components would lead to changes in weather
and climate that could affect us all.
 Composition of Air
O2
Nitrogen Carbon Dioxide
CO2 78.08% 0.038%
Essential for plant Essential for plant growth.
growth The gas we exhale.

Other
Oxygen Trace Gases
Gases
20.95%
Essential for breathing 0.038%
and needed for These include, Ozone (O3),
combustion methane (CH4) helium (He),
Ar Argon
water vapor (H2O) and others

N2 0.93%
Non-reactive gas
Weather vs Climate

Weather consists of short-term changes in atmospheric

variables, such as the temperature and precipitation in
each area over a period of hours or days.

Climate is determined by the average weather

conditions of the earth or of a particular area, especially
temperature and precipitation, over periods of at least
three decades to thousands of years.
Anthropogenic Activities

Human activities and its pollution generations tend to increase the emission of
GHG which made the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere rises then
changes the earth’s climate.

• Global Warming is the rise in global temperatures due mainly to the

increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

• Climate Change refers to the increasing changes in the measures of climate

over a long period of time – including precipitation, temperature, and wind
patterns.
Global Temperatures
For the past 1000 years, the average
temperature of the atmosphere has
remained stable but began rising
during the last century when people
began clearing more forests and
burning more fossil fuels.

Four Greenhouse Gases (GHG) absorb

the heat which warms the lower
atmosphere and the earth’s surface,
helping to create a livable climate.
• Water vapor (H2O).
• Carbon dioxide (CO2).
• Methane (CH4).
• Nitrous oxide (N2O).
Much of Alaska’s Muir Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park
melted between 1948 and 2004

BEFORE AFTER
A 2008 U.S. Geological Survey report concluded that the world’s average sea
level will most likely rise 0.8–2 meters (3–6.5 feet) by the end of this century
and probably keep rising for centuries.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions

• Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show that the
atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide rose from a level of 285 parts per million
(ppm) around 1850 at the start of the Industrial Revolution, to 390 ppm in 2010, a 37%
increase.

• Major climate models indicate a need to prevent CO2 levels from exceeding 450 ppm—
an estimated threshold, or irreversible tipping point, that could set into motion large-
scale climate changes for hundreds to thousands of years.
Warming the Planet
Human activities trigger new and abrupt climate and ecological changes that
could last for thousands of years.
• Ecosystems collapsing.
• Floods in low-lying coastal cities (Sea Level Rise)
• Forests consumed in vast wildfires.
• Grasslands, dried out from prolonged drought, turning into dust bowls.
• Rivers and supplies of drinking and irrigation water could dry up.
• The growth of trees and other plants declines.
• Wildfires increase in frequency.
• Declining stream flows and less available surface water
• Falling water tables with more evaporation, worsened by farmers irrigating more to make
up for drier conditions.
• Shrinking lakes, reservoirs, and inland seas.
• Dwindling rivers.
• Water shortages for 1–3 billion people.
• Declining biodiversity.
Frequent Acid Rain
 SEA
LEVEL
RISE

According to the study produced by Climate Central, a science

organization based in New Jersey, and published in the
journal Nature Communications, rising seas could affect three
times more people by 2050 than previously thought, threatening
to all but erase some of the world’s great coastal cities.
Food & Health Effects

A warmer world is likely to threaten the health

of many people

1. More frequent and prolonged heat waves in

some areas will increase numbers of deaths
and illnesses, especially among older people,
people in poor health, and the urban poor
who cannot afford air conditioning.
2. Hunger and malnutrition will increase in
areas where agricultural production drops.
3. A warmer, CO2-rich world will favor rapidly
multiplying insects, microbes, toxic molds,
and fungi that make us sick, and plants that
produce pollens that cause allergies and
asthma attacks.
Preventing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Four major prevention strategies

1. Improve energy efficiency to reduce fossil fuel use, especially

the use of coal.
2. Shift from nonrenewable carbon-based fossil fuels to a mix of
low-carbon renewable energy resources based on local and
regional availability.
3. Stop cutting down tropical forests and plant trees to help
remove more CO2 from the atmosphere.
4. Shift to more sustainable and climate-friendly agriculture.
 Ways to slow
atmospheric
warming and
projected climate
disruption during
this century
 You can reduce
your annual
emissions of CO2
Governments can help reduce climate disruption threat

Governments can use four major methods to promote the

solutions.

1. Strictly regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4).

2. Phase out the most inefficient polluting coal-burning power
plants and replace them with more efficient, cleaner natural
gas and renewable energy such as wind power.
3. Tax each unit of CO2 or CH4 emitted or burned by fossil fuel
use, and offsetting these tax increases by reducing taxes on
income, wages, and profits.
4. Use a cap-and-trade system.
 Example: Recovering the ozone layer

Problem began with the discovery of the More biologically damaging UV-A and In 1987, representatives of 36 nations met
first chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) in 1930 and UV-B radiation will reach the earth’s in Montreal, Canada, and developed the
later Freon. surface. Montreal Protocol to cut emissions of
CFCs.
CFCs are persistent chemicals that destroy Causes problems with human health, crop
the ozone layer. yields, forest productivity, climate change, In 1992, adopted the Copenhagen
wildlife populations, air pollution, and Protocol, an amendment that accelerated
degradation of outdoor materials. the phase-out of key ozone-depleting
chemicals signed by 195 countries.

The ozone protocols set an important

precedent by using prevention to solve a
serious environmental problem.
 Three Big Ideas
All countries need to step up efforts to control and prevent all sorts of anthropogenic
environmental pollution.

Reducing the projected harmful effects of rapid climate disruption during this century
requires emergency action to increase energy efficiency, sharply reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, rely more on renewable energy resources, and slow population growth.

Everyone has a role to play to reduce pollution. Example is phasing out the use of chemicals
that have reduced ozone levels in the stratosphere and allowed more harmful ultraviolet
radiation to reach the earth’s surface.
 Thanks!
Do you have any questions?

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