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HEALTH HAZARDS DUE TO AIR POLLUTION

SUBMITTED TO:DR MALEEHA AZIM

PBH 101 ASSIGNMENT


SUBMITTED BY: NAZIBA HASIN 063197030 7/27/2011

Table of contents:
What is Air Pollution ..pg 2 Sources of Air Pollution .pg 3 Pollutants responsible for Air Pollution pg 5 Health hazards resulting from Air Pollution ..pg 10 Referencespg 16

What is Air Pollution?


Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere. The atmosphere is a complex dynamic natural gaseous system that is essential to support life on planet Earth. Stratospheric ozone depletion due to air pollution has long been recognized as a threat to human health as well as to the Earth's ecosystems. Air pollution is made up of many kinds of gases, droplets and particles that reduce the quality of the air. Air can be polluted in both the city and the country. In the city, cars, buses and airplanes, as well as industry and construction may cause air pollution. In the country, dust from tractors plowing fields, trucks and cars driving on dirt or gravel roads, rock quarries and smoke from wood and crop fires may cause air pollution. Ground-level ozone is the major part of air pollution in most cities. Ground-level ozone is created when engine and fuel gases in the air interact when sunlight hits them. Ozone levels increase in cities when the air is still, the sun is bright and the temperature is warm. Ground-level ozone should not be confused with the "good" ozone that is miles up in the atmosphere and that protects us from the sun's harmful radiation. Dhaka is a heavily polluted city where every day the atmosphere is getting unbearable due to thousands of cars and industrial exhaust fumes but no safety measures are being taken to prevent them. Every day, the average person inhales about 20,000 liters of air. Every time we breathe, we risk inhaling dangerous chemicals that have found their way into the air.Air pollution includes all contaminants found in the atmosphere. These dangerous substances can be either in the form of gases or particles.

Sources of Air Pollution:


Common Sources of Air Pollution
Common sources of air pollution are industrial and domestic stationary sources, mobile sources, marine emissions, solid-waste burning, rural area sources, and terrestrial and transport sources. Stationary Sources Industrial Industrial sources of air pollution include coalfired power plants that may or may not be equipped with emission controls. Often, these plants burn high-sulfur coal, leading to high emissions of SO2 and PM. These sources also include combustion facilities such as large-scale boilers in industrial settings. Domestic sources include boilers for heating commercial buildings and stoves for household heating and cooking. Fuels used for this purpose vary by location, depending mainly on the affordability as well as fuel availability and reliability of the fuel supply. A mix of fuel types, including coal, wood, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), coal gas, and natural gas, can often be found in a single city. Restaurant emissions, consisting of both cooking fumes and fuel-combustion products, appear to be an important contributing source to PM in some cities. Mobile Sources Mobile sources include emissions from motor vehicles and road dust generated from the vehicular traffic. An important characteristic of vehicles in developing countries is the large variation (both within and between cities) in the degree of emission controls on vehicles. For example, three- and two-wheeled motor vehicles are commonly seen on the streets of Bangkok and Delhi but not in Beijing. In some areas of Asia, many of these vehicles are powered by two-stroke engines, which emit a large amount of hydrocarbons (from unburned fuel) that can be amajor contributor to O3 formation. Two-stroke engines mayalso be a major source of ultrafine and fine metal oxide particles,often resulting in visible tailpipe emissions of

whitesmoke. In Dhaka, the replacement of two-stroke, threewheeledtaxis fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG) resulted in a 25% reduction in PM2.5 concentrations in a high-traffic area Solid-Waste Burning Open burning of solid waste may be a major source of air pollution in outlying or periurban areas of major cities and in smaller cities where waste collection is not efficient. There is limited information about the impact of waste burning on air quality, but source-apportionment studies suggest it can be a large contributor to airborne particle concentrations. Rural Area Sources In developing countries, the rural population still relies mainly on solid fuels (biomass and coal) for cooking and household heating. Solid fuels are difficult to burn in simple combustion devices, such as household stoves, without substantial emissions of pollutants, because of the difficulty of completely premixing the air and fuel during burning. Solid-fuel combustion in household stoves not only leads to high indoor concentrations of PM, carbon monoxide (CO), and SO2 (especially with coal burning), but also collectively, from numerous households, contributes to neighborhood concentrations of air pollution and possibly local and regional air pollution. Burning of crop residues, long recognized as a source of air pollution in many parts of Asia, may in fact become more widespread with increasing cultivation and as other solid fuels become available and affordable.

Pollutants responsible for Air Pollution:

A substance in the air that can cause harm to humans and the environment is known as an air pollutant. Pollutants can be in the form of solid particles, liquid droplets, or gases. In addition, they may be natural or man-made. Pollutants can be classified as primary or secondary. Usually, primary pollutants are directly emitted from a process, such as ash from a volcanic eruption, the carbon monoxide gas from a motor vehicle exhaust or sulfur dioxide released from factories. Secondary pollutants are not emitted directly. Rather, they form in the air when primary pollutants react or interact. An important example of a secondary pollutant is ground level ozone one of the many secondary pollutants that make up photochemical smog. Some pollutants may be both primary and secondary: that is, they are both emitted directly and formed from other primary pollutants. Major primary pollutants produced by human activity include: Sulfur oxides (SOx) - especially sulphur dioxide, a chemical compound with the formula SO2. SO2 is produced by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulphur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide.

Further oxidation of SO2, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as NO2, forms H2SO4, and thus acid rain.[2] This is one of the causes for concern over the environmental impact of the use of these fuels as power sources. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) - especially nitrogen dioxide are emitted from high temperature combustion. Can be seen as the brown haze dome above or plume downwind of cities. Nitrogen dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula NO2. It is one of the several nitrogen oxides. This reddish-brown toxic gas has a characteristic sharp, biting odor. NO2 is one of the most prominent air pollutants. Carbon monoxide - is a colourless, odorless, non-irritating but very poisonous gas. It is a product by incomplete combustion of fuel such as natural gas, coal or wood. Vehicular exhaust is a major source of carbon monoxide. Carbon dioxide (CO2) - a colourless, odorless, non-toxic greenhouse gas associated with ocean acidification, emitted from sources such as combustion, cement production, and respiration Volatile organic compounds - VOCs are an important outdoor air pollutant. In this field they are often divided into the separate categories of methane (CH4) and non-methane (NMVOCs). Methane is an extremely efficient greenhouse gas which contributes to enhanced global warming. Other hydrocarbon VOCs are also significant greenhouse gases via their role in creating ozone and in prolonging the life of methane in the atmosphere, although the effect varies depending on local air quality. Within the NMVOCs, the aromatic compounds benzene, toluene and xylene are suspected carcinogens and may lead to leukemia through prolonged exposure. 1,3-butadiene is another dangerous compound which is often associated with industrial uses. Particulate matter - Particulates, alternatively referred to as particulate matter (PM) or fine particles, are tiny particles of solid or liquid suspended in a gas. In contrast, aerosol refers to particles and the gas together. Sources of particulate matter can be man made or natural. Some particulates occur naturally, originating from volcanoes, dust storms, forest and grassland fires, living vegetation, and sea spray. Human activities, such as the burning of
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fossil fuels in vehicles, power plants and various industrial processes also generate significant amounts of aerosols. Averaged over the globe, anthropogenic aerosolsthose made by human activitiescurrently account for about 10 percent of the total amount of aerosols in our atmosphere. Increased levels of fine particles in the air are linked to health hazards such as heart disease,[3] altered lung function and lung cancer. Persistent free radicals connected to airborne fine particles could cause cardiopulmonary disease.[4][5] Toxic metals, such as lead, cadmium and copper.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) - harmful to the ozone layer emitted from products currently banned from use. Ammonia (NH3) - emitted from agricultural processes. Ammonia is a compound with the formula NH3. It is normally encountered as a gas with a characteristic pungent odor. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to foodstuffs and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or indirectly, is also a building block for the synthesis of many pharmaceuticals. Although in wide use, ammonia is both caustic and hazardous. Odors such as from garbage, sewage, and industrial processes
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Radioactive pollutants - produced by nuclear explosions, war explosives, and natural processes such as the radioactive decay of radon.

Secondary pollutants Particulate matter formed from gaseous primary pollutants and compounds in photochemical smog. Smog is a kind of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Classic smog results from large amounts of coal burning in an area caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur dioxide. Modern smog does not usually come from coal but from vehicular and industrial emissions that are acted on in the atmosphere by ultraviolet light from the sun to form secondary pollutants that also combine with the primary emissions to form photochemical smog. Ground level ozone (O3) formed from NOx and VOCs. Ozone (O3) is a key constituent of the troposphere. It is also an important constituent of certain regions of the stratosphere commonly known as the Ozone layer. Photochemical and chemical reactions involving it drive many of the chemical processes that occur in the atmosphere by day and by night. At abnormally high concentrations brought about by human activities (largely the combustion of fossil fuel), it is a pollutant, and a constituent of smog. Peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) - similarly formed from NOx and VOCs.

Minor air pollutants A large number of minor hazardous air pollutants. Some of these are regulated in USA under the Clean Air Act and in Europe under the Air Framework Directive. A variety of persistent organic pollutants, which can attach to particulate matter. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. Because of this, they have been observed to persist in the environment, to be capable of long-range transport, bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue, biomagnify in food chains, and to have potential significant impacts on human health and the environment.

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Health hazards resulting from Air Pollution: Health Effects

Generally if you are young and in a good state of health, moderate air pollution levels are unlikely to have any serious short term effects. However, elevated levels and/or long term exposure to air pollution can lead to more serious symptoms and conditions affecting human health. This mainly affects the respiratory and inflammatory systems, but can also lead to more serious conditions such as heart disease and cancer. People with lung or heart conditions may be more susceptible to the effects of air pollution. The table below shows the types of health effects experienced by the most common pollutants at elevated levels:

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Pollutant Nitrogen Dioxide, Sulphur Dioxide, Ozone Particles

Health effects at very high levels These gases irritate the airways of the lungs, increasing the symptoms of those suffering from lung diseases Fine particles can be carried deep into the lungs where they can cause inflammation and a worsening of heart and lung diseases This gas prevents the uptake of oxygen by the blood. This can lead to a significant reduction in the supply of oxygen to the heart, particularly in people suffering from heart disease

Carbon Monoxide

Fuel combustion is the primary source of a large number of health-damaging air pollutants, including fine and respirable particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ozone (O3), and atmospheric lead. Some of these pollutants are direct by-products of fuel combustion, but others (such as O3) are formed in the air through chemical reactions with other agents in the atmosphere. Air pollution has both acute and chronic effects on human health. Health effects range anywhere from minor irritation of eyes and the upper respiratory system to chronic respiratory disease, heart disease, lung cancer, and death. Air pollution has been shown to cause acute respiratory infections in children and chronic bronchitis in adults. It has also been shown to worsen the condition of people with preexisting heart or lung disease. Among asthmatics, air pollution has been shown to aggravate the frequency and severity of attacks. Both short-term and long-term exposures have also been linked with premature mortality and reduced life expectancy. Health impact of air pollution depends on the pollutant type, its concentration in the air, length of exposure, other pollutants in the air, and individual susceptibility. Different people are affected by air pollution in different ways. Poor people, undernourished people, very young and very old, and people with preexisting respiratory disease and other ill health, are more at risk. In cities, for
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instance, poor tend to live and work in most heavily polluted areas, and in rural areas poor are more likely to cook with dirtier fuels. In some countries, air quality standards tend to be more lax around industrial areas in cities, where many poor tend to live in squatter settlements. Poor also tend to be more malnourished, more likely to suffer from ill health and disease, and have less access to health care. Air pollutants can also indirectly affect human health through acid rain, by polluting drinking water and entering the food chain, and through global warming and associated climate change and sea level rise. As a result of several decades of tighter emission standards and closer monitoring, levels of certain types of air pollutants have declined in many developed countries. Although, even at much reduced levels, air pollution continues to threaten public health in these countries. On the other hand, the ambient air pollution levels are a growing problem in urban centers in many developing countries. Several factors contribute to the worsening air pollution levels in developing-country cities, including rapid growth in urban population, increasing industrialization, and rising demands for energy and motor vehicles. Other factors, such as poor environmental regulation, less efficient technology of production, congested roads, and age and poor maintenance of vehicles, also add to the problem. In many rural areas of developing countries air pollution exposures tend to be highest indoors where majority of households use unprocessed solid fuels (biomass and coal) for cooking and space heating. These fuels are typically burned indoors in simple household cookstoves, such as a pit, three pieces of brick, or a U-shaped construction made from mud, which burn these fuels inefficiently and are often not vented with flues or hoods to take the pollutants to the outside. Under these conditions, high volumes of a number of health-damaging airborne pollutants are generated indoors, resulting in high exposures, especially among women who do the cooking and young children who stay indoors with mothers. The individual peak and mean exposures experienced in such settings are often much greater than the safe levels recommended by the World Health Organization.
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Health hazards related to other parts of the body


Appendicitis
Though we all know of the health hazards caused by air pollution, especially to the respiratory system, it has never really been related to other parts of the body. Well it now appears that a high level of air pollution runs an increased appendicitis risk. A novel research by a team at the University of Calgary suggests that air pollution may in fact increase the risk of appendicitis. Appendicitis is a condition where in the appendix swells up and fills with pus caused may be by an infection or obstruction. While in many cases there is no particular reason for this, in some cases the appendix gets inflammated and is serious as it holds the risk of bursting in the body putting the patients life at risk. Hence it must be surgically removed.

Deficiencies in lung growth and function.

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A new study has linked high levels of air pollution to marked deficiencies in lung growth and function. The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Isabelle Romieu at the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publico in Mexico. As part of the study researchers measured lung function growth in 3,170 eight-year-old children at 39 schools in Mexico City and analysed it with respect to the childrens exposure to common urban pollutants: ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and particulate matter under 10 im (PM10). he researchers analysed forced vital capacity in one second (FVC1), forced expiratory flow, midexpiratory phase (FEF25-75) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) in the schoolchildren at six month increments over three years to determine the effects of pollutant exposure, which was measured by air monitoring stations within 2 km of the childrens schools. They conducted personal exposure assessments on 60 randomly selected children in the study to

ensure that the air monitoring station data was an accurate representation of individual exposure. The study found that although all measurements of lung function increased over time, higher exposure to O3, NO2 and PM10 was significantly associated with growth deficits in FVC and FEV1. At the beginning of the study and at each phase of follow-up, children exposed to lower O3 and PM10 concentrations had better lung function values that children exposed to higher concentrations, the researchers wrote. Although we could not identify specific sources [of the pollutants], the effect is likely to be due to vehicular exhaust, they wrote.

Fall in sperm count

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Everyone knows that air pollution is a threat to their lungs. However, it also seems to be doing damage to sperm. A new Canadian study has revealed that pollution can cause not only a fall in ones sperm count, but also sperm mutations which have the potential to affect disease incidence in the descendants of exposed individuals. The study was published in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week itself. It was carried out by Health Canada on mice in Toronto. Canadian researchers and some from the US National Center for Toxicological Research studied the impact of polluted air from Hamilton Harbour (in Toronto) on mice kept in a shed for 10 weeks.

REFERENCES
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http://www.healthjockey.com/ www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/Frames/pollution-health-effects en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution www.envirotechindia.com/articles.html www.abc.net.au/health/thepulse/stories www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/index.htm environment.nationalgeographic.com/.../pollution-overview.html healthandenergy.com/air_pollution

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