DC's Air Pollution Days Have Declined by 44 Percent

The new District Department of the Environment (DDOE) and the Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee (MWAQC) announced that the Metropolitan Washington Area has experienced an estimated 44% decline in the number of unhealthy air quality days from ground-level ozone pollution. This reduction is considerable as compared to several years ago. The decline was determined through data analysis estimates performed by the MWAQC.

Acting Director of DDOE Elizabeth Berry said, "DDOE has worked hard to influence the measurable decline in the number of air pollution days, but we are not out of the woods yet. We are working with the regional partners to achieve the federal Clean Air Act mandated standards for ground-level ozone by 2009. We still need to do more."

DDOE is a major contributor to the overall regional pollution reduction efforts and attributes the air quality improvements to their work with:

Drafting regulation and standards for the District's vehicular emissions testing program;
Requiring additional controls on industrial and institutional pollution sources (boilers, heating plants, and electric power generating plants);
Implementing regulation for controlling pollution from small sources such as consumer products (personal care products), portable gas cans, paints and painting operations, and auto refinishing products;
Adopting low emission vehicle standards for reducing pollution from automobiles; and
Enforcing anti-idling regulation to reduce diesel fume pollution.
A press conference will be held at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG), on Wednesday, September 27, at 11 am in the main level training room to acknowledge the regional air quality improvements and speak to future plans for reducing the region's air pollution even more. COG is located at 777 North Capitol Street, NE, Washington, DC.

500,000 hektar kawasan tadahan hujan diwartakan

LEBIH 500,000 hektar kawasan tadahan hujan sudah diwartakan negeri termasuk di Selangor, Pahang dan Negeri Sembilan daripada 800,000 hektar yang diperlukan bagi memastikan bekalan air bersih berterusan untuk rakyat Malaysia.

Setiausaha Parlimen Kementerian Sumber Asli dan Alam Sekitar, Datuk Sazmi Miah, berkata sasaran ditetapkan Majlis Perhutanan Negara gagal dicapai kerana ada negeri termasuk Kelantan yang bersetuju mewartakan 42,000 hektar kawasan tadahan air, masih tidak berbuat demikian hingga kini.







“Jadi, saya berharap kerajaan negeri yang belum mewartakan kawasan tadahan air terutama Kelantan untuk segera mewartakan kawasan berkenaan supaya rakyat mendapat air bersih,” katanya menjawab soalan tambahan Datuk Hasan Malek (BN-Kuala Pilah) mengenai maklum balas kerajaan negeri untuk mewartakan kawasan tadahan air, semalam.

Sazmi berkata, Majlis Perhutanan Negara pada mesyuarat ke-19 menetapkan supaya kerajaan negeri mewartakan kawasan yang difikirkan perlu sebagai kawasan tadahan air, bagi memastikan kawasan itu tidak diganggu atau dibangunkan.

Menjawab soalan asal Hassan, beliau berkata, kementerian sudah mengambil pelbagai langkah bagi memastikan sungai yang menjadi sumber air utama tidak tercemar melalui dua pendekatan iaitu pencegahan dan pemulihan.

Dari aspek pencegahan, Sazmi berkata, antara tindakan diambil termasuk pemantauan jabatan dan agensi berkaitan, program memperkasakan Ahli Parlimen dan Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) mengenai kesedaran alam sekitar dan pemulihan sungai membabitkan RM9.09 juta di 222 kawasan Parlimen dan 576 DUN.






Dalam aspek pemulihan, antara program dijalankan adalah pembinaan perangkap sampah dan kelodak, mengadakan kawalan kumbahan dan sisa pepejal, pemuliharaan sungai serta program ‘Satu Negeri Satu Sungai’.

500 rumah Batu Pahat dinaiki banjir kilat 0.5 meter

Penerokaan kawasan di Bukit Belah dipercayai punca lumpur penuhi kediaman di Kampung Sri Jasa

BATU PAHAT: Hampir 500 rumah di beberapa kawasan di sini dinaiki air hingga paras pinggang ketika banjir kilat melanda selepas hujan lebat awal pagi semalam.

Memburukkan lagi keadaan, beberapa rumah terutama yang berhampiran dengan kawasan bukit yang terbabit dengan pembangunan dilanda banjir lumpur.







Seorang penduduk di Kampung Sri Jasa, Sri Medan, berkata rumahnya dinaiki air hingga paras 0.5 meter ketika hujan lebat yang bermula kira-kira jam 2 pagi menyebabkan semua barangannya termasuk tiga kereta gagal diselamatkan.

Beliau berkata, selepas air surut pagi semalam, lumpur tanah merah yang dipercayai akibat hakisan dari Bukit Belah yang teruk diteroka, memenuhi setiap ruang rumahnya.

"Setiap kali hujan lebat, pasti rumah kami akan dilanda banjir kilat tetapi kali ini lebih teruk lagi apabila banjir disertai lumpur hingga petang tidak dapat kami bersihkan.

"Akibat banjir kilat awal pagi tadi (semalam), semua perabot dan peralatan elektrik di rumah saya mengalami kerosakan manakala tiga kereta di luar rumah saya juga turut tenggelam," katanya.



Penerokaan kawasan di Bukit Belah dipercayai punca lumpur penuhi kediaman di Kampung Sri Jasa


Kawasan Taman Tanah Merah dan Kampung Johor, di Jalan Limpoon turut dilanda banjir lumpur yang dipercayai akibat hakisan dari bukit berhampiran.

Sementara itu, tinjauan di Kampung Petani, di sini, mendapati kira-kira 40 rumah termasuk sepuluh kilang dinaiki air ketika banjir kilat itu. Banjir kilat itu turut menyebabkan sebatang jalan di Kampung Petani terputus.

Sementara itu, tinjauan mendapati kawasan lain yang turut dilanda banjir kilat ialah sekitar Tongkang Pecah apabila lebih 200 rumah dinaiki air.

U.S., China Urged on Energy Efficiency

WASHINGTON (AP) — Los Angeles and Pittsburgh provide examples of what to do — and not to do — about China's severe air pollution in the face of surging energy use from rapid economic growth, U.S. and Chinese scientists say.

The study released Thursday compared the world's two biggest energy consumers, the United States and China. One of the most important lessons? It makes more sense to try to prevent pollution, rather than clean it up afterward.

The study also found that national controls are important, though focusing on small sources of pollution also can have a broad impact.

Los Angeles was compared with the Chinese city of Dalian, both port cities, while Pittsburgh was stacked against Huainan, both coal-rich centers of industry.

According to the study, the result of a 2 1/2 year collaboration between U.S. and Chinese academies of engineering and sciences, both countries still have major problems with dirty air and must improve their energy efficiency.

Los Angeles' serious smog problems are well-studied and the city uses federal and local planning to try to address it. On the other hand, its over-reliance on cars and sprawling development haven't helped, the study said.

Pittsburgh began attacking its smog problem in the 1940s, but only after early reliance on coal that overlooked the consequences of air pollution.

"An important lesson learned is that air pollution damage imposes major economic costs, through premature mortality, increased sickness and lost productivity, as well as decreased crop yields and ecosystem impacts," the report says. "Cost-benefit analyses in the U.S. show that emission reduction programs have provided much greater benefits than their costs, by a ratio of up to 40 to 1, according to some estimates."

U.S. efforts in the past 30 years have reduced the biggest risks from lead in gasoline, acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide and some soot pollution, the study says, though in some areas the Chinese are ahead — such as in research on coal gasification — to use it more efficiently and emit less pollution. Coal gasification is the conversion of coal into gaseous fuels.

By contrast, Dalian's urban planning to minimize sprawl and its local transit — more bicycles, pedestrians, buses and light rail — is seen as an example for Los Angeles.

"In China, they have very good rules but they don't have good enforcement for air pollution," said John Watson, a co-chairman of the report and professor at Reno, Nev.-based Desert Research Institute. "They're making a lot of the same mistakes we made in our air pollution history. You can just see the parallels: they're building more highways and encouraging more sprawl."

Though fossil fuel burning dominates both nations, a major difference is the source for roughly two-thirds of their energy needs: for China, which has some of the world's filthiest air, it is coal; for the United States, it is petroleum and natural gas.

China is the world's biggest emitter of sulfur dioxide; both countries lead the world in their emissions of industrial carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas blamed for warming the atmosphere like a greenhouse. But the study skirted the issue of global warming.

Another recommendation is that the Chinese government focus on collecting and providing good quality data on air pollution and energy uses. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, by 2020 China will have 20 million cases of respiratory illness a year because of air pollution.

"We're not saying we're the best example. We're saying, Learn from our experience, look at our successes, but also our failures," said Derek Vollmer, an associate program officer for the National Academy of Sciences, who oversaw the study. "But we have a longer history of dealing with air pollution."


On the Net:
National Academies: http://www.nap.edu

AP Blog: Pollution a Headache for China

HONOLULU (AP) — Now that China is prosperous and powerful it is suffering from a major headache less than a year before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

The headache is polluted air.

The problem isn't new for the ancient and sprawling Chinese capital of 11 million people now daily afflicted by the effluvia from hundreds of coal-burning industries and the exhausts of its 3 million vehicles.

Natural air pollution has existed in Beijing since the beginning of time in the form of thousands of tons of fine particles of sand blowing in from the Gobi desert.

When I lived in Beijing in 1947, and later between 1979 and 1980, the yellow particles piled up in layers on the window sills, turned drying laundry dirty again, settled uncomfortably on face and eyebrows and crept irritatingly into the lungs.

Many of the communist leaders who later took over this vast and populous country came down with Gobi-provoked and chain-smoking breathing problems, a hacking cough they shared with the masses and me. I remember vividly Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the supreme rulers of their day, puffing Great Wall brand cigarettes, and noisily hawking into silver-coated spittoons during long smoky interviews.

The Gobi dust storms continue to plague Beijing along with man-made pollution. It's safe to predict that the more than 10,000 healthy, highly trained athletes from around the globe will not be enchanted by what they breathe in Beijing. It is the world's worst air, so much so that Olympic chief Jacques Rogge talks of rescheduling some events, such as the marathon and bicycling.

Still, air pollution is hardly new to the Olympic Games. Athens (2004), Los Angeles (1984) and Mexico City (1968) all suffered from this brownish-yellow plague.

Visitors to those cities invariably complain of the poor quality of the air they breathe. I have done so.

China alone, proud of its sponsorship, has made public promises to do something about pollution, to stage a Green Olympics. It proposes to do so by shutting down the city's largest steel mill and other smokestack industries in the city, planting millions of trees to reduce the force of the sandstorms and filtering industrial smoke. Skeptics wonder how much China can do in the 11 months that remain before the Summer Games open on Aug.8, 2008.

Foolishly or not, China has accepted a challenge which, if realized, will clear the air during the two weeks of the Olympics. To do so, the city will have to enact contingency measures — giving businesses long holidays and imposing strict traffic controls. What happens after that is anyone's guess. No one is betting that the skies will turn blue.

Three decades of remarkable economic accomplishment sowed the seeds of Beijing's present problem: man-made dirty air. It also has left a half dozen other Chinese cities among the world's most polluted.

All of this is a historically curious contrast to the postwar experience of Japan, host of the 1964 games, which I helped cover for the AP.

World War II had left Japan a wasteland of destroyed buildings, flattened industries and discouraged people. When I first got to Japan in 1954, it seemed to be going nowhere, slowly dying on the vine, a fate many of its enemies thought only right after the human and material devastation it had created, first on the American fleet in Hawaii, then all over Asia in the countries it subdued and occupied.

Ironically, it was Mao's conquest of China in 1949, and his initial loyalty to Moscow, that began Japan's economic recovery. With it, the American dream of alliance with a friendly China against the Soviet Union in the unraveling Cold War vanished into thin air.

President Harry Truman decided instead to put America's eggs in Japan's basket, encouraging it to begin the slow, then rapid, climb back to industrialization.

The 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo gave the recovery effort a morale-building shot in the arm. To prepare for the games, and convince the world it was now friend not foe, Japan spent billions to build new highways, factories, apartment buildings, high-speed railway lines and subway systems. Armies of workers labored above and below ground to put Japan's best face forward to a doubting world.

The Olympics were an enormous success, praised by friends and former foes alike. But still in its early stages, Japan's massive recovery effort had not yet gotten off the ground. The air over the Olympic stadium was still pure and clear.

One man, Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda, who shared the host's box with stiff-backed old Emperor Hirohito as the Olympic athletes marched past, changed all that. Soon after the Olympics he announced a plan to double the national income in 10 years, setting in motion what an astonished world later described as an "economic miracle."

Cary Grant had barely finished making his last film, a 1966 comedy about the Olympic walking race set in Tokyo, when a now highly motivated Japan jumped into action, throwing up thousands of new factories, workplaces and industries, rejoining the frenetic race for profit and prestige in the international market place.

Reassured by the success of the Olympics, and sweeping political reforms, that it was finally accepted back into the family of nations, the gratified and chastened Japanese took off like a rocket.

But like their old enemy China, nearly half a century later, the Japanese soon began to reap the consequences of industrial success: widespread and deadly pollution.

Smoke from the newly built factories darkened the skies with filthy air, poisoned the earth with noxious chemicals and killed millions of fish in the rivers and ocean. Many people died, painfully, of mercury poison from the fish they ate.

What the 1964 Tokyo Olympics had begun in a surge of hope and confidence became the despair of a nation. Before it got too late, Japan took Herculean measures to reduce the pollution that had started to take an alarming toll on its people.

Its efforts paid off. The air over Tokyo, once darkened in mid-afternoon, cleared and the sun again shines through. Fish have returned to the dinner table. Factories are forbidden to dump noxious chemicals on the soil or in the rivers and streams. The overall quality of life has markedly improved.

The Japan experience is a cautionary tale for the communist rulers of China as the Beijing Games approach. Though economic progress takes a human toll in widespread pollution, it can, like an Olympic record, be beaten.


AP Special Correspondent John Roderick covered China and Japan, among other countries, from 1945 to 1984.

Environmental advocates ask for more air-pollution monitors

Higher-than-expected levels of airborne toxins and other hazardous pollutants are often found by state environmental officials in residential areas near factories, which advocates said points to the need for more state-run monitoring machines.

There are no federal standards for how many air monitors that states should have to detect toxic compounds released by factories and cars. States are free to determine how many toxic monitors they need, said Motria Caudill of the U.S. EPA's Chicago office.

Federal rules require monitors in urban areas based on population and estimated pollution problems, but monitors aren't needed in many rural counties, said Randy Hock, the Ohio EPA's air-monitoring manager.

Ohio meets or exceeds minimum federal requirements for monitors that detect smog and soot, state and federal officials said.

In the absence of monitors, officials often rely on faulty estimates of the amount of airborne toxins, said Frank O'Donnell of Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Clean Air Watch.

"In many instances, they find the actual level of toxics is far greater than what was projected," he said.

For example, an Ohio EPA study around the Lanxess Corp. plastics plant in Addyston, about 20 miles west of Cincinnati, found high levels of toxic chemicals. The agency concluded in 2005 that the cancer risk for residents was 50 times greater because of two chemicals emitted into the air from the plant. Lanxess disputed the findings.

Until the state EPA brought in monitors, no machines were nearby that could have detected the chemicals.

In 1999, the state EPA issued a report documenting dangerously high levels of benzene emissions from the New Boston Coke coal processing plant in Scioto County. The agency found that that one in 500 nearby resident had a higher-than-normal risk of developing cancer from airborne benzene.

Those examples show that more monitors are needed, said Teresa Mills, director of the Buckeye Environmental Network, an Ohio advocacy group.

But Paul Koval, an Ohio EPA toxicologist, said it shows that the agency can detect problems in areas that don't have permanent monitors.

"We are trying to make the most wise and judicious use of the resources we have available," he said.

The state's Environmental Protection Agency has 234 air monitor machines that scan the skies for unhealthy levels of common pollutants, such as smog, soot and sulfur dioxide, agency officials said. Another 38 monitors sample the air for toxic metals and compounds.

___

Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com

Adverse Effects Of Air Pollution On Births In Los Angeles County

FINDINGS: Women who lived in regions with high carbon monoxide or fine-particle levels -- pollution caused mainly by vehicle traffic -- were approximately 10 to 25 percent more likely to have a preterm baby than women who lived in less polluted areas. This was especially true for women who breathed polluted air during the first trimester or during the last months and weeks of pregnancy.

IMPACT: Air pollution in Los Angeles County remains a major public health problem that affects everybody, particularly pregnant women. This study provides further facts to policymakers to weigh the costs and benefits of reducing air pollution, both in terms of dollars and human health.

AUTHORS: Dr. Beate Ritz, professor of epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health; Michelle Wilhelm; Katherine J. Hoggatt; and Jo Kay C. Ghosh.

JOURNAL: The study appears in the American Journal of Epidemiology, online here.

BACKGROUND: The first large-scale air pollution study of its kind, this study collected detailed information on more than 2,500 women who gave birth in 2003. Through personal interviews, researchers were able to determine the risks due to air pollution separate from other risk factors, such as smoking, exposure to secondhand smoke and alcohol use. This work follows two earlier studies that only used information from birth certificates to link air pollution to low birth weight and preterm birth. This latest research factored out other possible explanations, such as smoking, and included specific information on where women spend their time--outdoors, at home, in the car, at work, etc.--which would affect how much polluted air they breathe.

FUNDING: Funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and partial funding from the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center, supported the research.

----------------------------
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
----------------------------

Movie smoking influences teen smoking

DARTMOUTH, N.H., Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Exposure to smoking in movies appears to be linked with teens' risk of becoming established smokers, a U.S. study found.

Dr. James D. Sargent of Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, N.H., and colleagues surveyed 6,522 U.S. adolescents ages 10 to 14 about their smoking and movie-watching habits in 2003.

The researchers coded displays of smoking in 532 hit movies in the five years prior to the survey, then asked the teens if they had seen a random selection of 50 of these movies. Follow-up interviews to assess smoking status were done after eight months, 16 months and two years.

At the beginning of the study, 5,637, or 90 percent, of the teens had never smoked, while 33 had smoked more than 100 cigarettes. By the 2-year follow-up survey, 125 of the participants had become established smokers.

The study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, found

adolescents who were below the midpoint of movie smoking exposure were less likely than teens who were above the midpoint to have smoked more than 100 cigarettes.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved

Air pollution influences preterm births

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Pregnant women who lived in Los Angeles near areas with high air pollution levels were up to 25 percent more likely to have a preterm baby.

Dr. Beate Ritz of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Public Health and colleagues Michelle Wilhelm, Katherine J. Hoggatt and Jo Kay C. Ghosh collected detailed information on more than 2,500 women who gave birth in 2003.

Through personal interviews, the researchers were able to determine the risks due to air pollution separate from other risk factors, such as smoking, exposure to secondhand smoke and alcohol use.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found women who lived in regions with high carbon monoxide or fine-particle levels -- pollution caused mainly by vehicle traffic -- were approximately 10 percent to 25 percent more likely to have a preterm baby than Los Angeles women who lived in less polluted areas.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

Acid rain hurting marine organisms

WOODS HOLE, Mass., Sept. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say acid rain's impact on the world's oceans is greatest along the coastlines.

The report, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said ocean acidification hampers the ability of marine organisms to harness calcium carbonate for making hard outer shells or exoskeletons, which provide essential food and habitat to other organisms.

Ocean acidification occurs when chemical compounds such as carbon dioxide, sulfur or nitrogen mix with seawater, a process which lowers the pH and reduces the storage of carbon.

"Acid rain isn't just a problem of the land -- it's also affecting the ocean," lead author Scott Doney of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution said Friday in a release. "That effect is most pronounced near the coasts, which are already some of the most heavily affected and vulnerable parts of the ocean due to pollution, over-fishing and climate change."

In addition to acidification, excess nitrogen promotes increased growth of phytoplankton and other marine plants which can cause harmful algal blooms.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

'Controlling Automobile Air Pollution Report' - Find out How to Do Your Bit

DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c67132) has announced the addition of Controlling Automobile Air Pollution to their offering.
ADVERTISEMENT


This volume includes many of the most influential and interesting academic articles related to the economics of mobile source pollution control. The papers included explore why vehicles and vehicle markets are unique, provide estimates of the type and magnitude of the social costs of driving and examine estimation methods and estimates of the various elasticities of vehicle demand.

Analysis of the social costs and policies to reduce both traditional air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions are included. Selected articles review the range of evaluation of both regulatory and market-based approaches to controlling emissions.

The complexity of the effects of different policies are emphasized and the unintended consequences of regulation are explored in the context of vehicle emissions reduction policies.

Report breakdown and chapter list:

- Series preface

- Introduction

- Part I: Dimensions of the Pollution Problem: Income's effect on car and vehicle ownership, worldwide: 1960-2015,

- Part II: Conventional Pollutants: Differentiated regulation: the case of auto emissions standards

- Part III: Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The limits of market-oriented regulatory techniques: the case of automotive fuel economy

- Part IV Multiple Externalities: The welfare impacts of alternative policies to address atmospheric pollution in urban road transport

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c67132

Air pollution 'increases stroke risk'

High pollution levels may make people more susceptible to stroke, research suggests.
Scientists at Kaoshiung Medical University, Taiwan, found higher hospital admission rates in the city when pollution was high.

Two common pollutants - particulates and nitrogen dioxide - seemed to be particularly important.

Writing in the journal Stroke, the researchers said the problem was worse when temperatures topped 20C.

The researchers collected data on 23,179 hospital admissions from 1997 to 2000 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second city, and an area of heavy industry.

They compared air pollution levels on the dates of admissions with air pollution levels one week before and one week after admissions.

A rise in levels of both pollutants was linked to a significant increase in the number of people admitted to hospital with either of the most common type of stroke - one caused by a burst blood vessel in the brain, the other by a clot blocking blood flow to the brain.

The higher the pollutant level, the greater the risk of both types.

For every particulate (PM10) change of 66.33 micrograms per cubic metre the risk of being admitted to hospital with a stroke caused by a burst blood vessel in the brain rose 54%.

A similar risk increase was produced by every extra 7.08 parts per billion of nitrogen dioxide.

Previous research has shown a link between air pollution and death rates from respiratory and heart disease. However, the link with stroke has been far from clear.

Sticky blood

Lead researcher Professor Chun-Yuh Yang said: "This study provides new evidence that higher levels of ambient pollutants increase the risk of hospital admissions for stroke, especially on warm days.

"In hot weather, we recommend that people avoid pollution, stay inside and use an air conditioner if needed."

On cool days, researchers noted a link between carbon dioxide levels and ischemic (clot) stroke admissions, but believe this may have been a finding by chance.

Many experts suspect that air pollution makes the blood more sticky, making it tougher for the heart to pump it round the body, and increasing both the risk that it may clot, and that the blood vessels will be damaged.

Professor John Reid, head of the Cardiovascular Research School at Glasgow University, warned against making general conclusions on research based on pollution in a very hot sub-tropical climate.

He said: "I would also have some concerns about the fairly glib superficial statement that people should keep out of rush hour traffic jams and stay inside with the air conditioner.

"This is not really a very practical approach to stroke prevention. If factors associated with air pollution are really involved in the causation of stroke, then what it is doing is activating inflammatory or other mechanisms which precipitate stroke rather than being a direct cause."

A spokesperson for the Stroke Association said: "There have been a number of studies in the past looking at environmental factors in relation to stroke though none have been particularly conclusive.

"This is an interesting area and we welcome any research that helps increase knowledge of possible risk factors."

The main sources of nitrogen dioxide air pollution are emissions from vehicles and from power plants and other fossil fuel-burning industries.

Particulate air pollution is a term used to describe mixtures of solid and liquid particles that are suspended in the air. These particles vary considerably in size, composition and origin.

Air pollution causes early deaths

Pollution can penetrate deep into the body
Air pollution is responsible for 310,000 premature deaths in Europe each year, research suggests.
A study by the European Commission calculated that air pollution reduces life expectancy by an average of almost nine months across the European Union.

Poor quality air is thought to result in more than 32,000 premature deaths in the UK each year alone.

Experts say many of these deaths could be avoided if measures were put in place to cut pollution levels.

Premature deaths due to particulate matter
Germany 65,088
Italy 39,436
France 36,868
UK 32,652
Poland 27,934
Spain 13,939
Netherlands 13,123
Hungary 11,067
Belgium 10,669
Czech Republic 7,996
Austria 4,634
EU member states, 2000
The figures show every European takes on average half a day off sick a year due to illnesses linked to air pollution - costing the economy more than 80bn euros (£55bn).

The main threat to health is posed by tiny particles known as particulate matter, which can penetrate deep into the respiratory tissue, and even directly into the bloodstream.

They are emitted by traffic (particularly diesel engines), industry and domestic heating.

Ozone produced when sunlight reacts with pollutants emitted by vehicle exhausts is also a major cause of respiratory disease.

Blackspots

There are major variations between member states in terms of air pollution.

The situation is the worst in Benelux area, Northern Italy, and new member states such as Poland and Hungary.

Lost life expectancy is worst in Belgium, where on average people lose 13.6 months of life, and the Netherlands, at 12.7 months.

The Finns are the least affected, losing just 3.1 months on average, followed by the Irish at 3.9 months.

The European Commission is to try to reduce the threat to health by adopting a new strategy on air pollution from May.

Barbara Helfferich, an environment spokesperson for the Commission, told the BBC: "There are number of ways of doing this.

"We can reduce burning of fossil fuel, we can use alternative energy sources, we can restrict traffic in inner cities."

Professor Andrew Peacock, of the British Thoracic Society, said: "We have known for some time that high levels of air pollution have a direct link to respiratory illnesses.

"We would urge for this subject area to be looked into further and for the government to continue working with others to minimise pollution levels in this country."

Government response

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs said: "The government takes air pollution very seriously and we monitor air pollution levels very carefully.

"Local authorities now have action plans to tackle pollution hotspots, and we have tighter controls to cut industrial emissions.

"In general the long-term trend shows air quality is getting better, but there is still a lot to do to achieve even cleaner air, requiring local, national, and international action."

The spokesman said four Air Quality Strategy targets - for lead, carbon monoxide, benzene and 1,3-butadiene - had been met.

The UK climate change programme was also being reviewed. This is intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, but will also impact on levels of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and particles.

Basic Informatin ( OZONE )

Basic Information
Ground-level or "bad" ozone is not emitted directly into the air, but is created by chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the presence of sunlight. Emissions from industrial facilities and electric utilities, motor vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapors, and chemical solvents are some of the major sources of NOx and VOC.

Breathing ozone can trigger a variety of health problems including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, and congestion. It can worsen bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma. Ground-level ozone also can reduce lung function and inflame the linings of the lungs. Repeated exposure may permanently scar lung tissue.

Ground-level ozone also damages vegetation and ecosystems. In the United States alone, ozone is responsible for an estimated $500 million in reduced crop production each year.

Under the Clean Air Act, EPA has set protective health-based standards for ozone in the air we breathe. EPA and others have instituted a variety of multi-faceted programs to meet these health-based standards. More about EPA ‘s ozone standards and regulatory actions.

Throughout the country, additional programs are being put into place to cut NOx and VOC emissions from vehicles, industrial facilities, and electric utilities. Programs are also aimed at reducing pollution by reformulating fuels and consumer/commercial products, such as paints and chemical solvents that contain VOC. Voluntary and innovative programs also encourage communities to adopt practices, such as carpooling, to reduce harmful emissions. More about EPA’s innovative programs to reduce air pollution.

Sunlight and hot weather help form ground-level ozone. Both also contribute to global warming and heat island effect.

Learn more about the effect of ground-level ozone on health
Learn more about EPA's national and regional rules to reduce emissions of pollutants that form ozone