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Less traffic on the roads during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK led to a reduction in air pollution but may have caused potentially damaging surface ozone levels to rise, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of York. The problem is being created by the change in chemistry between NO x and O 3.
In early 2013, the Chinese government declared a war on air pollution and began instituting stringent policies to regulate the emissions of PM 2.5. pollution is falling, harmful ground-level ozonepollution is on the rise, especially in large cities. Over the course of five years, PM 2.5 But the rapid reduction of PM 2.5
Levels of two major air pollutants have been reduced significantly since lockdowns began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a secondary pollutant—ground-level ozone—has increased in China, according to new research. Ozone is harmful to humans at ground-level, causing pulmonary and heart disease.
Drought conditions can have complicated effects on ozone air quality, so to better understand the process, researchers have analyzed data from two ozone-polluted cities before, during and after the California drought. However, plants also decrease air ozone levels by taking the gas up through pores in their leaves.
Average annual percentage of black carbon pollution related to Chinese exports. China is responsible for only a small percentage of the annual pollution in the US, but powerful global winds known as “westerlies” can push airborne chemicals across the ocean in days, particularly during the spring, causing dangerous spikes in contaminants.
Ozone levels across much of North America and Europe dropped significantly between 2000 and 2014. People living in parts of southern Europe, South Korea and southern Japan and China also experienced more than 15 days a year of ozone levels above 70 ppb. Trends in daily maximum ozone levels (known as 4MDA8) at urban and non-urban sites.
Exposure to ozone, long associated with impaired lung function, is also connected to health changes that can cause cardiovascular disease such as heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke, according to a new study of Chinese adults. The findings associated ozone exposure with markers of platelet activation and increased blood pressure.
Consumer products such as shampoo, cleaning products and paint now contribute as much to emitted volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in cities as tailpipe emissions from vehicles, according to a new study led by NOAA. 1A) and sales data of volatile chemical products. —McDonald et al.
Ozone, the main component of smog, is a plant-damaging pollutant formed by emissions from vehicles, cooking stoves and other sources. New research shows that ozonepollution damaged millions of tons of wheat, rice, soybean and cotton crops in India in 2005. Smog in India. Credit: Mark Danielson/Flickr.
A new study now finds that asphalt is a significant source of air pollutants in urban areas, especially on hot and sunny days. Yale researchers found that common road and roofing asphalts produced complex mixtures of organic compounds, including hazardous pollutants, in a range of typical temperature and solar conditions.
A University of Utah engineer has developed an inexpensive new method to remove oil sheen by repeatedly pressurizing and depressurizing ozone gas, creating microscopic bubbles that attack the oil so it can be removed by sand filters. Emerging contaminants, such as wastewater polluted with medications and personal care products.
Springtime ozone distributions for 1984, 1995–2008 in the mid-troposphere (3.0–8.0 Springtime ozone levels above western North America are rising primarily due to air flowing eastward from the Pacific Ocean, a trend that is largest when the air originates in Asia. The US EPA recently proposed new tougher ground-level ozone standards.
(Japan) report in the journal Angewandte Chemie the development of a mesoporous two-line ferrihydrite (2LFh)—ferrihydrite is a widespread mineral composed of iron, oxygen, and water—that could lead to a new generation of ozone filters in electrostatic devices and aircraft applications. removal; it showed about 95 % O 3.
The two combine in the atmosphere to make either nitric acid or peroxynitrous acid; the so-called branching ratio of these two chemicals is important in models of ozoneproduction. has fully characterized a key chemical reaction that affects the formation of pollutants in smoggy air in urban areas. Click to enlarge.
The processes that create ozonepollution in the summer can also trigger the formation of wintertime air pollution, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and NOAA, in partnership with the University of Utah. A key control strategy is to reduce emissions of the limiting reagent.
Extraordinarily cold temperatures in the stratosphere during the winter of 2010/2011 caused the most massive destruction of the ozone layer above the Arctic so far, according to a study by climate researchers at KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology). These chemical conversion products attack the ozone layer and destroy it partly.
The rapidly growing space industry may have a greater climate effect than the aviation industry and undo repair to the protective ozone layer if left unregulated, according to a new study led by UCL and published in the journal Earth’s Future as an open-access paper. The space industry is one of the world’s fastest growing sectors.
The California Air Resources Board today approved a statewide plan for attaining the federal health-based standard for ozone, typically experienced as smog. The 2022 State Implementation Plan Strategy identifies the state’s control strategy for meeting the federal 70 parts per billion, 8-hour ozone standard over the next 15 years.
Denver represents an interesting case study for exploring potential PHEV impacts because it violates the federal air quality standard for ozone and because several large EGUs [electricity generating units] are located in or near the urbanized area. Ozone concentration increases were modeled for small areas near central Denver.
Led by the tiny Pacific island of the Federated States of Micronesia, a growing group of low-lying islands and other vulnerable countries are calling for fast action on the approximately 50% of global warming that is caused by pollutants other than carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). The next round of UN climate negotiations begins in Cancun today.
The FY 2011-2012 plan focused primarily on five areas of interest: sustainable communities; behavior and technology adoption; health and air pollution exposures; air pollution science; and greenhouse gas targets. These regulations have led to considerable improvements in air quality throughout California.
Cooking, cleaning and other routine household activities generate significant levels of volatile and particulate chemicals inside the average home, leading to indoor air quality levels on par with a polluted major city, according to a study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder. Earlier post.).
The first peer-reviewed study to directly quantify how emissions from oil and natural gas (O&NG) activities influence summertime tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) pollution in the Colorado Front Range confirms that chemical vapors from oil and gas activities are a significant contributor to the region’s chronic ozone problem.
Renault’s comparison of the carbon footprint of EV and ICE vehicles over production, operation and end of life. The study used the series production versions launched in 2011, with the assumption of operation for 150,000 km (93,205 miles). Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (kg Ethene equivalent). Click to enlarge.
A scatter plot of CO, as a tracer for pollution, versus CO 2 , as a tracer for the amount of combustion, for 2002 and 2010. VOCs, primarily emitted from the tailpipes of vehicles, are a key ingredient in the formation of ground-level ozone which, at high levels, can harm people’s lungs and damage crops and other plants.
Ozonepollution near Earth’s surface is one of the main ingredients of summertime smog. It is also not directly measurable from space due to the abundance of ozone higher in the atmosphere, which obscures measurements of surface ozone. —Jin et al.
CSIRO scientists have developed a new way to account for ozone in computer simulations of the climate. This latest modeling shows that the oceans take much less ozone out of the atmosphere than previously thought. Ozone (O 3 ) is formed by reactions of chemicals such as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds—i.e.,
Cutting HFCs, black carbon, tropospheric ozone, and methane can buy us about 40 years before we approach the dangerous threshold of 2°C warming. —co-author HFCs are powerful greenhouse gases originally developed as substitutes for ozone-depleting chemicals. With indoor air pollution killing 1.6 Tropospheric ozone.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has posted a revised draft of California’s proposed Short-Lived Climate Pollutant (SLCP) Strategy. SLCPs are a category of pollutants which remain in the atmosphere for a relatively brief period, but have global warming potentials that are much higher than those of CO 2.
These findings will help to improve the understanding of global processes involved in cloud formation and air pollution and to refine the corresponding models. This common compound is found not only in ants and stinging nettles, but also in the atmosphere, where it is an important indicator of air pollution.
Percent reduction in visible solar energy due to ambient PM (plus a small contribution from ozone) (A), only dust PM deposition (B) deposition of all PM components (C), and atmospheric and deposited combined (D; note change in scale). The resulting calculations estimate the total loss of solar energy production in every part of the world.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $5,959,842 million in research funding to nine institutions to improve air quality models used to simulate ozone, particulate matter (PM), regional haze, air toxics, and emerging pollutants. It will also inform the development of strategies for improving air quality.
Scaling of industry sales statistics enabled the discrepancy to be attributed to the use of ancillary solvent products such as screenwash and deicer which are not included in internationally applied vehicle emission methodologies. the products used for “car care,” such as windshield washer fluid.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have conducted a statistical analysis of pollution exposure and yields from 1980 to 2015 on a key sector making up about 38% of the state’s total agricultural output: perennial crops such as almonds, grapes, nectarines, peaches, strawberries and walnuts.
Population-Weighted Multi Pollutant Index (PW-MPI) values for different regions. The emission scenario assumes that population and economic growth largely determine energy and food consumption and consequent pollution sources with the current technologies (“business as usual”). Source: Pozzer et al. —Pozzer et al.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed standards to reduce harmful air pollution from oil and gas drilling operations. Natural gas production in the USis growing, with more than 25,000 new and existing wells fractured or re-fractured each year.
The study found that 60% of the winter primary hydrocarbon hydroxyl radical reactivity in London is from those diesel-related hydrocarbons; the authors predicted that the longer-chain HCs contribute up to 50 % of the ozoneproduction potential in London.
As a result of their findings, published in the 30 October issue of the journal Science , the authors argue that assessments of multigas mitigation policies, as well as any separate efforts to mitigate warming from short-lived pollutants, should include gas-aerosol interactions. —Drew Shindell.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice announced a Clean Air Act Settlement with BP Products North America Inc., (BPP), BPP will also install 10 air pollutant monitoring stations to monitor air quality outside of the refinery fenceline.
Methane is the second-most prevalent greenhouse gas emitted in the United States from human activities; nearly 30% of those emissions come from oil production and the production, transmission and distribution of natural gas. EPA required green completions for hydraulically fractured natural gas wells in its 2012 rules.
eutrophication; ET = ecological toxicity; FEC = fossil energy consumption; WU = water use; LO = land occupation; “The rest” includes acidification; smog formation; ozone layer depletion; and human health effects. GW = global warming; Eut. Credit: ACS, Yang et al. Click to enlarge. Process flow diagrams for E85 and gasoline.
A new report from the National Research Council examines and, when possible, estimates, “hidden” costs of energy production and use—such as the damage air pollution imposes on human health—that are not reflected in market prices of coal, oil, other energy sources, or the electricity and gasoline produced from them. Click to enlarge.
Second, they found that while much of the air pollution policies have focused to date on the electricity sector, damages from farms are now larger than those from utilities. Indeed, farms have become the largest contributor to air pollution damages from PM2.5 related emissions. Tschofen et al.
In the first empirical study using satellite measurements to explore the relationship between urban form and air pollution, a team from the University of Minnesota has found that cities with highly contiguous built-up areas have, on average, lower concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 , a key component of urban air pollution).
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