air pollution episodes and disasters
DESCRIPTION
detailed description of all varieties of air pollution episodes happened through out the world which in future responsible for clean air actTRANSCRIPT
Air Pollution Episodes and
DisastersKetan WadodkarM.Tech. 1st Year Environmental EngineeringUnder guidance of B.R. Gurjar
Meuse Valley, Belgium, 1930, Dec 2-5
•Meuse valley contains farms, villages, steel mills and chemical plant.
•Thermal inversion trapped fog over a stretch of 20kms of Meuse valley.
•Effects:▫Nausea, short breath, stinging eyes, and
burning throats.▫60 people died, and thousand more were
ill due to a unknown disease.
Donora, Pennsylvania, 1948, Oct 30-31
Donora, Pennsylvania, 1948
Location:
Western, Pennsylvania on the Monongahela River
50 km south of Pittsburgh
It’s a valley.
•Well known for Steel and Coal projects.
•Vast amount of natural resources.
•Major industrial location having prime manufacturing and shipping location causing industrial boom in America after world wars.
•About 14000 people lives on west bank.
•1000 people lives on Webster village on another bank.
•On October 26, a east coast storm was replaced by a cloud anticyclone advancing from south west.
•This created inversion as high pressure zone was stagnated over western Pennsylvania for 5 days.
•The poor ventilation aggravated by local conditions of meteorology and pollutant emission.
•SO2 from US steel and temperature inversion was main reasons
Reasons for the episode•Radiative inversion was observed.
•Also the temperature gradient was recorded very high.
• the pollutants in the air mixing with fog to form a thick, yellowish, acrid smog that hung over Donora for five days.
•PM = 4mg/m3, SO2= 0.5 ppm.
• During the episode 43% of population experienced the effect from smog. 17% were moderately affected and 10% were severely affected.
• 20 humans and nearly 800 animals killed during the incident
• autopsy results showing fluorine levels in victims in the lethal range, as much as 20 times higher than normal.
• Fluorine gas generated in the zinc smelting process became trapped by the stagnant air and was the primary cause of the deaths.
•December 1952
•Lasted 5 days
•A period of cold weather, anticyclone, also pollutant from use of coal.
The “GREAT” London smog
London smog
Consequences of london smog
Reasons•Low grade coal use, sulphurous variety post-
war.•numerous coal-fired power stations in the
Greater London area,including Battersea, Bankside, and Kingston upon Thames
•smoke from vehicle exhaust, especially diesel-fuelled buses
•Prevailing winds blown heavily polluted air across the English Channel from industrial areas of Europe .
•medical reports estimated that 4,000 had died prematurely
•100,000 more were ill because of the smog's effects on the human respiratory tract.
• fatalities was at about 12,000.
Los Angeles Smog, July 1973
•A classical photochemical smog episode.•A average of 63 pphm oxidants were
observed.•Ozone concentrations were observed to
be highest in the studies of air quality.•Brown haze over the town was observed
for 3 days.•It was PAN smog which affected the city.
Reason and effects:•Vehicular emission
is mainly responsible.
•Also Los Angeles is valley so it contributed inversion.
•NOx from combustion of fuels.
•The loss of visibility•And respiratory
problems were common.
Bhopal gas tragedy
•Night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India.
•MIC: Clear, colorless, B.P. 39deg C, odor threshold 2.1ppm
Reason•A leak of methyl isocyanate gas and
other chemicals from the plant.•water entered a tank containing 42 tons
of MIC.•The resulting exothermic reaction
increased the temperature inside the tank to over 200 °C (392 °F) and raised the pressure.
•The gases were blown by northwesterly winds over Bhopal
•40000kg of MIC was released in Bhopal on 3rd Dec.
• Effects of 0.4 ppm▫Coughing▫Chest pain▫Breathing pain
(dyspnea)▫Asthma▫Eye irritation ▫Nose, throat, skin
damage
• Effects of 21 ppm▫Lung oedema▫Emphysema
(damage of lung tissue)
▫hemorrhaging▫bronchial
pneumonia▫death
•170,000 people were treated at hospitals and temporary dispensaries.
•2,000 buffalo, goats, and other animals were collected and buried.
• leaves on trees yellowed and fell off.•Fishing was prohibited•520,000 people were affected, 200,000
were below 15yrs.•3,928 deaths had been certified. But it is
considered around 20000 people were died.
Kuwait oil fires•Caused by Iraqi military forces setting fire
to 700 oil wells as part of a scorched earth policy during Gulf war in 1991.
•The fires started in January and February 1991 and the last one was extinguished by November 1991.
•around 6 million barrels (950,000 m3) of oil were lost each day.
•The byproducts of the petroleum burn caused pollution to the soil and air, known as Gulf war syndrome.
fig:- Gulf War
Consequences•dramatic decrease in air quality, causing
respiratory problems for many Kuwaitis.
•mixture of desert sand + unignited oil + soot formed layers of "tarcrete" which covered nearly 5% of the country.
• the oil has continued to sink into the sand affecting Kuwait's precious groundwater resources.
Yokkaichi Asthma• In Japan in 1960 and
1972.•Due to burning of
petroleum and other fuels.
•Resulted in release of SO2.
•Causing chronic pulmonary diseases, chronic Bronchitis,
pulmonary emphysema, bronchial asthma in people.
Other air pollution disasters through the world
•1983 Melbourne dust storm:▫was a meteorological
phenomenon that occurred during the afternoon of 8 February 1983.
▫Red soil, dust and sand from Central and Southeastern Australia was swept up in high winds and carried southeast through Victoria.
▫Was seen as precursor to the Ash Wednesday
bushfires.
•2005 Malaysian haze:▫a week-long choking smog-like haze over
Malaysia that almost brought the central part of Peninsular Malaysia to a standstill
•The 1997 Southeast Asian haze:▫caused mainly by slash and burn
techniques adopted by farmers in Indonesia.
▫causes respiratory symptoms such as asthma, upper respiratory infection
▫decreased lung function as well as eye and skin irritation due to particulate matter.
Control Initiatives due to these episodes.• World recognized that exposure to large amounts
of pollution in a short period of time can result in injuries and fatalities.
• The event is credited for helping to trigger the clean-air movement in the United States,.
• Clean Air Act of 1970 was employed, which required the United States Environmental Protection Agency to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from exposure to hazardous airborne contaminants.
• Legislation such as the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968, and the City of London (Various Powers) Act 1954, restricted air pollution greatly.
References
•Wikipedia.•Google.•US EPA website.• J Black, Intussusceptions and the great
smog of London, December 1952 Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1040–1042
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