Air Pollution Analyzed at India’s Taj Mahal

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

The discoloration of the Taj Mahal, a seventeenth-century mausoleum built by Shah Jahan for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, is caused by airborne carbon particles and dust, according to a study conducted by scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, the Archaeological Survey of India, and the University of Wisconsin. The scientists took air samples at the site, and placed pieces of marble near the main dome. After two months, the samples were collected and analyzed with an electron microscope. “Our team was able to show that the pollutants discoloring the Taj Mahal are particulate matter: carbon from burning biomass and refuse, fossil fuels, and dust—possibly from agriculture and road traffic. We have also been able to show how these particles could be responsible for the brownish discoloration observed,” said Michael Bergin of Georgia Tech. The monument is routinely cleaned with clay to maintain the brightness of the marble, but until now, there had not been a systematic study of the causes of the discoloration. “Some of these particles are really bad for human health, so cleaning up the Taj Mahal could have a huge health benefit for people in the entire region,” Bergin added. To see photographs of another iconic Indian site, see “The Islamic Stepwells of Gujarat.”

via Air Pollution Analyzed at India’s Taj Mahal – Archaeology Magazine.

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China Today: Xingtai, one of the world’s most polluted cities

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Xingtai, China

While toxins belch from power plants, children in nearby Beijing compare brands of mask

Based on the most reliable air-pollution index in China, the country’s most polluted city is Xingtai, one of the oldest cities in northern China, with a history stretching back 3,500 years.

It was a major city during the Shang dynasty, two millennia before the birth of Christ. These days it is a friendly, but hopelessly smog-clouded, heavy-industrial city in Hebei province.

A photograph of a couple wearing masks playing ping-pong in the thickest smog you can imagine is one of the defining images of China’s war against pollution in recent years. A war it appears to be losing.

Seven cities in Hebei are numbered among the 10 worst polluted in China, including Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Handan, Tangshanand unlucky old Xingtai, meaning that they are also some of the most polluted cities in the world.

The situation in the air is bad enough, but what’s in the soil and the water is equally worrying.

Xingtai has a population of around seven million people and is 396 kilometres from Beijing. The air tastes of petrol here, even on a relatively clear day.

Since October 16th, a citizen group in Xingtai has run the Xingtai Anti-Pollution Campaign, and in one month it has brought 22 criminal cases against companies it suspects of polluting. Twenty-three people have been arrested.

The lobby group was alerted to three major complaints: one against a company that plates surfaces with metal, which leaked toxic waste into underground water; one against a plastics plant that leaked chemicals into groundwater; and a third against a company that transported dangerous chemicals into another province where disposal fees were cheaper.

Xingtai is also home to Jizhong Energy Resources, which operates coal mines to feed coal power plants that are choking the north China plain. This grim facility, which is actually a cluster of plants and mines, is one of the most heavily polluting factories on the planet.

People in Xingtai are desperate.

Writing on the Sina Weibo network, Shanzhilian 68 called for a boycott of industrial products from Hebei. “Give us back the blue sky. What is the Xingtai mayor doing? We should limit the production or stop production from the factories here. It makes me want to cry when I see on [state broadcaster] CCTV that Xingtai is the most polluted city in China.”

Another online commenter, Xioneweilong, said the pollution was having serious health effects: “In this polluted weather, most of the children in the hospital have tuberculosis. Please get the polluted factories out of Xingtai.”

Beijing’s proximity to the industrial heartland of Hebei province is often given as the reason why pollution is so bad in the capital. In the early winter, the coal-fired power plants start cranking up production to meet increased demand for heating, and the skies turn a yellow-tinged grey.

Poor position

Hebei has very little rain, so the cities of Handan, Shijiazhuang, Baoding and, of course, Xingtai are all in a poor position regarding the flow of air. They all lie east of the Taihang Mountains, and Xingtai is the worst-placed.

continue reading China Today: Xingtai, one of the world’s most polluted cities.

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London will follow Paris and ban diesel cars, campaigners warn

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Pollution is so high in the capital, and diesel fumes so damaging, experts believe Boris Johnson will follow Paris’ lead and ban the cars from London’s roads within the decade

London will follow Paris and introduce an outright ban on diesel cars which are causing “serious health damage” in the capital, campaigners warn.
The Mayor of Paris has announced radical plans to ban diesel cars from the French capital by 2020 due to concerns about how much pollution the cars cause.
Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, is also grappling with the issue of how to tackle pollution from the fuels fumes which contain tiny particles and nitrogen oxides and have been increasingly proven to be seriously damaging to health.
France, which has the highest number of diesel cars on the road, will now ban the cars out right with Anne Hidalgo, the Parisian Mayor pledging “an end to diesel in Paris in 2020”.
She also said the city would have more semi-pedestrianised areas with special zones introduced at weekends.

Boris Johnson currently plans to raise the congestion charge for diesel cars by £10 in a move to cut air pollution.

The change would mean diesel drivers could have to pay a total of £20 to get into Central London.

Under the plans petrol cars registered before 2006 would also have to pay extra under the plans which the Mayor wants in place by 2020.

However campaigners say this will not be enough and London will still be following the Parisian example with an outright ban.

Stephen Joseph, of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: “I think the motor industry is wholly unprepared for the way in which the science is turning against diesels. The sciences is hardening up and it is showing different and serious health damage which is a really serious problem.

“All this emerging science I was going to have wide ranging ramifications, both in terms of the kind of cars we drive and where they are driven.

“London is very polluted and busy. Where Paris goes London won’t be far behind – London is already talking about an ultra low emission zone, banning all sorts of diesel vehicles, this is not unlikely that they will banned altogether in the same way Paris has done.”

In Britain, about 29,000 premature deaths a year are thought to be caused by air pollution and people living in London, Birmingham and Leeds will be exposed to dangerous air pollution from engine fumes until the 2030s unless stricter rules are imposed, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Earlier this year Mr Johnson’ Mayor’s senior advisor for environment and energy Matthew Pencharz, said: “When it comes to tackling London’s air pollution. and protecting the health and well-being of all Londoners, diesel cars are an issue which must be addressed.

“Over recent years the Euro diesel engine standards have not delivered the emission savings expected, yet governments have been incentivising us to buy them. This has left us with a generation of dirty diesels.”

“Cllr Caroline Russell, Green Party Local Transport spokesperson, said: “This is the third EAC report in five years and scandalously there has been no government action since the last report in 2011.

“Quite clearly our health is being severely damaged by exposure to polluted air caused by traffic emissions particularly from diesel vehicles.”

“The hand wringing has to stop. We need brave political action to tackle our over-dependence on motorised private transport. That means investing seriously in public transport, scrapping the proposed new roads and ensuring that everyone has access to safe convenient networks of walking and cycling routes.”

via London will follow Paris and ban diesel cars, campaigners warn – Telegraph.

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Pittsburgh shows inhabitants what air pollution looks like

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Concerned citizens in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania have banded together to form the Breathe Project, which enables Internet users to view the polluted air for themselves on a webcam in the hopes they’ll be inspired to take action.

Four cameras have been placed in the downtown area and the corresponding webcam — called the Breathe Cam, which went live on Wednesday of last week — displays data showing the concentration of various types of particles and sulfur dioxide in the immediate area.

A library of information about air pollution is conveniently situated on the site, as are recent headlines concerning it.

The site also helps individuals and corporations to take action in the fight for clean air.

Individuals are encouraged to do a home energy audit, which is the first step in reducing how much energy the home consumes and thus diminishing its carbon footprint.T

hey’re also advised to invest in clean energy projects that install and manufacture items such as windmills and solar panels.

According to the Breathe Project, Pittsburgh ranks among the 10 per cent of US cities with the highest air pollution levels, despite considerable improvements since the middle of the 20th century, when Pittsburgh’s air was notoriously thick.

Crowd-sourcing has given way to innovative new ways of educating the public about air pollution.

For example, AirBeam is a wearable tracker that informs users about the quality of the air around them and provides educational information on its corresponding app in addition to helping users get involved on a political level to help clean the air.

via Pittsburgh shows inhabitants what air pollution looks like | CTV News.

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Why is diesel now bad news?

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

The Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo wants to ban diesel cars and the pollution they bring from the streets of the French capital. But not long ago, diesel engines were thought to be environmentally friendly. What could have gone wrong?

Opinion on diesel cars has swung widely over the years.

Diesel is a more efficient fuel than petrol, but in the past diesel engines were often noisy and dirty.

Then, with growing concerns over climate change, car manufacturers were urged to produce cleaner, quieter diesel cars to capitalise on their extra fuel efficiency.

The cars were fitted with a trap to catch the particles of smoke associated with the fuel. Several governments rewarded the manufacturing improvements by incentivising the purchase and use of diesel cars.

But the policy has backfired.

Going into reverseFirst, there have been problems with the particle traps – some drivers have removed them because they sometimes don’t work properly unless the car is driven hot.

Second, the diesels are still producing nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which irritates the lungs of people with breathing problems. Diesels make several times more NO2 than petrol cars.

Now, in order to meet European air pollution laws, politicians are being forced into an embarrassing U-turn, telling drivers that they’ve decided they don’t much like diesels after all.

MPs in the UK have mooted a scrappage scheme for diesel cars, while the mayor of Paris has called for a ban.

Several European nations are currently in breach of EU clean air laws.

The EU’s NO2 limit was exceeded at 301 sites in 2012, including seven in London. The concentration on Marylebone Road was more than double the limit.

Districts in Athens, Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, Paris, and Rome are also exceeded the ceiling.
Not just carbon: Key pollutants for human health

Particulate matter (PM): Can cause or aggravate cardiovascular and lung diseases, heart attacks and arrhythmias. Can cause cancer. May lead to atherosclerosis, adverse birth outcomes and childhood respiratory disease. The outcome can be premature death.
Ozone (O3): Can decrease lung function and aggravate asthma and other lung diseases. Can also lead to premature death.
Nitrogen oxides (NO2): Exposure to NO2 is associated with increased deaths from heart and lung disease, and respiratory illness.
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in particular benzo a-pyrene (BaP): Carcinogenic.

Politicians are now scurrying to persuade the courts that they are obeying an EU demand to clean up the air as soon as possible.

The Paris mayor said at the weekend that she wanted the city to become ‘semi-pedestrianised’, with a ban on diesel cars in the city centre and some neighbourhoods given entirely to residents’ cars, delivery vehicles and emergency vehicles.

“I want diesel cars out of Paris by 2020,” she said.

Ms Hidalgo hopes that her plan will improve the quality of the air in a city where, on average, people live six or seven months less than those who are not exposed to the same levels of pollution.

Adding electric vans and putting limits on tourist buses would also help lessen the public health risk, she said.

Premature deathBikes are expected to become the favoured form of transport, with cycle lanes doubled by 2020 in a $141m (£90m) plan.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has promised to halve pollution, spending around $516m (£330m) to bring 2,400 hybrid buses, zero-emission taxis and 10,000 street trees. The announcement came weeks after he was forced to accept that Oxford Street has some of the highest levels of NO2 in the world.

Central London will also have an ‘Ultra Low Emission Zone’ in 2020. Mr Johnson has previously faced criticism from health and environment lobby groups complaining that he was dragging his feet in meeting EU targets.

The UK government says it is responding to EU demands by bringing forward new plans. Labour say the government has ignored the issue – they demand low-emissions zones in all of the UK’s major cities.

According to the European Environment Agency, air pollution is the top environmental risk factor for premature death in Europe; it increases the incidence of a wide range of diseases.

Particulate matter (PM) and ground-level ozone (O3) are the most harmful pollutants.

Vehicles are by no means the only source of pollutants – some industries are major polluters too, and shipping in some places. But the politicians who run Europe’s biggest cities have protested that they cannot control pollution from industry elsewhere that drifts into their area.

With so many nations failing to meet pollution laws, the EU is under pressure to relax air standards.

via BBC News – Why is diesel now bad news?.

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Air pollution ‘causing deadly public health crisis’

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

New schools, care homes and hospitals should be built far away from major roads because of the dangers of air pollution, a report by MPs says.

The Environmental Audit Committee argues air pollution is a “public health crisis” causing nearly as many deaths as smoking.

It also suggested a scrappage scheme for diesel cars to cut emissions.

The government said it was “investing heavily” in clean air, but campaigners said it was ignoring the issue.

There are an estimated 29,000 deaths annually in the UK from air pollution.

Nitrogen dioxide is known to cause inflammation of the airways, reduce lung function and exacerbate asthma.

Particulate matter – tiny invisible specks of mineral dust, carbon and other chemicals – are linked to heart and lung diseases as well as cancer.

Some particulate matter lodges in the lungs, while the finest particles can enter the bloodstream, risking damage elsewhere in the body.

Joan Walley, the committee chairwoman, told the BBC: “There is a public health crisis in terms of poor air quality.

“There are nearly as many deaths now caused by air pollution as there are from smoking, so the main thing is we stop a new generation of children being exposed.”

She said government “should make it impossible” for new schools, care home or health clinics to be built in pollution hotspots.

She added that “well over a thousand” schools were already near major roads and that it “made sound economic sense” to filter the air coming into the buildings.

The committee’s report says traffic is responsible for 42% of carbon monoxide, 46% of nitrogen oxides and 26% of particulate matter pollution.

It said government had promoted diesel vehicles as they produced less of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

But the committee said diesel was now seen as “the most significant driver of air pollution in our cities”.

They called for government to pay for diesel drivers to upgrade their engines or for a national scrappage scheme to take the most polluting vehicles off the road.

Other measures suggested include:

The Met Office and BBC producing high pollution forecasts alongside ones for pollen and UV.
A national plan for “low emission zones” to tackle heavily polluting vehicles, like the one in London.
Changes to fuel duty to encourage low nitrogen dioxide vehicles as well as low carbon dioxide.
Financial incentives for alternative fuels.
Encourage walking and cycling as the “ultimate low emission” option
Dr Ian Mudway, a lecturer in respiratory toxicology at King’s College London, told the BBC: “The evidence is there. The 29,000 figure is very solid, so really it is a case of acting.

“But it is a strange one, because it’s their third [report] in five years and it is an attempt to get the government to do anything.”

The British Lung Foundation said the recommendations “may seem drastic”, but air pollution was so bad they were necessary “to protect the nation’s health”.

“Our dirty air will simply not clean itself, and this issue is one that will, without the government’s intervention, continue to impact on current and future generations,” said Dr Penny Woods, the charity’s chief executive.

Asthma UK said air pollution increased the risk of a life-threatening attack and “urgent and concerted action” was needed to bring pollution levels down.

Chief executive Kay Boycott said: “In the short term some of the measures recommended in this report, such as the publicising of high air pollution forecasts, could help people with asthma know in advance if they should seek advice from their GP or asthma nurse.”

Simon Gillespie, the chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, said: “The government cannot continue to ignore this issue.

“Enough is enough. The government must act on these recommendations quickly if we are to improve the quality of the air we breathe and protect the nation’s heart health.”

A government spokesperson said there would be a full response to the report in the future, but added: “Clean air is vital for people’s health and, while air quality has improved significantly in recent decades, we are investing heavily in measures across government to continue this, committing £2bn since 2011 in green transport initiatives.”

via BBC News – Air pollution ‘causing deadly public health crisis’.

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$235 Billion = Annual Cost Of Air Pollution In EU

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air pollution impacts human health, resulting in extra healthcare costs, lost productivity, and fewer work days. Other impacts are reduced crop yields and building damage. Particulate matter and ground-level ozone are two of the main pollutants that come from coal.

90% or more of Europeans living in cities are exposed to harmful air pollution. Bulgariaand Poland have some of the worst pollution of the European countries.

An estimated 400,000 premature deaths in European cities were linked to air pollution in 2011.

London is one of Europe’s most visited cities and yet it also has high levels of harmful air pollutants. Over 3,000 people living there in 2012 probably died from air pollution according to one estimate. Death from heart attacks and strokes can be increased by exposure to air pollution. (4,000 Londoners died in the Great Smog of 1952.)

Europe is a major global tourist destination, so it might be advantageous to that industry if coal-based air pollution is decreased.

An analysis of sustainable tourism in Europe wrote, logically, that improving environmental conditions has many benefits. “Many of these measures help a business to save costs, improve its competitiveness, stimulate the regional economy and improve sustainable development – and to fulfill the guests‘ expectations in this respect. Being able to do this, the business needs clear and reasonable aims,  practical instruments and assistance.”

It’s clear that coal must be phased out to reduce harmful air pollution. Countries like Germany and Denmark have recently signaled interest in going coal-free while admitting this is no easy task.

The number of premature deaths due to air pollution is outrageous, but somehow over the years it has become normalized to the point that we don’t respond too much, or simply don’t know what to do. Expanding clean energy sources such as solar and wind is definitely going to be part of the overall solution.

via $235 Billion = Annual Cost Of Air Pollution In EU | CleanTechnica.

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Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo calls for ban on diesel cars by 2020

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

The mayor of Paris has called for diesel cars to be banned from the French capital by 2020 as part of plans to reduce pollution.

Anne Hidalgo told France’s Journal du Dimanche newspaper she wanted only ultra low-emission vehicles on the capitals’ main thoroughfares.

She also suggested more pedestrianised areas and a doubling of cycle lanes.

A partial car ban was imposed in March after the capital’s air quality was found to be one of the worst on record.

Serious risk

“I want diesel cars out of Paris by 2020,” Ms Hidalgo said in the interview published on Sunday (in French).”

Today 60% of Parisians already do not have cars, compared with 40% in 2001. Things are changing quickly.”

Her plans also include limits on the tourist buses that clog Paris streets, banning trucks from cutting through the city, and adding electric vans to the city’s car-sharing scheme.

She said there was a serious public health risk in the capital, with Parisians living on average six or seven months less than people not exposed to the same levels of pollution.

The plans will be discussed by the city council on Tuesday.

Some 84% of Paris residents see fighting pollution as a priority and 54% supported a diesel ban in the city by 2020, according a poll carried out for the Journal du Dimanche.

Research by the World Health Organization has shown that diesel engines, although more fuel efficient than petrol engines, produce more pollutants.

via BBC News – Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo calls for ban on diesel cars by 2020.

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