Air quality effects

While such calculations can be carried out in principle, they are in fact rarely possible in the detail needed for developing reliable air quality/emission source relationships for particulate pollution. Dispersion modeling however, is necessary to predict the air quality effects of a new source which is to be located in a region where air quality/emission source relationships are poorly understood. 

Gaffney, J. S., N. A. Marley, R. S. Martin, R. W. Dixon, L. G. Reyes, and C. J. Popp, Potential Air Quality Effects of Using Ethanol-Gasoline Fuel Blends A Field Study in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Environ. Sci. Technol, 31, 3053-3061 (1997). 

Air quality effects of aerosols have traditionally been studied in accumulation and coarse mode, concentrating largely in the supermicron particle range, usually by using particle mass as the main property of interest (e.g., PMX). However, submicron particles have also many important effects to both air quality and the climate... 

This chapter summarizes the current knowledge, characteristics and some of the more important reaction mechanisms underlying indoor air quality. Effects of VOCs and SVOCs on human health are reported elsewhere and will not be repeated here. 

Vinuesa, J.-F. Mirabel, P. Pnche, J.-L. Air quality effects of using reformulated and oxygenated gasoline fuel blends application to the Strasbourg area (F). Atmos. Environ. 2003, 27, 1757-1774. 

Gaffhey JS, Marley NA, Martin RS, et al. 1997. Potential air quality effects of using ethanol-gasoline fuel blends A field study in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Environ Sci Technol 31 3053-3061. 

Parsons, B. and Salter, L. F., Air quality effects of traffic in a canyon-like street (Falmount, U.K.), Environ. Monit. Assess., 82, 63-73, 2003. 

Solvents are usually classified by the functional groups of the molecule. The most used classes are listed in Table 3.1 and in Appendix 2.1. Each solvent of a class has properties similar to other members of the class. Solvents transformed the ability of technology, and conservators, to manipulate materials. However, widespread use has been shown to have many deleterious side-effects such as toxicity, flammability, damage to water and air quality, effect on the ozone layer, cost, etc. New solvents are being introduced to reduce these effects, e.g. the use of siloxane-based fluids (Cull and Swanson, 2001) or propylene glycol-derived solvents replacing ethylene glycol-derived ones. 

For an excellent, comprehensive review of the chemistry, environmental, and anthropogenic release, environmental fate, and environmental and human health effects of lead, see Air Quality Criteria for Eead, Vol. I—IV, EPA-600/8-83/028a-dF, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., June 1986, -Msd Air Quality Criteria for Eead Supplement to the 1986 Addendum, EPA-600/8-89/049F, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., Aug. 1990. 

National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Under the Clean Air Act, six criterion pollutants, ie, pollutants of special concern, have been estabhshed by the EPA sulfur oxides (SO ), particulates, carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NO ), o2one (photochemical oxidants), and lead. National Ambient Air QuaUty Standards (NAAQS) were developed by EPA based on threshold levels of air pollution below which no adverse effects could be experienced on human health or the environment. 

J. D. Benson and co-workers. Effects of Gasoline Sulfur on Mass Exhaust Emissions—-Autoj Oil Air Quality Improvement Research Program, SAE 912323, Society of Automotive Engineers, Warrendale, Pa., 1991. 

The relationship of these response curves to ambient air quality is shown by lines A, B, and C, which represent the maximum or any other chose percentile line from a display such as Fig. 4-10, which shows actual air quality. Where the air quality is poor (line A), essentially all the adverse effects displayed will occur. Where the air quality is good (line C), most of the intermediate and long-term adverse effects displayed will not occur. Where the air quality is between good and poor, some of the intermediate and long-term adverse effects will occur, but in an attenuated form compared with those of poor air quality. These concepts will be referred to later in this text when air quality standards are discussed. 

If you were to prepare a figure representing the relationship between air quality levels and the effects caused by these levels, what changes would you make in Fig. 4-10 ... 

The mechanisms by which a jurisdiction develops its air pollution control strategies and episode control tactics are outlined in Fig. 5-1. Most of the boxes in the figure have already been discussed—sources, pollutant emitted, transport and diffusion, atmospheric chemistry, pollutant half-life, air quality, and air pollution effects. To complete an analysis of the elements of the air pollution system, it is necessary to explain the several boxes not vet discussed. 

Discuss the relative importance of air quality criteria and cost effectiveness in the setting of air quality standards. 

The three major characteristics of particulate pollutants in the ambient atmosphere are total mass concentration, size distribution, and chemical composition. In the United States, the PM q concentration, particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <10 /nm, is the quantity measured for an air quality standard to protect human health from effects caused by inhalation of suspended particulate matter. As shown in Chapter 7, the size distribution of particulate pollutants is very important in understanding... 

For the air quality manager to place model estimates in the proper perspective to aid in making decisions, it is becoming increasingly important to place error bounds about model estimates. In order to do this effectively, a history of model performance under circumstances similar to those of common model use must be established for the various models. It is anticipated that performance standards will eventually be set for models. 

Huber, A. H., and Snyder, W. H., Building wake effects on short stack effluents, pp. 235-242 in Preprints, Third Symposium on Atmospheric Turbulence, Diffusion and Air Quality. October 19-22, 1976, Raleigh, NC. American Meteorological Society, Boston, 1976. 

Air quality criteria are cause-effect relationships, observed experimentally, epidemiologically, or in the field, of exposure fo various ambient levels of specific pollutants. The relationships between adverse responses to air pollution and the air quality levels at which they occur have been discussed in Chapter 4 and illustrated in Table 4-5 and Fig. 4-10. 

For any pollutant, air quality criteria may refer to different types of effects. For example. Tables 22-1 through 22-6 list effects on humans, animals, vegetation, materials, and the atmosphere caused by various exposures to sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and lead. These data are from fhe Air Quality Criteria for these pollutants published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

Criteria stipulate conditions of exposure and may refer to sensitive population groups or to the joint effects of several pollutants. Air quality criteria are descriptive. They describe effects that can be expected to occur wherever the ambient air level of a pollutant reaches or exceeds a specific concentration for a particular time period. Criteria will change as new information becomes available. 

The main philosophical question that arises with respect to air quality standards is what to consider an adverse effect or a cost associated with air pollution. Let us examine several categories of receptors to see the judgmental problems that arise. 

The U.S. Clean Air Amendments of 1977 define two kinds of air quality standards primary standards, levels that will protect health but not necessarily prevent the other adverse effects of air pollution, and secondary standards, levels that will prevent all the other adverse effects of air pollution (Table 22-7). The amendments also define air quality levels that cannot be exceeded in specified geographic areas for "prevention of significant deterioration" (PSD) of the air of those areas. Although they are called "increments" over "baseline air quality" in the law, they are in effect tertiary standards, which are set at lower ambient levels than either the primary or secondary standards (Table 22-8). 

Notes National primary ambient air quality standards define levels of air quality which the EPA Administrator judges are necessary, with an adequate margin of safety, to protect the public health. National secondary ambient air quality standards define levels of air quality, which the Administrator judges necessary to protect the public welfare from any known or anticipated adverse effects of a pollutant. 

Evaluate the use, effectiveness, and equity of local, state, provincial, or national air quality standards in your community. 

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