Airborne metals pollutants

Gailey, F.A.Y., Lloyd, O.L., 1993. Spatial and temporal patterns of airborne metal pollution the value of low technology sampling to an environmental epidemiology study. Sci. Total Environ. 133, 201-219. 

Fernandez C, Labanowski J, Cambier P, Jongmans AG, Van Oort F (2007) Fate of airborne metal pollution in soils as related to agricultural management I. Zn and Pb distributions in soil profiles. Eur J Soil Sci 58 547-559... 

The environmental scientist has at his disposal a variety of sensitive, multi-elemental analytical methods that can lead to a massive amount of data on airborne metals. Optimum use of these tools for environmental monitoring calls for focusing resources only on those metals that are environmentally important. Considerations of toxicity along with their ability to interact in the air, leading to the formation of secondary pollutants, and their presence in air have led to the identification of 17 environmentally important metals nickel, beryllium, cadmium, tin, antimony, lead, vanadium, mercury, selenium, arsenic, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, titanium, chromium, and zinc. In addition to the airborne concentration, the particle size of environmentally important metals is perhaps the major consideration in assessing their importance. 

Rohbock, E. (1982). Atmospheric removal of airborne metals by wet and dry deposition. In Deposition of Atmospheric Pollutants (H. W. Georgii and J. Pankrath, eds.), pp. 159-171. Reidel, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. 

Potential risks and the adverse impact of metallic pollutants in the air have been evaluated in many different respeets (e.g., Ariane et al. 2001). In re-eognition of the fact that the atmosphere ean serve as a major medium to transfer most particle bound metals across different environmental reservoirs, enormous efforts have been directed towards a routine monitoring of diverse airborne metal species. Information derived from such efforts helps us determine the direction of emission control strategies, either in the form of various technical applications or through air quality regulations and related policies. In fact, more extreme measures to cope with trace metal pollution were found to involve various bans on the use of certain raw materials or products (e.g., EPSMA 2003). 

The oceans of the world are an important natural source of pollutant material. The ocean is continually emitting aerosols to the atmosphere, in the form of salt particles, which are corrosive to metals and paints. The action of waves on rocks reduces them to sand, which may eventually become airborne. Even the shells washed up on the beach are eroded by wave and tidal action until they are reduced to such a small size that they too may become airborne. 

Pirrone, N., G.J. Keeler, J.O. Nriagu, and P.O. Warner. 1996. Historical trends of airborne trace metals in Detroit from 1971 to 1992. Water Air Soil Pollut. 88 145-165. 

Thomas, W., A. Ruhling, and H. Simon. 1984. Accumulation of airborne pollutants (PAH, chlorinated hydrocarbons, heavy metals) in various plant species and humus. Environ. Pollut. 36A 295-310. 

Airborne solid particles such as ash, soot, metal oxides, and even sea salts play a major role in air pollution. Particles up to 0.01 millimeter in diameter (too small to be seen with the naked eye) attract water droplets and thereby form aerosols that may be visible as fog or smoke. Aerosol particles remain suspended in the atmosphere for extended periods of time and, as Figure 17.8 shows, serve as sites for many chemical reactions involving pollutants. 

Countries turning to nuclear fission energy have decreased their dependence on fossil fuels and have diminished their output of carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, heavy metals, airborne particulates, and other pollutants. Money that would have been spent on foreign oil payments has been saved. It is estimated, for example, that nuclear fission energy has saved the United States 150 billion in foreign oil payments. 

Deriving electrical energy from nuclear fission produces almost no atmospheric pollutants, such as carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, heavy metals, and airborne particulates. Although not discussed in the text, there is also an abundant supply of fuel for nuclear fission reactors in the form of plutonium-239, which can be manufactured from uranium-238. Use the keyword Breeder Reactor on your Internet search engine to learn about how this is so. 

Often, many simultaneously occurring pollutants or contaminants determine an environmental problem. In industry, agriculture, and households, products are often mixtures of many compounds. The process of production and consumption is accompanied by emissions and consequently by contamination. One example is the use of toxaphene in the past, a very complex mixture of polychlorinated camphenes, as a pesticide. Technical toxaphene consists of more than 175 individual compounds. A second example is industrial and domestic emissions resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels. The emissions contain both a mixture of gases (SO2, NOx, CO2, etc.) and airborne particulate matter which itself contains a broad range of heavy metals and also polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). 

The three ingredients—oxygen, water, and ions—needed for the corrosion of metals are present almost everywhere on Earth. Even pure rainwater contains a few HsO" and HCO3 ions from dissolved carbon dioxide. Higher ion concentrations—from airborne salt near the ocean, from acidic air pollutants, or from salts spread on icy roads—make corrosion worse in certain areas. 

As discussed in Chapter 7, polluted air varies in composition from locale to locale and with the time of day and meteorological conditions in a given locale. Polluted urban air contains oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, carbon monoxide, ozone, uncombusted and partially combusted hydrocarbons from gasoline and diesel vehicles, and particulate matter. PM 2.5 particulates, the standard for evaluating pollution related to cardiovascular disease, are composed of combustion products, airborne soil, sulfates, nitrates, and heavy metals as listed in Table 29.4.141-45 ... 

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