Pollution levels compared

It has been found that particulate pollution, while causing soiling of materials, may also be responsible for increasing corrosion levels (compared to the corrosion that would be caused by the same level of acid impingement alone) by a process of adsorption. Also, particulates can react synergistically with the acid deposition to cause much greater damage. 

Evidence for this human health linkage has been suggested from (a) epidemiologic studies of exposed human populations, (b) human volunteer studies, and (c) animal experiments 14). Air pollution levels measured in southwestern Ontario, for instance, have been compared with hospital... 

We must also consider the consequences of forty years of ecosystem pollution loading. Compared with soil analyses of heavy metal concentrations made in 1965, cadmium, copper, lead and zinc levels are now elevated 24) to the point where laboratory studies have shown that red spruce root and shoot growth is reduced, growth of obligatory mycorrhizal fungi is repressed and... 

Because the significance of exposure has only been considered over the past few years, there is not as wide a selection of exposure models available as that for fate models. The latter have been applied for several decades to the calculation of ambient exposure levels compared with some standard values. Papers illustrative of human exposure assessments in this symposium include one on airborne pollutant exposure assessments by Anderson (2), a generic approach to estimating exposure in risk studies by Fiksel (5), and a derivation of pollutant limit values in soil or water based on acceptable doses to humans by Rosenblatt, Small and Kainz (6). 

Critical loads and levels are measurable quantitative estimates showing the degree of tolerable exposure of receptors to one or more pollutants. According to present knowledge, when this exposure remains below the critical load and level thresholds, significant harmful effects on specified receptors do not occur (Gregor, 2003). They serve as reference points against which pollution levels can be compared and potential risks to environmental components can be estimated. 

Hydrogen energy is a promising alternative solution because it is clean and environmentally safe. It also produces negligible levels of greenhouse gases and other pollutants when compared with the fossil fuel energy sources they replace. 

The comparably low pollution levels in Berlin - the non-critical area in this comparison - is due to favourable dispersion conditions (flat terrain and moderate oceanic climate), comparably low emissions from industry and domestic heating, low emission densities and effective air quality management. 

Compared to other cities, the modal split of Athens shows a rather high share of private vehicles. Freight transport is also mostly done by road traffic. Even though a ban on private diesel vehicles has been in place since 1992, emissions from traffic are of major importance. The measures proposed in the notification of time extensions and the air quality plan for Athens address the main sources and are aimed at improving public transport. Hence, if these measures are far-reaching enough, if they cover a substantial part of the relevant sources and are implemented in an effective way, a substantial decrease of the pollutant levels can be expected. 

Elsa Reichmanis I don t really find that the regulations are so very onerous from my perspective in a research lab in industry. Now, we do have an organization in place that works with those issues and helps us meet the regulations. However, I think it is very important to work in a safe environment both for the individual and for the entire community. I would hate to be in a situation where the pollution level is through the roof compared to the United States, and hence the quality of life is lower. We are not going to have a safe environment without regulations. 

Several atmospheric aerosol samples were collected in Shanghai and Dalian and PCDD/Fs in total suspended particles were reported (Yang et al., 2004). The mean concentrations of total PCDD/Fs were 55.5 and 19.2 pg m-3, and the mean I-TEQs were 0.928 and 0.334pg m-3, respectively. The predominant congeners were the lower chlorinated congeners. The pollution level is comparable to the general trend of urban industrial sites (0.1-0.4 pg TEQ m-3, Lohmann and Jones, 2000). 

There are important limitations in understanding the spatial and temporal trend of the pollutant levels of waterbirds, which is particularly true in China. Many studies that have been conducted in China have focused on water and sediment. There is limited information of pollutant levels in waterbirds available in China. In addition, a number of studies have investigated target pollutants with different tissue samples of different species. It has been determined that different tissue samples of species of birds can accumulate varying degrees of pollutants. It would be more instructive to compare tissue samples within species. Moreover, it is difficult to adequately compare current results with previous ones (i.e. 1940s-1970s) because of the advanced capability and improved sensitivity of instruments, and the application of different extraction methods and standards for quantification. 

A second type of approach is to compare contamination levels in the media of interest near the site with pollution levels in... 

The use of stable isotopes of mercury to track pathways of inputs and uptake is innovative. The additions will be increased over time to levels comparable to the current mercury deposition in the northeastern US. The work is ongoing and, as of 2002, one paper has been published (Hintelmann et al., 2002). We wish to reemphasize that in productive near-shore regions of marine ecosystems, the legacy of pollution derived mercury in the surficial sediments is likely to predominate over new mercury as a substrate for methylation. The intense bioturbation in coastal marine sediments can keep much historical mercury active, relative to the more quiescent sediments of lakes. Unfortunately, the mechanistic predictions for declines in fish mercury levels following controls on mercury emissions, derived from the anticipated successful METAALICUS program, will not be applicable to the marine environment. 

Comparatively high pollution levels from 15 to lOOng/nv are characteristic of central Russia, UK, France and Mediterranean coastal area of Spain. The countries of North Europe are the less polluted. 

An important factor in determining the extent of air pollution in urban areas is whether the atmosphere is stable (poor mixing, accumulation of pollutants) or unstable (good mixing and dispersion of pollutants). Whether the atmosphere is stable or unstable depends on how the temperature profile (the so-called lapse rate) in the atmosphere near ground level compares with the adiabatic lapse rate. The adiabatic lapse... 

In EEC terminology an environmental queJity objective expresses the maximum pollution levels to be satisfied in the environment in order to safeguard an effective protection of the ecosystem by taking into accoimt the so -called zero-effect evaluation (EEC, 1973). The term is comparable with the water quality criteria applied by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA, 1987) and by the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Committee (Uoyd and Ctilamari, 1987), and also with the concepts of environmental concern level of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 1992) and maximum permissible concentration... 

In this study, the general stams of metal pollution was analyzed for each of all four metals based on the annual mean concentration data derived from 13 individual cities (Table 2). In Table 3, a statistical summary of the concentration data is presented to allow inter-aimual variations of each metal across 13 cities. To facilitate comparison of metal pollution levels across different cities, the metal concentrations for each city are compared by their mean values for the entire study period (Fig. 2). The results indicate that cities with similar levels of pollution, especially highly industrialized ones, can stiU be distinguished fairly effectively by... 

Nonetheless, the patterns of Pb, if compared between individual cities, tend to be distinguished greatly, especially between cities of different Pb pollution levels. In the case of cities with higher Pb levels, a pattern of general decline can be... 

Summitt and Fink [41] developed an environmental corrosion severity classification system for steel aluminum, magnesium, and titanium aircraft alloys. The corrosion damage algorithm (CDA) is shown in Fig. 10.10. This classification takes into account either the distance from saltwater or moisture levels. When the CDA considers the moisture levels in an atmosphere, the values of the concentration of the pollutants are compared with those listed in the Working Environmental Corrosion Standards (WECS) [42],... 

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