Pollution roses

Pollution roses are constructed by plotting either the average concentration for each direction or the frequency of concentrations above some particular concentration. Pollution roses for two pollutants at two times of the year are shown in Fig. 21-10, with wind frequencies by two speed classes... 

The behavior of these pollution roses is intuitively plausible, because considerable hydrocarbon emissions come from motor vehicles which are operated in both winter and summer and travel throughout the urban area. On the other hand, sulfur dioxide is released largely from the burning of coal and fuel oil. Space heating emissions are high in winter and low in summer. The SO2 emissions in summer are probably due to only a few point sources, such as power plants, and result in low average concentrations from each direction as well as large directional variability. 

Concentrations resulting from dispersion models can also be depicted using a form of pollution rose. Figure 21-11 is a concentration rose for a... 

Another attempt to compare cardiorespiratory deaths with photo-chemical-oxidant pollution was carried out by Mills, who compared seasonally adjusted nursing-home deaths in Los Angeles with measures of photochemical-oxidant pollution. He found a suggestive positive association between photochemical-oxidant concentration and excess deaths when pollution rose above 390 ng/m (0.2 ppm). Although heat and seasonal variability were considered, the statistical analyses used make it questionable whether their effect could be suppressed. 

Fig. 2.7 Time-weighted pollution rose for inorganic lead measured at three rural sites aroimd...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of chemical elements uptake by rock rose (a well adapted plant to mine environments) in natural attenuation by phytostabilization of soils polluted during different periods of mining activity and abandon. 

The tides of fortune rise and ebb, and by the 21st century, MTBE was found to be polluting aquifers. In addition, the efficacy of adding oxygenates to gasoline as older cars were junked became contentious. The bloom fell off the MTBE rose, and the petroleum industry has to decide what to do with all the MTBE capacity, most of which is in refineries. 

Korth, M. W., A. H. Rose, Jr., and R. C. Stahman. Effects of hydrocarbon to oxides of nitrogen ratios on irradiated auto exhaust. Part I. J. Air Pollut. Control Assoc. 14 168-175, 1964. 

The costs of incinerators and their pollution potential have made them far less popular in the United States than in many other parts of the world. (A form of incineration known as high temperature combustion remains a major method of waste disposal in Japan and some parts of Europe, however.) After World War II, construction of new incinerators decreased until the total number of plants in the United States fell to an all-time low of about 15 in I960. Then the number rose for two decades before declining once more to the current level of about II2 incinerators, as shown in the graph. A major factor in the latest shift away from incineration as a method of waste disposal was the 1970 Clean Air Act, which strictly limited the amount and... 

Natural Pollution of the Oceans, Frequently overlooked is what may be termed natural 1 pollution, which, when coupled with artificial (anthropogenic) pollution, contributes to the sum total of all pollutants found in fresh and ocean waters worldwide. Deep fissures in the ocean floor, fumaroles, and seamounts (underwater volcanoes) release megatons of sulfur-laden and other noxious gases into ocean water other discontinuities in the ocean basins release vast quantities of crude oil and other hydrocarbons. Surface volcanoes are major contributors to atmospheric pollution, much of which ultimately affects Earth s hydrosphere. The present dissolved solids content of the oceans represents natural water pollution that has taken place ever since the land masses rose above sea level—through a constant erosion of soil. 

Source apportionment studies are frequently complemented by air mass origin analyses to identify where high pollution levels or certain compounds of interest come from. For small to meso scales this can be done by, e.g. wind rose analysis, whereas long-range transport is better assessed by using back trajectories calculated by a suitable dispersion model [20],... 

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