Air Pollution: Eight areas record unhealthy air quality at noon

Sunday 17 June 2012

Eight areas record unhealthy air quality at noon

KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 — Putrajaya is among the eight areas which recorded unhealthy air quality due to the haze with the air pollution index (API) reading exceeding 100 at noon today.

The API recorded in Putrajaya at 11am was 101.

The other areas which recorded high API were Port Klang (142), Petaling Jaya (131), Shah Alam (130), Banting (120), Kuala Selangor (101) in Selangor as well as Cheras (133) and Batu Muda (128) here.

According to the Department of Environment (DOE) website, www.doe.gov.my, the number of areas with unhealthy air quality rose to eight compared with seven at 7am.

A total of 31 areas from 51 DOE air quality monitoring stations throughout the country which recorded moderate API included areas such as Nilai, Negri Sembilan, with a reading of 100 while 11 other areas recorded good air quality.

An API of 101 to 200 denotes an unhealthy level. Air quality is assumed to be good for an API of zero to 50, moderate for an API of 51 to 100, very unhealthy for an API of 201 to 300 and hazardous for an API of more than 301.

The deterioration in air quality experienced in the Klang Valley now is due to the cross-border haze from Sumatra, Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Meteorological Department forecasts no rain nationwide in the morning but showers in the evening in several states.

According to the department’s website, Malaysia is experiencing the Southwest Monsoon which contributes to the hot and dry weather.

The situation is expected to last until September. — Bernama

Visitors take pictures against the haze covering the Putra Mosque (left) and Putra Perdana, the office of the prime minister, in Putrajaya on June 16, 2012. — Reuters pic June 16, 2012

Source : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/eight-areas-record-unhealthy-air-quality-at-noon

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Ships pour out large quantities of pollutants into the air, principally in the form of sulphur and nitrogen oxides.

The emissions from ships engaged in international trade in the seas surrounding Europe - the Baltic, the North Sea, the north-eastern part of the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea - were estimated to have been 2.3 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide and 3.3 million tonnes of nitrogen oxides a year in 2000.

In contrast to the progress in reducing emissions from land-based sources, shipping emissions of sulphur and nitrogen oxides are expected to continue increasing by as much as 40 per cent by 2020. As a result, by 2020 the emissions from international shipping around Europe is expected to equal or even surpass the total from all land-based sources in the 27 EU member states combined.

Source: http://www.airclim.org/policy/sub6_2.php

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One on the major complaints made by factory reformers concerned the state of the buildings that they children were forced to work in. Dr. Ward, who visited textile factories in Manchester in 1819 wrote: "I have had frequent opportunities of seeing people coming out from the factories and occasionally attending as patients. Last summer I visited three cotton factories with Dr. Clough of Preston and Mr. Barker of Manchester and we could not remain ten minutes in the factory without gasping for breath. How it is possible for those who are doomed to remain there twelve or fifteen hours to endure it? If we take into account the heated temperature of the air, and the contamination of the air, it is a matter of astonishment to my mind, how the work people can bear the confinement for so great a length of time." Read more... Source: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRpollution.htm

In regulating aircraft and airports, several compelling interests compete: safety, international commerce, and environmental quality. Of these, safety issues receive perhaps most of the attention, garnering large headlines in the wake of airplane accidents. But the issue of the effect of airports on the environment and human health has heated up in recent years as public interest and citizen groups contest airport expansion on environmental and health grounds, and the airline and airport industries attempt to meet increasingly stringent regulations in these areas. Airports are known to be major sources of noise, water, and air pollution. They pump carbon dioxide (CO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the atmosphere, as well as dump toxic chemicals—used to de-ice airplanes during winter storms—into waterways. But determining the extent of airplanes' contribution to local, national, and international levels of pollution is difficult—cars and airplanes entering and leaving airports produce roughly equivalent quantities of ozone precursors. Auxiliary power units (APUs), little jet engines in the planes' tails that power appliances while the planes are at the gate, and ground support vehicles also produce quantities of pollutants. And competing local and national political forces make airport pollution hard to regulate; much of the air pollution is local, but automobile and airplane emissions are regulated both nationally and internationally. The growth of air traffic further frustrates mitigation of environmental problems. Air traffic is expected to double nationally by the year 2017 and internationally by 2010, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). At least 32 of the 50 busiest U.S. airports have plans to expand operations, according to a survey conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), published in the environmental group's October 1996 report Flying Off Course: Environmental Impacts of America's Airports. According to the FAA, 60 of the 100 biggest airports want to at least build or extend runways. Source: http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action;jsessionid=24872960250565AD83769411C675A4A9?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%

Engine related air pollution: Vehicles which burn fossil fuels just aren't 100% efficient at that task. Of the fuel that goes into the engine a portion of it comes out unburned. Another part of it is heated by the conditions in the engine and its component molecules are cracked and reformed and a portion of these emerge in the exhaust. There are also other fuel componenets (additive packages, sulfur, detergents) that are either not burnable or only partially consumed and discharges. Finally there is the air that is consumed in the engine. The oxygen is largely combined with carbon to produce carbon dioxide, th nitrogen is combined with oxygen under the engines high heat and pressure to form various nitrogen oxides (lumped together as NOx) Fuel and fuelling related pollution: During fuellig and as the vehicle stands part of the fuel evaporates and is emitted to the ir. This emission contains voltile organic compounds ranging from methane and butane to cyclic compounds like benzene and othe aromatics Other air pollution As a vehicle travels it stirs p road dust which is a particulate air pllutant. In addition the tyres are slowly wearing away shedding latex and artificial rubber as particulate. This is a potential allergen. Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_vehicles_cause_air_pollution#ixzz1d1eHXMcn Source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_vehicles_cause_air_pollution