Following publication of a report that more
than three million people in Britain suffer from asthma and
nine million experience breathing problems, the National
Asthma Campaign (NAC) has called for the setting up of regular
"air pollution counts".
Delyth Morgan, the NAC's director
of campaigns, said: "We would like to see a better forecasting
and monitoring system for air pollution. We are planning to
meet the Met Office and local authorities to devise a system
whereby people can get information about air pollution levels.
We want to improve air quality and set targets".
The NAC's
report said that 1.3 million children and 1.8 million adults
have asthma. The number of children with the condition has
doubled since the 1970s. Some 1,877 people died from asthma in
1994. The direct cost of treating asthma is estimated at
£450 million; if indirect costs such as time off work are
taken into account, the figure exceeds £1 billion.
To
coincide with the publication of the report, the NAC unveiled
a poster at a major road junction in London to highlight the
damaging effect of air pollution on the lungs. The poster had
a message written in invisible glue which gradually became
legible as dirt stuck to it. After a week it was already
becoming visible. A week later it clearly read: "This poster
has been up for just two weeks. Imagine what your lungs must
look like".
SOURCES INCLUDE: Guardian 25
August
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Europe-wide heatwave leads to
unprecedented ozone levels
Air quality in cities
deteriorated sharply during the heatwave which affected
northern and western Europe in particular in July and August
[see also Global Warming section, above]. Levels of
ozone pollution were well in excess of World Health
Organization (WHO) guidelines for much of the period.
Causing stinging eyes and breathing difficulties, ground-level
ozone is created mainly when vehicle exhaust fumes mix with
atmospheric gases and react with sunlight. The problem was
exacerbated this summer by stable weather conditions, which
meant the pollution was not blown away.
Many national and
local governments urged motorists to leave cars at home and
took limited measures to reduce car traffic. Some also
considered more sweeping measures: the German federal
government, for instance, announced it was considering banning
all cars without catalytic converters.
In the event no
such measures were taken, as seasonally reduced city traffic
during the holiday season, spells of windier weather and the
breaking of the heatwave caused air quality to improve again
in the course of August.
SOURCES INCLUDE:
Guardian 2, 3, 9 August; Financial Times 18 August; Le Monde
21, 23, 24, 26 July, 4, 5 August
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Mexico fuel leaks to blame for
pollution?
The major cause of air pollution in Mexico
City þ by some accounts the world's most polluted city þ is
not traffic or industry but leaks from millions of portable
gas tanks for cooking and heating, scientists from the
University of California at Irvine claim.
Writing in
Science, Sherwood Rowland and Donald R. Blake argue
that liquid petroleum gas (LPG) may be responsible for as much
as half the emissions of hydrocarbons in Mexico City (which in
turn mix with atmospheric gases and react with sunlight to
produce ozone, a principal component of the city's smog).
Air samples taken over a three-year period contained very high
amounts of propane, butane and butene. These hydrocarbons are
not contained in petrol or industrial fuels, but are plentiful
in the LPG used in Mexico City. Huge quantities of unburnt LPG
thus seem to be leaking into the atmosphere.
The two
scientists suggest this is caused by the way in which LPG is
distributed. Because Mexico City is prone to earthquakes, the
gas is not piped to homes but supplied in portable pressurized
tanks which people connect to their stoves and heaters. "When
you have a million amateurs installing gas tanks, it isn't
surprising there are leaks", Rowland observed.
Other
scientists and Mexican officials have cast doubt on the
controversial conclusion, which runs counter to the received
wisdom that vehicle exhaust fumes and industrial emissions are
the main causes of pollution.
The Mexican Environment
Ministry has said it will study the report and will consider
improvements in the production and distribution of
LPG.
SOURCES INCLUDE: International Herald
Tribune 19 August; New Scientist 26 August
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Austrian trial with new petrol
additives
Some 100 petrol stations in Vienna, the
Austrian capital, have been experimenting with a reformulated
petrol that should reduce polluting emissions. The new fuel
contains methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) and other
oxygenates, which are more effective than aromatic additives
in helping petrol to burn.
The environment ministry has
said it wants to introduce the new fuel permanently to reduce
emissions from cars without catalytic
converters.
SOURCES INCLUDE: New Scientist 19
August
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The
Confederation of Business and Industry (NHO), Norway's main
employers' association, has proposed a scheme for tradeable
permits to help reduce sulphur-dioxide emissions.
Under
the scheme, companies would be allocated emission vouchers
valid for 15 years which could be traded, bought, sold or
banked for future use (but not used in advance).
The
scheme, which has been introduced in the United States but
would be the first in Europe, could cut the cost to industry
of meeting the government's emission reduction targets from
400 million kroner to 60 million kroner annually, according to
the NHO.
SOURCES INCLUDE: Financial Times 22
August
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