air pollution is dangerous.

 

Air pollution

By – Bhoomi Motiani

Air pollution is hard to escape, no matter how rich an area you live in. It is all around us. Microscopic pollutants in the air can slip past our body’s defences, penetrating deep into our respiratory and circulatory system, damaging our lungs, heart and brain.

Air pollution is closely linked to climate change - the main driver of climate change is fossil fuel combustion which is also a major contributor to air pollution - and efforts to mitigate one can improve the other. This month, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that coal-fired electricity must end by 2050 if we are to limit global warming rises to 1.5C. If not, we may see a major climate crisis in just 20 years. 

People experience a wide range of health effects from being exposed to air pollution. Effects can be broken down into short-term effects and long-term effects.
Polluted air is a public health hazard that cannot be evaded. It is widely known that long-term exposure to air pollution enhances the risks of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the University Medical Center Mainz now calculated in a new study that the global, public loss of life expectancy caused by air pollution is higher than many other risk factors such as smoking, infectious diseases or violence.

Even healthy people can experience health impacts from polluted air including respiratory irritation or breathing difficulties during exercise or outdoor activities. Your actual risk of adverse effects depends on your current health status, the pollutant type and concentration, and the length of your exposure to the polluted air.

High air pollution levels can cause immediate health problems including:

• Aggravated cardiovascular and respiratory illness
• Added stress to heart and lungs, which must work harder to supply the body with oxygen
• Damaged cells in the respiratory system

Long-term exposure to polluted air can have permanent health effects such as:

• Accelerated aging of the lungs
• Loss of lung capacity and decreased lung function.
• Development of diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and possibly cancer
• Shortened life span.

 

 Health officials, the general public and farmers need advance notice when dangerous air quality levels are on the rise. Researchers and engineers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), in collaboration with other agencies, are dedicated to developing new technologies that directly help decision-makers plan for high-pollution days.

This work allows meteorologists and local planners to:

• Forecast air quality for cities and rural areas days in advance. 
• Project impact of future changes in human activities and climate on air quality.
• Quantify cross-border transport of air pollution. 
• Quantify regional transport of air pollutants within a country.
• Assess societal impacts of air pollution.
• Improve emission estimates.

An Advanced Air-Quality Forecasting System

Current air-quality forecasts are limited. They provide a simple single-value prediction and do not specify the uncertainty associated with the prediction. They also simplistically tell whether ozone levels will be high or low. Much more detail in the forecast is needed, and, with funding from NASA, NCAR and its partners are developing a new capability to produce 48-hour detailed forecasts of ground level ozone and fine particulate matter. This new forecasting capability combines satellite and in situ observations with state-of-the-art modeling and will generate air quality forecasts in fine detail. Just as a weather forecast, for example, might warn of an 80% chance of rain in the afternoon, new air quality forecasts might warn of an 80% chance of high ozone levels during certain times of the day. Such improved forecasts will significantly enhance the decision-making activity in air quality management. This system is being set up over the USA but can be easily applied to any part of the world.

Projection of Future Air Quality

Fine particulate matter predictions over the US.

To quantify future changes in air quality due to changes in future climate and human activities, NCAR has developed a global and regional climate model coupled with chemistry. These models can be used to examine the impact of different emission scenarios on the air quality of any region of the world. They have been used to predict changes in air quality over the USA and India as far out as mid-century (2050).

The model results show that Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 anthropogenic emission scenario can improve the air quality in the USA but not in India.

What are the health consequences of air pollution on populations?

Exposure to high levels of air pollution can cause a variety of adverse health outcomes. It increases the risk of respiratory infections, heart disease and lung cancer.  Both short and long term exposure to air pollutants have been associated with health impacts.  More severe impacts affect people who are already ill.  Children, the elderly and poor people are more susceptible.  The most health-harmful pollutants – closely associated with excessive premature mortality –  are fine PM2.5 particles that penetrate deep into lung passageways.