air pollution episodes and disasters

Air Pollution Episodes and

DisastersKetan WadodkarM.Tech. 1st Year Environmental EngineeringUnder guidance of B.R. Gurjar

Meuse Valley, Belgium, 1930, Dec 2-5

•Meuse valley contains farms, villages, steel mills and chemical plant.

•Thermal inversion trapped fog over a stretch of 20kms of Meuse valley.

•Effects:▫Nausea, short breath, stinging eyes, and

burning throats.▫60 people died, and thousand more were

ill due to a unknown disease.

Donora, Pennsylvania, 1948, Oct 30-31

Donora, Pennsylvania, 1948

Location:

Western, Pennsylvania on the Monongahela River

50 km south of Pittsburgh

It’s a valley.

•Well known for Steel and Coal projects.

•Vast amount of natural resources.

•Major industrial location having prime manufacturing and shipping location causing industrial boom in America after world wars.

•About 14000 people lives on west bank.

•1000 people lives on Webster village on another bank.

•On October 26, a east coast storm was replaced by a cloud anticyclone advancing from south west.

•This created inversion as high pressure zone was stagnated over western Pennsylvania for 5 days.

•The poor ventilation aggravated by local conditions of meteorology and pollutant emission.

•SO2 from US steel and temperature inversion was main reasons

Reasons for the episode•Radiative inversion was observed.

•Also the temperature gradient was recorded very high.

• the pollutants in the air mixing with fog to form a thick, yellowish, acrid smog that hung over Donora for five days.

•PM = 4mg/m3, SO2= 0.5 ppm.

• During the episode 43% of population experienced the effect from smog. 17% were moderately affected and 10% were severely affected.

• 20 humans and nearly 800 animals killed during the incident

• autopsy results showing fluorine levels in victims in the lethal range, as much as 20 times higher than normal.

• Fluorine gas generated in the zinc smelting process became trapped by the stagnant air and was the primary cause of the deaths.

•December 1952

•Lasted 5 days

•A period of cold weather, anticyclone, also pollutant from use of coal.

The “GREAT” London smog

London smog

Consequences of london smog

Reasons•Low grade coal use, sulphurous variety post-

war.•numerous coal-fired power stations in the

Greater London area,including Battersea, Bankside, and Kingston upon Thames

•smoke from vehicle exhaust, especially diesel-fuelled buses

•Prevailing winds blown heavily polluted air across the English Channel from industrial areas of Europe .

•medical reports estimated that 4,000 had died prematurely

•100,000 more were ill because of the smog's effects on the human respiratory tract.

• fatalities was at about 12,000.

Los Angeles Smog, July 1973

•A classical photochemical smog episode.•A average of 63 pphm oxidants were

observed.•Ozone concentrations were observed to

be highest in the studies of air quality.•Brown haze over the town was observed

for 3 days.•It was PAN smog which affected the city.

Reason and effects:•Vehicular emission

is mainly responsible.

•Also Los Angeles is valley so it contributed inversion.

•NOx from combustion of fuels.

•The loss of visibility•And respiratory

problems were common.

Bhopal gas tragedy

•Night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India.

•MIC: Clear, colorless, B.P. 39deg C, odor threshold 2.1ppm

Reason•A leak of methyl isocyanate gas and

other chemicals from the plant.•water entered a tank containing 42 tons

of MIC.•The resulting exothermic reaction

increased the temperature inside the tank to over 200 °C (392 °F) and raised the pressure.

•The gases were blown by northwesterly winds over Bhopal

•40000kg of MIC was released in Bhopal on 3rd Dec.

• Effects of 0.4 ppm▫Coughing▫Chest pain▫Breathing pain

(dyspnea)▫Asthma▫Eye irritation ▫Nose, throat, skin

damage

• Effects of 21 ppm▫Lung oedema▫Emphysema

(damage of lung tissue)

▫hemorrhaging▫bronchial

pneumonia▫death

•170,000 people were treated at hospitals and temporary dispensaries.

•2,000 buffalo, goats, and other animals were collected and buried.

• leaves on trees yellowed and fell off.•Fishing was prohibited•520,000 people were affected, 200,000

were below 15yrs.•3,928 deaths had been certified. But it is

considered around 20000 people were died.

Kuwait oil fires•Caused by Iraqi military forces setting fire

to 700 oil wells as part of a scorched earth policy during Gulf war in 1991.

•The fires started in January and February 1991 and the last one was extinguished by November 1991.

•around 6 million barrels (950,000 m3) of oil were lost each day.

•The byproducts of the petroleum burn caused pollution to the soil and air, known as Gulf war syndrome.

fig:- Gulf War

Consequences•dramatic decrease in air quality, causing

respiratory problems for many Kuwaitis.

•mixture of desert sand + unignited oil + soot formed layers of "tarcrete" which covered nearly 5% of the country.

• the oil has continued to sink into the sand affecting Kuwait's precious groundwater resources.

Yokkaichi Asthma• In Japan in 1960 and

1972.•Due to burning of

petroleum and other fuels.

•Resulted in release of SO2.

•Causing chronic pulmonary diseases, chronic Bronchitis,

pulmonary emphysema, bronchial asthma in people.

Other air pollution disasters through the world

•1983 Melbourne dust storm:▫was a meteorological

phenomenon that occurred during the afternoon of 8 February 1983.

▫Red soil, dust and sand from Central and Southeastern Australia was swept up in high winds and carried southeast through Victoria.

▫Was seen as precursor to the Ash Wednesday

bushfires.

•2005 Malaysian haze:▫a week-long choking smog-like haze over

Malaysia that almost brought the central part of Peninsular Malaysia to a standstill

•The 1997 Southeast Asian haze:▫caused mainly by slash and burn

techniques adopted by farmers in Indonesia.

▫causes respiratory symptoms such as asthma, upper respiratory infection

▫decreased lung function as well as eye and skin irritation due to particulate matter.

Control Initiatives due to these episodes.• World recognized that exposure to large amounts

of pollution in a short period of time can result in injuries and fatalities.

• The event is credited for helping to trigger the clean-air movement in the United States,.

• Clean Air Act of 1970 was employed, which required the United States Environmental Protection Agency to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from exposure to hazardous airborne contaminants.

• Legislation such as the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968, and the City of London (Various Powers) Act 1954, restricted air pollution greatly.

References

•Wikipedia.•Google.•US EPA website.• J Black, Intussusceptions and the great

smog of London, December 1952 Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1040–1042

Thank YouQuery?