Air Pollution: The Causes, Issues and Solutions

Dr. Gary Robertshaw

According to a study by the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) into UK air pollution ‘chronic exposure to PM (air pollution particles) contributes to the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer’. As well as this it can ‘either have a cooling or a warming effect on climate’ and it ‘also has a key role in the ecosystem impacts of air pollution.’
While this study also points out that there has ‘been a long term decrease in the emissions of all the pollutants covered by this statistical release’, the unfortunate reality is there are still significant amounts of pollutants within the UK’s air. Furthermore, the worldwide situation according to the World Health Organisation is particularly shocking with estimates revealing that one in eight of total global deaths were as a result of air pollution exposure.

It almost goes without saying really but something needs to be done to help improve the quality of the world’s air and indeed the quality of life for those affected. In this post we examine just what air pollution is, what the common causes of it are and look at any potential ecologically-friendly solutions to this global problem.

Air Pollution Explained

Air pollution is essentially when the atmosphere is contaminated by different agents, be it from a physical, chemical or perhaps biological alteration. These contaminants then make the otherwise clean air dangerous to breathe and harmful to plants, humans and animals alike. The causes of these agents can be both because of human action but also from natural causes.
A few examples of pollutants are carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, lead and organic compounds.

The Effects of Air Pollution

As aforementioned in the Defra study, the negative effects are the damaging impacts on human health, plant and animal life and the increase in the rate in global warming. Other problems that this can cause includes damage to the planet’s protective ozone layer, which we need to stop UV rays. What’s more when these contaminants get into the atmosphere they can mix with water droplets and fall as acid rain; again causing damage.

Common Causes

Some of the common causes of air pollution really should come as no surprise, these include:

• The burning of fossil fuels in industry, fuels for transportation and the creation of gas and electricity
• Chemical emissions from other industries

Other causes which might not be as widely-known include:

• Using everyday items like deodorants and other household goods like cleaning products, paints and also smoke from fireplaces.
• Pesticides and other chemicals used by farmers to protect crops

Potential Solutions?

Some of the straightforward, and ultimately environmentally-friendly, ways you can help limit the amount of air pollution created involve:

• Using your vehicle less and reducing the amount of gas and electricity you use at home
• Involving yourself in recycling programmes

Aside from simply doing your part to cut back your personal consumption of fossil fuels, other solutions to air pollution can be found on a larger, and arguably more significant level. Both you and businesses alike could choose alternative renewable energy sources such as solar power or investing in wind turbines. Along with this, businesses with high consumption or contaminant output can invest in new, greener machinery or upgrade their systems with emissions controlling technologies.
Whatever your choice what’s important is you act now to help improve the situation not just for you personally, but for the longevity of the planet and for the current and future generations of the human race.

The dilemma of owning a car and being eco-friendly

The RAC believes one third of motorists have left the car in the drive more often because of petrol costs. But while higher fuel prices have gone some way to reducing the number of unnecessary car journeys it is obvious that the UK remains a nation addicted to the car.
It is a fact of life, however, that driving a car is more or less unavoidable and those of us with a family, in practice, have no choice but to buy one. That can be a real headache, but there are ways of limiting the impact.
Do you have to own one?Of course the best way to lessen the damage of driving is to do it as little as possible. A car is a costly possession if you don’t need it and with very reasonable temporary car insurance quotes allowing you to drive friend’s or family’s cars for 1-28 days, not to mention the plethora of car rental options, owning one might not be necessary.
Green carsIn late 2010, on the eve of a classic-car rally between London and Brighton, 60 ‘eco-friendly’ cars did the route in reverse, promoting the growth of cars that minimised carbon emissions.

In amongst the prototypes were established, mass-produced vehicles like the Toyota Auris and Prius, and the VW BlueMotion Golf.

There is no denying that green cars have made significant strides in recent years, with more motorists attracted by their green credentials, as well as the savings they can achieve through lower fuel consumption and lower road tax. Unquestionably, these cars have a lower environmental impact.

But the solution they currently present is far from perfect. Many of the cars still use petrol in some capacity, while the provenance of the electricity used to charge fully electric models is a serious issue – the damage done by fully charging a car on coal-fired electricity is essentially the same as filling a conventional car with unleaded.
Petrol or dieselAnother issue presented by the electric and hybrid interlopers is their expense and size. It is unlikely a larger family would consider a Toyota Prius the perfect fit.
That leaves many with no option but to opt for an orthodox model. Both diesel and petrol come from refining crude oil so their green credentials are limited, but diesel has a greater oil density, meaning more power is liberated when it is burned. That makes it more efficient and meaning 10-20% less CO2 is generated per mile.
Reducing emissions furtherThe most cost-efficient way of driving regularly and limiting your emissions is to look at how you drive. Maximum fuel efficiency is usually around 55mph with amount of fuel guzzled increasing by 15% for every 10mph above that. If you have to drive on motorways, sticking to the inside lane is the greenest place to be. Turn off the air conditioning, make sure you aren’t carrying needless weight and drive smoothly. Don’t leave the engine running and make sure your tyres are at their optimum pressure.

 

 

Which are the UK’s most polluted cities?

Britain is one of the most congested countries in the world, with some studies suggesting that the average British motorist spends over 200 days of their life in traffic jams. London is the worst city, with around 35 per cent of the capital’s roads regularly congested according to the satnav company TomTom. Other cities with high levels of traffic congestion include Edinburgh, Manchester, Bradford, Oxford and Birmingham.

 

It isn’t just the frustration and inefficiency caused by traffic congestion that is a concern. Traffic pollution is believed to be responsible for a growing number of new cases of asthma in children. A report in the Guardian also claims that poor air quality is the cause of more than 4,000 deaths in London each year. So bad is the pollution in our capital that the EU is threatening to impose fines for failure to meet legal limits.

 

With a growing UK population density it is clear that we cannot continue to fill our roads with increasing volumes of traffic. This simply isn’t sustainable in the long-term and it poses a growing problem to our health, particularly children who live in the most polluted cities.

50,000 people a year are dying prematurely due to poor air quality

Did you know that as many as 50,000 people a year are dying prematurely due to poor air quality? That’s more than 20 times the number that die in road accidents in the UK each year! Whilst other factors are to blame, road transport is the worst offender at putting ‘nasties’ (NOx, Hydrocarbons and Particulates) into the air.

Pollutants like these can cause asthma, skin and eye irritation, poor lung development, heart disease, cancer and lung disease. All of these could be cutting people's lives short by as much as nine years.

Volvo Cars UK wants to do something about it, and this is how:

They are developing an iPhone app, which will let you search a vehicle’s make and model, and delivers easy-to-understand information that clearly illustrates the Nasties coming from the exhaust pipe of the car you drive, or are thinking of buying.
They want to launch an environmental label (just like the one you see on cars and fridges now) that will be used alongside the CO2 label displayed in new and used car showrooms. The label, like the app, will tell you just how many Nasties are emitted by a particular car's exhaust.

They are also setting up the Emissions Equality Think Tank, which will help keep people talking about air quality so governments and decision-makers take notice and do something about cleaning up our air.

To support the campaign they have developed a great animation which helps explain the issues in an easily to understand way. You can watch the video here

http://www.volvocars.com/uk/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.facebook.com/#!/insidevolvouk?ref=ts.

Air pollution and driving

Radical shift in transport policy needed to cut air pollution

Dr. Gary Robertshaw
March 2010

Air pollution is taking up to nine years off the lives of people who live in pollution hotspots or who have a respiratory illness, according to a report by the UK House of Commons' Environmental Audit Committee. Tiny particles of sulphate, carbon and dust are the most damaging to health, but nitrogen oxides and ozone also have an effect. In fact, the UK is in breach of European regulations for all of these, and could face fines of up to £300 million. Road transport is the main culprit. Power plants also churn out damaging particles but mostly away from cities.

Only a radical shift in transport policy will allow the UK to meet its targets, the report concludes. "But such a shift is unlikely to occur in the next 10 years, unless the government starts taking sustainable transport seriously," says Paul Firmin of the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds, UK.

Our view is that the incentive for drivers of large, inefficient vehicles such as 4x4s to switch to smaller, fuel-efficient cars is far too weak. A very significant increase in the road tax for the largest vehicles, most polluting vehicles is needed.

Finally, this isn’t just another debate surrounding global warming. It’s about ordinary people like us (I am asthmatic), who don’t want to be literally choked to death by air pollution.