BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Although the deleterious effects of air pollution from fossil fuel combustion have been demonstrated in many Western nations, fewer studies have been conducted in Asia. The Public Health and Air Pollution in Asia (PAPA) project assessed the effects of short-term exposure to air pollution on daily mortality in Bangkok, Thailand, and in three cities in China: Hong Kong, ...

Novel mobile electronic-nose (e-nose) devices and algorithms capable of real-time detection of industrial and municipal pollutants, released from point-sources, recently have been developed by scientists worldwide that are useful for monitoring specific environmental-pollutant levels for enforcement and implementation of effective pollution-abatement programs. E-nose devices are ideal instrumen...

Until the early 70s, it was thought that pollution was a phenomenon circumscribed to zones where pollutants were generated. Because of that, in each country concern was limited to regions where pollutant concentration was higher or its danger was greater. However, it has gradually become aware that pollution is a problem that affects everybody and, because of that, everybody is responsible to c...

In the early days of abundant resources and minimal development pressures, little attention was paid to growing environmental concerns in Malaysia. The haze episodes in Southeast Asia in 1983, 1984, 1991, 1994, and 1997 imposed threats to the environmental management of Malaysia and increased awareness of the environment. As a consequence, the government established Malaysian Air Quality Guidel...

Air pollution in China comes from multiple sources, including coal consumption, construction and industrial dust, and vehicle exhaust. Coal consumption in particular directly determines the emissions of three major air pollutants: dust, sulfur dioxide (SO(2)), and nitrogen oxide (NOx). The rapidly increasing number of civilian vehicles is expected to bring NOx emission to a very high level. Con...

This paper examines the significant differences in seasonal variations of air pollutants concentrations at urban, industrial, commercial and agricultural areas of Uttarakhand. PM10 (RSPM), suspended particulate matter (SPM), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) were collected over four sites in Haridwar and Dehradun Valley, Uttarakhand. The first one, Shivalik Nagar, Haridwar is a...

The effects of air pollution on health have been recognized for many hundreds of years. In London, during December 1952, a particularly bad smog, which involved extreme elevations of both SO 2 and black smoke, was associated with more than 1,000 extra deaths during a 5-d period (1). The majority of the pollution responsible for smogs is derived from the domestic and industrial burning of fossil...

Taihu Lake is located at the center of Changjiang delta region, the Lake and its effluent rivers are important water sources for 40 million around inhabitants and rapidly increasing industrial factories in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The pollutants originate mainly from acidy rain, home sewage of the vast number of inhabitants, livestock manure, agricultural fertilizers & pesticides applied...

BACKGROUND The elevation and dissipation of pollutants after the ignition of fireworks in different functional areas of a valley city were investigated. METHODS The Air Quality Index (AQI) as well as inter-day and intra-day concentrations of various air pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, CO, O3) were measured during two episodes that took place during Chinese New Year festivities. RESULTS F...

Industries play a vital part in progress of human civilization. The process of industrialization leads to several detrimental effects on human health and environment with its toxic discharges. Among several developing countries, India is considered as a country having huge natural resources with emerging industrial avenues for satisfying the growing demands of ever-increasing population. As a r...