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UNIVERSITY FOR BUSINESS STUDIES BANJA LUKA

FACULTY FOR ECOLOGY


SEMINARY PAPER


Subject: Business language- English

Theme: Air pollution



Student: Professor:
Mladen Pandi Prof. Gordana Viekruna

May, 2011





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1.0 CAPTION

Air is the part of the Earth's atmosphere that living organisms breathe. It is made up of
78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% other substances (including water vapor).
Air pollution includes all contaminants found in the atmosphere. These dangerous substances can
be either in the form of gases or particles.
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause
harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural
environment or built environment, into the atmosphere.
The atmosphere is a complex dynamic natural gaseous system that is essential to support life on
planet Earth. Stratospheric ozone depletiondue to air pollution has long been recognized as a threat
to human health as well as to the Earth's ecosystems.











Picture No.1. Air pollutions






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2.0 POLLUTANTS

A substance in the air that can cause harm to humans and the environment is known as an air
pollutant. Pollutants can be in the form of solid particles, liquid droplets, or gases. In addition, they
may be natural or man-made.
Pollutants can be classified as primary or secondary. Usually, primary pollutants are directly emitted
from a process, such as ash from a volcanic eruption, the carbon monoxide gas from a motor
vehicle exhaust or sulfur dioxide released from factories. Secondary pollutants are not emitted
directly. Rather, they form in the air when primary pollutants react or interact. An important example
of a secondary pollutant is ground level ozone - one of the many secondary pollutants that make up
photochemical smog. Some pollutants may be both primary and secondary: that is, they are both
emitted directly and formed from other primary pollutants.
About 4 percent of deaths in the United States can be attributed to air pollution, according to the
Environmental Science Engineering Program at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Major primary pollutants produced by human activity include:
Sulfur oxides (SO
x
) - especially sulphur dioxide, a chemical compound with the formula SO
2
.
SO
2
is produced by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum
often contain sulphur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide. Further oxidation
of SO
2
, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as NO
2
, forms H
2
SO
4
, and thus acid rain.[2]
This is one of the causes for concern over the environmental impact of the use of these fuels as
power sources.
Nitrogen oxides (NO
x
) - especially nitrogen dioxide are emitted from high temperature
combustion. Can be seen as the brown haze dome above or plume downwind of cities. Nitrogen
dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula NO
2
. It is one of the several nitrogen oxides.
This reddish-brown toxic gas has a characteristic sharp, biting odor. NO
2
is one of the most
prominent air pollutants.
Carbon monoxide - is a colourless, odorless, non-irritating but very poisonous gas. It is a
product by incomplete combustion of fuel such as natural gas, coal or wood. Vehicular exhaust
is a major source of carbon monoxide.
Carbon dioxide (CO
2
) - a colourless, odorless, non-toxic greenhouse gas associated with ocean
acidification, emitted from sources such as combustion, cement production, and respiration





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Secondary pollutants include:
Particulate matter formed from gaseous primary pollutants and compounds in photochemical
smog. Smog is a kind of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog.
Classic smog results from large amounts of coal burning in an area caused by a mixture of
smoke and sulfur dioxide. Modern smog does not usually come from coal but from vehicular and
industrial emissions that are acted on in the atmosphere by ultraviolet light from the sun to form
secondary pollutants that also combine with the primary emissions to form photochemical smog.
Ground level ozone (O
3
) formed from NO
x
and VOCs. Ozone (O
3
) is a key constituent of the
troposphere. It is also an important constituent of certain regions of the stratosphere commonly
known as the Ozone layer. Photochemical and chemical reactions involving it drive many of the
chemical processes that occur in the atmosphere by day and by night. At abnormally high
concentrations brought about by human activities (largely the combustion of fossil fuel), it is a
pollutant, and a constituent of smog.
Peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) - similarly formed from NO
x
and VOCs.


3.0. POLLUTION SOURCES

Sources of air pollution refer to the various locations, activities or factors which are responsible for
the releasing of pollutants into the atmosphere. These sources can be classified into two major
categories which are:
Anthropogenic sources (human activity) mostly related to burning different kinds of fuel
"Stationary Sources" include smoke stacks of power plants, manufacturing facilities (factories)
and waste incinerators, as well as furnaces and other types of fuel-burning heating devices (
Picture 2 )
"Mobile Sources" include motor vehicles, marine vessels, aircraft and the effect of sound etc.
Chemicals, dust and controlled burn practices in agriculture and forestry management.
Controlled or prescribed burning is a technique sometimes used in forest management, farming,
prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. Fire is a natural part of both forest and
grassland ecology and controlled fire can be a tool for foresters. Controlled burning stimulates
the germination of some desirable forest trees, thus renewing the forest.
Fumes from paint, hair spray, varnish, aerosol sprays and other solvents


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Waste deposition in landfills, which generate methane. Methane is not toxic; however, it is highly
flammable and may form explosive mixtures with air. Methane is also an asphyxiant and may
displace oxygen in an enclosed space. Asphyxia or suffocation may result if the oxygen
concentration is reduced to below 19.5% by displacement
Military, such as nuclear weapons, toxic gases, germ warfare and rocketry






Picture No. 2. Anthropogenic air pollution

Natural sources
Dust from natural sources, usually large areas of land with little or no vegetation
Methane, emitted by the digestion of food by animals, for example cattle
Radon gas from radioactive decay within the Earth's crust. Radon is a colorless, odorless,
naturally occurring, radioactive noble gas that is formed from the decay of radium. It is
considered to be a health hazard. Radon gas from natural sources can accumulate in buildings,
especially in confined areas such as the basement and it is the second most frequent cause of
lung cancer, after cigarette smoking
Smoke and carbon monoxide from wildfires
Vegetation, in some regions, emits environmentally significant amounts of VOCs on warmer
days. These VOCs react with primary anthropogenic pollutantsspecifically, NO
x
, SO
2
, and
anthropogenic organic carbon compoundsto produce a seasonal haze of secondary
pollutants.
[6]

Volcanic activity, which produce sulfur, chlorine, and ash particulates ( Picture No.3 )



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Picture No. 3. Vulcanic activity as part of natural pollution


4.0. GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming is the current rise in the average temperature of Earth's oceans and atmosphere.
The scientific consensus is that global warming is occurring and was initiated by human activities,
especially those that increase concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as
deforestation and burning of fossil fuels. This finding is recognized by the national science
academies of all the major industrialized countries and is not rejected by any scientific body of
national or international standing.
During the 20th century, global surface temperature increased by about 0.74 C (1.33 F).
Using computer models of the climate system based on six greenhouse-gas emission scenarios, the
2007 Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC)
projected that global surface temperature is likely to rise 1.1 to 6.4 C (2.0 to 11.5 F) by 2100,

and
the upper limit of that range does not include any warming from the potential release of certain
carbon cycle feedbacks. By 2010, more recent observations of emissions made the A1FI
scenario the "business as usual" case, and confirmed that "the worst-case IPCC scenario
trajectories or even worse are being realised".

Recent research including some carbon cycle
feedbacks predicts a global average temperature rise of 4C by the 2070's.
An increase in global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and
pattern of precipitation, probably including expansion of subtropical deserts. Warming is expected to
be strongest in the Arctic and would be associated with continuing retreat of
glaciers, permafrost and sea ice. Other likely effects of the warming include more frequent
occurrence of extreme weather events including heatwaves, droughts and heavy rainfall
events, species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes, and changes in agricultural yields.
Warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe, though the nature of


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these regional changes is uncertain. In a 4C world, the limits for human adaptation are likely to be
exceeded in many parts of the world, while the limits for adaptation for natural systems would
largely be exceeded throughout the world. Hence, the ecosystem services upon which human
livelihoods depend would not be preserved.


5.0. GREENHOUSE EFFECT

The greenhouse effect ( Picture No. 4 ) is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary
surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since
part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface, energy is transferred to the surface and the
lower atmosphere. As a result, the temperature there is higher than it would be if direct heating by
solar radiation were the only warming mechanism.
Solar radiation at the high frequencies of visible light passes through the atmosphere to warm the
planetary surface, which then emits this energy at the lower frequencies of infrared thermal
radiation. Infrared radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases, which in turn re-radiate much of the
energy to the surface and lower atmosphere. The mechanism is named after the effect of solar
radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse, but the way it retains heat is
fundamentally different as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow, isolating the warm air inside the
structure so that heat is not lost by convection.
The greenhouse effect was discovered by Joseph Fourier in 1824, first reliably experimented on
by John Tyndall in 1858, and first reported quantitatively by Svante Arrhenius in 1896.
If an ideal thermally conductive blackbody was the same distance from the Sun as the Earth is, it
would have a temperature of about 5.3 C. However, since the Earth reflects about 30% (or 28%) of
the incoming sunlight, the planet's effective temperature (the temperature of a blackbody that would
emit the same amount of radiation) is about 18 or 19 C, about 33C below the actual surface
temperature of about 14 C or 15 C. The mechanism that produces this difference between the
actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as
the greenhouse effect.
Global warming, a recent warming of the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere, is believed to be
the result of a strengthening of the greenhouse effect mostly due to human-produced increases in
atmospheric greenhouse gases.


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Picture No. 4. The greenhouse effect



6.0. ACID RAIN

Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it
possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic
animals, and infrastructure through the process of wet deposition. Acid rain is caused by emissions
of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides which react with the watermolecules in the atmosphere to
produce acids. Governments have made efforts since the 1970s to reduce the release of sulfur
dioxide into the atmosphere with positive results. Nitrogen oxides can also be produced naturally
by lightningstrikes and sulfur dioxide is produced by volcanic eruptions.
"Acid rain" is a popular term referring to the deposition of wet (rain, snow, sleet, fog, cloudwater, and
dew) and dry (acidifying particles and gases) acidic components. A more accurate term is acid
deposition. Distilled water, once carbon dioxide is removed, has a neutral pH of 7. Liquids with a
pH less than 7 are acidic, and those with a pH greater than 7 are alkaline. Clean or unpolluted rain
has a slightly acidic pH of over 5.7, because carbon dioxide and water in the air react together to
form carbonic acid, but unpolluted rain also contains other chemicals.
[1]

H
2
O (l) + CO
2
(g) H
2
CO
3
(aq)
Carbonic acid then can ionize in water forming low concentrations
of hydronium and carbonate ions:
H
2
O (l) + H
2
CO
3
(aq) HCO
3

(aq) + H
3
O
+
(aq)
Acid deposition as an environmental issue would include additional acids to H
2
CO
3
.



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7.0. OZON LAYERS

The ozone layer is a layer in Earth's atmosphere which contains relatively high concentrations
of ozone (O
3
). This layer absorbs 9799% of the Sun's high frequency ultraviolet light, which is
damaging to life on Earth. It is mainly located in the lower portion of the stratosphere from
approximately 13 to 40 kilometres (8.1 to 25 mi) above Earth, though the thickness varies
seasonally and geographically. The ozone layer was discovered in 1913 by the French
physicists Charles Fabry and Henri Buisson. Its properties were explored in detail by the British
meteorologist G. M. B. Dobson, who developed a simple spectrophotometer (the Dobsonmeter) that
could be used to measure stratospheric ozone from the ground. Between 1928 and 1958 Dobson
established a worldwide network of ozone monitoring stations, which continue to operate to this day.
The "Dobson unit", a convenient measure of the columnar densityof ozone overhead, is named in
his honor.

8.0. HEALTH EFFECTS

The World Health Organization states that 2.4 million people die each year from causes directly
attributable to air pollution.
he health effects caused by air pollution may include difficulty in breathing, wheezing, coughing and
aggravation of existing respiratory and cardiac conditions. These effects can result in increased
medication use, increased doctor or emergency room visits, more hospital admissions and
premature death. The human health effects of poor air quality are far reaching, but principally affect
the body's respiratory system and the cardiovascular system. Individual reactions to air pollutants
depend on the type of pollutant a person is exposed to, the degree of exposure, the individual's
health status and genetics.
A new economic study of the health impacts and associated costs of air pollution in the Los Angeles
Basin and San Joaquin Valley of Southern California shows that more than 3800 people die
prematurely (approximately 14 years earlier than normal) each year because air pollution levels
violate federal standards. The number of annual premature deaths is considerably higher than the
fatalities related to auto collisions in the same area, which average fewer than 2,000 per year.





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9.0. KYOTO PROTOCOL

The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC or FCCC), aimed at fighting global warming. The UNFCCC is an
international environmental treaty with the goal of achieving the "stabilization of greenhouse
gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would preventdangerous anthropogenic
interference with the climate system.
The Protocol was initially adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, and entered into force on
16 February 2005. As of April 2010, 191 states have signed and ratified the protocol.
Under the Protocol, 37 countries ("Annex I countries") commit themselves to a reduction of four
greenhouse gases (GHG) (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride) and two
groups of gases (hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons) produced by them, and all member
countries give general commitments. Annex I countries agreed to reduce their collective greenhouse
gas emissions by 5.2% from the 1990 level. Emission limits do not include emissions by
international aviation and shipping, but are in addition to the industrial gases, chlorofluorocarbons,
or CFCs, which are dealt with under the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the
Ozone Layer.
Under the Protocol, 37 countries ("Annex I countries") commit themselves to a reduction of four
greenhouse gases (GHG) (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride) and two
groups of gases (hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons) produced by them, and all member
countries give general commitments. Annex I countries agreed to reduce their collective greenhouse
gas emissions by 5.2% from the 1990 level. Emission limits do not include emissions by
international aviation and shipping, but are in addition to the industrial gases, chlorofluorocarbons,
or CFCs, which are dealt with under the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the
Ozone Layer.









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10.0 CONCLUSION

As we all know, air is the most important needs of all living beings. Without air life on the our planet
Eart in not possible.
Air pollution is the biggest problem of 21 century, and its cause of mayor impact on planer Earth.
Phenomens like acid rains, greenhouse effect, ozon layers and global warming are the direct results
of air pollution.
The population needs to minimize the pollution of the greenhouse gasses in the air, in order to
secure the planet Earth for the next generations.
We have only one home, the planet Earth!


















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11.0 LITERATURE

1. Nedovic, B (2008): Ekologija ivotne sredine
2. Internet:
www.wikipedia.org
www.ekologija.ba
http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Environmental_Problems/air_pollution.html
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/pollution-overview/




















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CONTENT

1.0. Caption .............................................................................................. 2
2.0. Pollutants ......................................................................................... 3-4
3.0. Pollution sources............................................................................. 4-6
4.0. Global warming................................................................................. 6-7
5.0. Greenhouse effect................................................................................7
6.0. Acid rains .............................................................................................8
7.0. Ozon layers ..........................................................................................9
8.0. Health effects .......................................................................................9
9.0. Kyoto protocol .....................................................................................10
10.0. Conclusion ...........................................................................................11
11.0. Literature .............................................................................................12