# Pure Air, Pure Life

# Clean Air for Better Future

# Air Pollution is a slow poison

CHAPTER 7
AIR POLLUTION

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 Nitrogen – 78%

Oxygen – 21%

Gases in the
Atmosphere The balance of 1% consist of carbon dioxide, argon,
neon, helium, methane, hydrogen, ozone.

(eg.) oxygen concentration of

The relative amounts or
concentrations of gases in the
air can be expressed in ppm
(parts per million).
21% in the atmosphere = 21,000
ppm
(eg.) average global
concentration of carbon dioxide
0.0340% = 340 ppm

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 Layer of the Atmosphere

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• The Troposphere
• All weather takes place; it is the region of rising
and falling packets of air.
• The air pressure at the top of the troposphere is
only 10% of that at sea level (0.1 atmospheres).
• There is a thin buffer zone between the
troposphere and the next layer called the
tropopause.

• The Stratosphere and Ozone Layer

• Air flow is mostly horizontal.
• has a high concentration of ozone, a particularly
reactive form of oxygen - absorbing the
ultraviolet radiation.

• The Mesosphere and Ionosphere (thermosphere)

• Very thin, but it is where aurora take place, and is
also responsible for absorbing the most energetic
photons from the Sun, and for reflecting radio
waves, thereby making long-distance radio
communication possible.

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 Major Air Pollutants
Class Pollutant Characteristic Effects
Class Pollutant Characteristic Effects
1. Particulates Dust, Lead (Pb), Solid particles or ❑ Respiratory
(industries, motor Soil, Asbestos, liquid particles problems. 4. Carbon oxides CO Colorless, odorless ❑ CO; poisonous and
vehicles, open Sulfuric Acid ❑ Corrodes (automobiles, CO2 & tasteless reduces
burning) (H2SO4) metals, erodes open burning, hemoglobin ability
building industries) to carry O2
material. ❑ CO2; greenhouse
❑ Asbestos & lead gas that traps heat
in the atmosphere
are known a to
be carcinogenic. 5. Hydrocarbon CH4 methane Colorless ❑ Respiratory
❑ Particulates can (automobiles, C6H6 benzene problems
also block industries) C3H8 propane ❑ Cancer
sunlight & cause ❑ CH4 methane;
C4H10butane
changes in greenhouse gas that
climate. traps heat in the
2. Nitrogen oxides – NO nitrogen oxide Visible – yellow ❑ Inhibit plant atmosphere
NOx (automobiles, NO2 nitrogen brown or reddish growth
power plant, dioxide brown ❑ Respiratory
industries) N2O nitrous oxide problems 6. Photochemical O3 Pale blue gas with ❑ Inhibit plant growth
❑ Eye irritation oxidant (PAN) sweet smell or ❑ Respiratory
(interaction of peroxyacetyl brownish gas problems
3. Sulfur oxides SO2 sulfur dioxide Colorless gas with ❑ Inhibit plant pollutants such as nitrate aldehydes ❑ Damage to rubber
(power plants, oil SO3 sulfur trioxide strong odor growth NO2 and sunlight) materials, paint and
refinery, paper and ❑ Respiratory textiles
cement industries) problems
❑ Corrodes paints
& metals
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 • Primary Air Pollutants
• Enters directly into the atmosphere from natural
events or human activities.
• (CO, CO2, SO2, NO, most hydrocarbons, most
particulates)
Sources of
Air Pollutant • Secondary Air Pollutants
• Is formed in the atmosphere through chemical
reaction and solar reaction.
• (NO2, SO3, HNO3, H2SO4, H2O2, O3, PAN)

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 PRIMARY POLLUTANTS
Air pollutant emitted directly from a source into
the atmosphere.
Sulphur dioxide (SO2). Carbon monoxide (CO),
Nitrogen oxides (NOx), Particulate matter (PM)
Chemical reactants characterized with a direct
pollution effect on living beings and ecosystems,
and with an indirect effect through the formation
of secondary pollutants.
Direct control through the reduction of
anthropogenic emissions.
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SECONDARY POLLUTANTS
Air pollutant formed in the atmosphere as a results
of the chemical or physical interactions between
the primary pollutants themselves or between the
primary pollutants and other atmospheric
components.
Photochemical oxidants (ozone, nitrogen dioxide,
sulphur trioxide) and secondary particulate matter.
Chemical products, highly reactive when
photoactivation is involved in the chemical process
of their formation.
Complicated control process: understanding and
interrupting the chemical reactions leading to their
generation.
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The Greenhouse Effect
• Sunlight penetrating the atmosphere
warms the earth’s surface.
• The earth’s surface radiates heat to the
atmosphere and some escapes into
space.
• Greenhouse gases absorb some of the
heat and reradiate part of them toward
the earth.
• When greenhouse gases increase in the
atmosphere, more heat is reradiated to
the earth’s surface increasing the surface
temperature.

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Greenhouse Effects
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 Greenhouse
Gases
Carbon
dioxide
❑ Burning of fossil fuel (automobiles, industries, slash and burn etc.)
❑ Deforestation
Chlorofluorocarbons
(CFC)
❑ Leaking air conditioners and refrigerators
❑ Evaporation of industrial solvents
❑ Production of plastic foams
❑ Propellants in aerosol spray cans
Metha
ne
❑ Oxygen poor environments (marshes, swamps
❑ Landfills
❑ Burning of forest and grasslands
❑ Leaking natural gas wells
❑ Agricultural waste
Nitrous
oxide
❑ Nylon production
❑ Breakdown of nitrogen fertilizers (Petronas fertilizer, Gurun, Kedah)
❑ Biomass burning

Tropospheric
ozone
❑ Photochemical smog

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 Climate Change
Impacts
IMPACT ❑ Temperature
❑ Precipitation
Cause
s ❑ Sea level rise

❖ Weather-related mortality
Healt IMPACTS
❖ Infectious diseases h
❖ Air quality ~ respiratory illnesses ❖ Crop yields
Agriculture & Natural ❖ Irrigation demands
Areas ❖ Shift in ecological zones
❖ Change in forest composition ❖ Loss of habitat and species
Fores
❖ Shift geographic range of forests
t
❖ Forest health and productivity
❖ Changes in water supply
Water
Resources ❖ Water quality
❖ Erosion of beaches ❖ Increased competition for
❖ Inundate coastal lands water
Coastal
❖ Cost to defend coastal Areas
communities
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Ozone Depletion
• Ozone (O3)
• A form of oxygen that rarely occurs
naturally in the lower atmosphere
• Created when ordinary oxygen
molecules (O2) are bombarded with
ultraviolet rays in the stratosphere.
• Radiation breaks the oxygen molecules
apart and some of the free oxygen
atoms recombine with O2 to form
ozone.
• Ability to absorb ultraviolet rays.

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 Identify in 1974

CFCs drifted up to stratosphere to react chemically with

ozone molecules in a destructive fashion
• Chemically inert that they can stay intact for a century (decay in a
century)

The Culprit • Rain (disposal mechanism) would not wash them out of the atmosphere

Process (nature of chemical reactions)

• CFCs release chlorine atoms (CI) when finally broken down by ultraviolet
radiation from the sun
• CI act as a catalyst in a series of reactions that convert ozone into oxygen
(O2)
• Chlorine act as a catalyst rather than as a reagent
• A single molecule can destroy thousands of ozone molecules

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Transformation of CFC – Ozone Depletion

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 CAUSES, EFFECTS & PREVENTION
METHODS
EFFECTS OF OZONE DEPLETION
Skin
Problem PREVENTING OF OZONE
Increase in severe sunburn cases - skin cancer cases
DEPLETION
Health ❑ Banning the use of CFC,
CAUSES OF OZONE DEPLETION
Problem halons, carbon tetrachloride
and methyl chloroform
❑ Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) Suppression of the human immune system; Increase in eye cataracts
❑ Substitute coolants in
❑ Halons (usually found in fire cases (blurred vision and eventual blindness)
refrigeration and air
extinguishers)
conditioning with other
❑ Methyl chloroform Agriculture, cooling agents
❑ Methyl bromide Aquaculture ❑ Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) and
❑ Carbon tetrachloride
Decreased yields of important food crops (rice, corn, etc.); Reduction in Hydrochlorofluorocarbons
the growth of marine phytoplankton (HCFC) which are decomposed
more rapidly in the
atmosphere
Global
Warming
Increase global warming (greenhouse effect)

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 Banning all production and uses of CFC and
Banning halons by 1995.

SLOWING DOWN
Cutting current fossil fuel use to 20% by
GLOBAL WARMING Cutting 2000, 50% by 2010 and 70% by 2030.
(1990 UN
Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Shifting to perpetual and renewal energy
Shifting sources that do not emit carbon dioxide.
Change)

Stopping Stopping unsustainable deforestation.

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 • A manmade problem, directly from
the burning of fossil fuels in power
plants, factories, the burning of
gasoline in automobiles and etc.
• The burning of these fuels releases
sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides,
and traces of such toxic metals as
Acid Deposition mercury and cadmium into the
atmosphere to mix with water
vapor.
• Consists of acidified rain, snow, dust
or gas with a pH lower than 5.6.
• Occurs as either a wet acid
deposition or a dry acid deposition.

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 • It damage statues, building, metals, and car paints.
• It kills fish, aquatic plants, and microorganisms in lakes
and rivers.
• It is a major contributor to regional haze, mostly in fine
particles of sulphate salts in the atmosphere.

Effects of • It damages tree roots and kills many kinds of fish by

releasing ions of aluminium, lead, mercury and cadmium
Acid from soil and bottom sediments.
• It makes trees more susceptible to diseases, insects,
Deposition fungi and mosses that thrive under acidic conditions.
• It leaches toxic metals such as copper and lead from
water pipes into drinking water.
• It causes and aggravates many human respiratory
diseases that may lead to death.

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Factors Affecting Air Pollution

WIND ATMOSPHERIC TOPOGRAPHY

STABILITY

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 Horizontal dispersion of air
pollutants depends upon wind
speed and direction
Concentration of pollutants
#1.Wind decreases with increasing wind
speed
* Buildings in cities can also
obstruct wind flow thus further
aggravating air pollution problems

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#2. Atmospheric Stability
• Atmospheric stability depends upon the direction ship between air temperature and
altitude that occurs at a particular time and place.
• Certain weather conditions can cause the environmental lapse rate to be greater than
the adiabatic lapse rate.
• Sometimes certain weather conditions can cause a temperature inversion.
• Temperature inversion can cause a “lid effect” that traps pollutants and prevents vertical
mixing.

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 Air masses move naturally in a vertical Little or no vertical movement of air mass. As a result,
direction, and carry pollutants upward, away there is no mixing of air pollutants in the vertical
direction, and pollutants tend to accumulate near the
from the ground. ground

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 • Heat Islands
#3. Topography • A heat island results from a mass of materials (brick & stone), that
absorbs and reradiates heat at a greater rate rather than the
surrounding area.
• This causes moderate to strong vertical convection currents above the
heat island.
Topographical • Examples of places are large industrial complexes and small to large
cities.
condition and • Land/sea breezes

atmospheric • During the morning the land heats faster than water.
• The air over the land becomes relatively warm and begins to rise. The
rising air is replaced by air over the water body (a sea/lake breeze).
stability conditions • The effect of the lake breeze on stability is to impose a surface-based
inversion on the temperature profile. As the air moves from the water
may also over the warm ground, it is heated from below.

aggravate air • Valleys

• When the general circulation impose moderate to strong winds, valley
pollution that are oriented at an acute angle to the wind direction channel the
wind.
• The valley effectively peels off part of the wind and forces it to follow
problems the direction of the valley floor.
• Warming of the valley walls will cause the valley air to be warmed. It will
become more buoyant and flow up the valley.
• At night the cooling process will cause the wind to flow down the valley.

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Land / Sea
Breeze

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Effect of Land Breeze on Plume Dispersion

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 Valley
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Haze
• A phenomenon caused by the accumulation
of fine particles in the air which are barely
visible to the naked eye.
• May occur naturally or may be an outcome
of human activities (e.g., open burning,
smoky discharges from factories, exhaust
of motor vehicles).
• When the particles accumulate (in large
quantity & suspend in the air), they can
block out the sun’s rays & reduce visibility.

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Sources of Haze

OPEN BURNING OF RUBBISH & SMOKE FROM FACTORIES & EXHAUST FUMES FROM MOTOR
AGRICULTURE WASTES AND COAL-FIRED POWER GENERATORS VEHICLES
FOREST FIRES

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Impacts of Haze
• Caused by the irritant effects of fine dust particles
on the nose, throat, airways, skin, and eyes.
• Continuous hazy conditions will cause ill effects to
all especially those in the high-risk groups.
• Signs and symptoms of the adverse effects of the
haze
• Itchy sensation in the throat, and coughing
• Difficulty in breathing and nasal congestion
• Painful and watery eyes
• Runny noses and cold attacks
• Itchy skin
• Chest pain
• Persons with medical problems (asthma, chronic
lung disease, chronic sinusitis, allergic skin
conditions) or children and the elderly likely to be
more effected by the haze & they may experience
more several symptoms.
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 • Those who experience chronic cough, cold, asthma,
conjunctivitis, heart problems and lung diseases should
seek treatment if their condition worsens.
• Those in the high risk group should be on regular
medication.
• You are encouraged to wear facial masks when working

Prevention outdoors, riding motorcycles or working in dusty places.

• Smokers who have young children, elderly parents, and
relatives who are sick, should not smoke.
of • Stay indoors as much as possible.

Haze-related • Refrain from outdoor sport or physical activities

• Wash your face and other body parts regularly if you are
exposed to the haze.
illnesses • Use your car air-cond if you have one.
• Drink a lot of water.
• Smokers are advised to refrain from smoking when the
API exceeds 100.
• Those in the high risk group are advised to take leave
and go to haze-free areas if the haze persists at the
dangerous level in their area.

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Environmental Quality Act 1974
Control of Industrial Emissions
• Environmental Quality (Clean Air)
Regulations 1978
• Environmental Quality
(Compounding of Offences) Rules
1978
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Control of Motor Vehicle Emissions
• Motor vehicles (Control of Smoke
& Gas Emission Rules 1977)
• Environment Quality (Control of
Lead Concentration in Motor
Gasoline) Regulation 1985)
• Environmental Quality (Control
of Emission from Diesel Engines)
Regulation 1996
• Environmental Quality (Control
of Emission from Petrol Engines)
Regulation 1996
Controlling Open Burning
• Section 29A EQA (Amendment
1998)
• Environmental Quality
(Prescribed Activities) (Open
Burning) Order 2000
• Environmental Quality
(Delegation of Power)
(Investigation of Open Burning)
Order 2000
• Environmental Quality
(Compounding of Offences)
(Open Burning) Rules 2000
• Section 29AA EQA (Amendment
2001)
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Recommended Malaysian
Air Quality Guideline
• In 1989, the Department of Environment (DOE) formulated
a set of air quality guidelines, termed Recommended
Malaysian Air Quality Guidelines (RMG) for air pollutants,
defining the concentration limits of selected air pollutants
which fight adversely affect the health and welfare of the
general public.
• Based on the MG, the Department subsequently developed
its first air quality index system, known as the Malaysian
Air Quality Index (MAQI) in 1993.
• An index system lays an important role in conveying to both
decision-makers and the general public the status of ambient
air quality, ranging from good to hazardous.
• In line with the need for regional harmonization and for easy
comparison with countries in the region, the Department
revised its index system in 1996, and the Air Pollutant Index
(API) was adopted.
• The API system of Malaysia closely follows the Pollutant
Standard Index (PSI) system of the United States.

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 Ambient Air Quality Guideline

Pollutants Averaging time ppm µg/m3

Ozone 1 hour 0.10 200
8 hours 0.06 120
Carbon monoxide 1 hour 30 35
8 hours 9 10
Nitrogen Dioxide 1 hour 0.17 320
8 hours 0.04
Sulfur Dioxide 10 minutes 0.19 500
1 hour 0.13 350
24 hours 0.04 105
TSP 24 hours 260
1 year 90
PM10 24 hours 150
1 year 50
Lead 3 months 1.5

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 • API system includes the major air pollutants which
could cause potential harm to human health should
they reach unsafe levels.
Air • The Air pollutants included in Malaysia's API are
ozone (03), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide

Pollution (N02), sulphur dioxide (S02) and suspended

particulate matter less than 10 microns in size
(PM10).
Index • These guidelines have been derived from available
scientific and human health data, and basically
represent "safe levels" below which no adverse
health effects have been observed.

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 • There is also individual variation regarding the
ability to tolerate air pollution.
0-50: Good
51-100: Moderate • Most people would at most experience sneezing,
101-200: Unhealthy running nose, eye irritation, dry throat, and dry
201-300: Very unhealthy cough from the pollutants.
301-500: Hazardous
• They are mild & pose no danger to the health of
the general population.

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 THANK YOU
Feel free to ask questions in any channel
you can.

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