"Air pollution"

Introduction
Air pollution is the presence of
substances in the atmosphere that are
harmful to the health of humans and
other living beings, or cause damage to
the climate or to materials. There are
different types of air pollutants. such as
gases (such as ammonia, carbon
monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides,
methane and chlorofluorocarbons),
particulates (both organic and inorganic),
and biological molecules. Air pollution
may cause diseases, allergies and even
death to humans; it may also cause harm
to other living organisms such as animals
and food crops, and may damage the
natural environment (for example,
climate change, ozone depletion or
habitat degradation) or built
environment (for example, acid rain).
Both human activity and natural
processes can generate air pollution.
Air pollution is a significant risk factor for
a number of pollution-related diseases,
including respiratory infections, heart
disease, COPD, stroke and lung cancer.
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, and the
individual's health status and genetics.
Indoor air pollution and poor urban air
quality are listed as two of the world's
worst toxic pollution problems in the
2008 Blacksmith Institute World's Worst
Polluted Places report. Outdoor air
pollution alone causes 2.1 to 4.21 million
deaths annually. Overall, air pollution
causes the deaths of around 7 million
people worldwide each year, and is the
world's largest single environmental
health risk.
Productivity losses and degraded quality
of life caused by air pollution are
estimated to cost the world economy $5
trillion per year. Various pollution control
technologies and strategies are available
to reduce air pollution.
IMPORTANCE
Air pollution inflicts a massive toll on the
Indian economy. Its scale, complexity and
urgency necessitate a strong, coherent and
coordinated fiscal response by the
government. However, recent relief and
stimulus spending in response to the COVID-
19 pandemic has crippled the Indian economy
and led to a massive spike in public debt. With
limited room available for fiscal manoeuvre,
the government faces the massive spike
challenge of financing measures to improve
air quality.
The imperative is to create a financial
architecture that can mobilize private finance
for clean-air solutions in India. Green sectors
such as clean energy and e-mobility are likely to
be the driving force for developing and
implementing tangible solutions to improve air
quality. An investment fund with a dedicated
green focus could play an instrumental role in
catalyzing growth of such green industries and
simultaneously addressing the twin problems of
air pollution and climate change. A Green
Superfund would combine a returns-driven
strategy with the sustainability imperative and
 accelerate investment in green industries. The
Triple Bottom-line framework, with an
emphasis on profit, people and the planet, will
be at the heart of the Superfund’s performance
management strategy. It would raise capital
from institutional investors such as multilateral
organizations, sovereign wealth funds, and
development financial institutes. Since 2014,
more than 40 environmental startups have
been set up in India with the singular goal of
combatting the air pollution crisis. The
Superfund would play a pivotal role in
harnessing the economic and environmental
potential of these startups and financing other
high-impact ventures.
There are several other channels through which
the private sector can contribute to cleaner air
and demonstrate that economic development and
air pollution abatement are not mutually
exclusive.
OBJECTIVE
To reduce the impacts of air pollution, both
international and national legislation and
regulation have been implemented to regulate
air pollution. Local laws where well enforced in
cities have lead to strong public health
improvements. At the international level some
of these efforts have been successful, for
example the Montreal Protocol which
successful at reducing release of harmful ozone
depleting chemicals or 1985 Helsinki Protocol
which reduced sulfur emissions, while other
attempts have been less rapid in
implementation, such as international action
on climate change.
To Setting up of a state-of-the-art advanced
and integrated air pollution model system
from hemispheric scale, European scale, and
national scale, for calculation and assessment
Of high resolution (down to I km x 1 km
resolution) air pollution levels and human
exposure, including assessing the contribution
related to different emission sectors and
regions. This work is carried out in WP2.
To Investigate the potential causal impact of
individual chemical air pollutants as well as
mixtures of air pollutants on health
outcomes. In pursuing this aim, we utilize
the unique Nordic population-based
registers allowing linkage between historical
residential address, air pollutants over
decades and later health outcomes. By
linking the exposure to health outcomes.
new exposure-response relationships are
determined of health effects for different
population Groups
To quantify the overall negative health
outcomes of air pollution in terms of premature
deaths, hospital admissions, days of reduced
activity, respiratory diseases, mental disorders,
etc. on high resolution down to 1 km x 1 km in
the Nordic countries for the different
population groups, using the integrated model
system EVA, based on the impact pathway
chain.

METHODOLOGY
According to the WHO, air pollution is the fifth
largest killer in India. There are a variety of
ways in which the air pollution of an area can
be measured. One of the ways is the
measurement of particulate matter in air.
Particulate matter is a mixture of extremely
small particles and liquid droplets like acids,
chemicals, gas, water, metals, soil dust
particles, etc. These particles cause major
health hazard in India. The changing
temperature and slowing winds trap soot, dust
and fine particulate matter. The particulate
matter is present in a variety of sizes ranging
from coarse, fine, to ultrafine.
According to the Ambient Air Pollution (AAP)
report for the year 2018. Delhi had one of the
highest pollution levels in the world. This result
was based on the monitoring of PM
measurement of outdoor air pollution from
almost 1 ,600 cities in 91 countries. Last year. a
public health emergency was declared in Delhi
as pollution levels crossed 70 times the safe
limit.
The methodology required for quantifying the
health effects of air pollution is derived from
the Health and Air Pollution in study, a joint
initiative from the Health Research Council,
the Ministry for the Environment and the
Ministry of Transport (Fisher et al, 2007). This
study represents the most comprehensive
analysis of air pollution, its health implications,
and the resulting societal costs conducted in
New Zealand. The research evaluated the
effects of specific source categories of
emissions from vehicles (including private
petrol cars, diesel cars, and diesel trucks),
industry, domestic and total sources in New
Zealand.
The research encompassed five interconnected
components:
•air quality, meteorology and emissions
data analysis
•air pollution exposure assessment
health impact assessment
•economic impact assessment
•preventative policy assessment.
Air is a measure of how clean or polluted the
air is. Monitoring air quality is important
because polluted air can be bad for our
health— and the health of the environment.
Air is measured with the Air Quality Index, or
AQI. The AQI works sort of like a
thermometer that runs from O to 500
degrees.
Basically, there are two general approaches
to air pollution exposure assessment: (1 ) air
monitoring, which depends on either direct
measurements (personal monitors) or
indirect measurements (fixed-site monitors
combined with data on time activity
patterns), and (2) biological measurements
that use biological markers

WHO defines HIA as "a combination of

procedures, methods and tools by which a
policy, programme or project may be judged
as to its potential effect on the health of a
population, and the distribution of those
effects within the population".
The purpose of an economic impact
assessment is to estimate the changes in
employment. income, and levels Of business
activity (typically measured by gross receipts
or value added) that may result from a
proposed project or program.
The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution)
Act. 1981 , aims to enable the "preservation of
the quality Of air and control Of air pollution It
was enacted to fulfil India's commitments at
the 1972 United Nations environment
conference

OBSERVATION
Air pollution problems of a scale larger than
the point monitoring problem lend themselves
to space observational techniques. Examples
of these large scale problems are those
associated with changes in the global
background Of gases and aerosols; potential
stratospheric pollution resulting from SST
operations; regional sources, pollution
episodes, and large scale diffusion; and effects
of pollutants on climate. These problems are
discussed and observational requirements are
specified. Possible remote sensing techniques
for satellite monitoring are described. These
include monitoring of pollutant gases and
particulates by means of their absorption and
scattering of radiation in both the solar
spectrum range and terrestrial emission
spectrum range. A discussion of potential
difficulties includes the atmospheric and
surface background problems, the
temperature sensitivity problem in the
terrestrial spectrum range, the band overlap
problem, and the cloud interference problem.
Recent observations from satellites and
balloons are reviewed. It appears that except
for H2O and, perhaps, 03, measurements of
the vertical profiles of atmospheric pollutant
gases and aerosols from satellites will be
extremely difficult. On the other hand,
measurements of the total amounts (in a
vertical column) of pollutant gases and
aerosols do appear feasible.

ANALYSIS OF DATA
Many studies suggest the quality of air has
been significantly improving in the last years in
the majority of the world regions. However, air
quality still creates a significant problem in
Europe, especially in some densely populated
urban areas and during certain weather
conditions. Several reports observe the serious
impact of the air pollution on the people's
health and many analysis and models have
been tested to understand and finally reduce
the problem. The air pollution primarily results
from: •Natural processes (soil erosion, volcano
eruptions) •Human activity, which includes
three major sources: o Industry pollution o
Traffic pollution (air exhaust, brake and tire
wear, dust suspension from roads, air and sea
traffic) o House heating In addition to the
increasing level of certain chemical compounds
(CO. S02, NOx. BC. etc.) in the air. a dangerous
type of pollution are small particles suspended
 in the atmosphere generated by a variety of
human activities Particulate Matter (PM) or
Particulates. PM is a type of air pollution that
can travel long distances in the atmosphere
and causes a wide range of diseases and a
significant reduction of life expectancy in most
of the population of Europe
There is a predictability to the narrative around
North India's air pollution. Air that is unhealthy
all year-round becomes unbreathable during
winter, largely due to particulate matter in
emissions from farm fires in Punjab, Haryana,
and Western Uttar Pradesh. This contributes to
the portrayal of farmers as the primary
architects of Delhi's air pollution crisis, and
short-term solutions sustain only till the skies
clear up.
There is no denying that the effects of
seasonal paddy stubble burning are severe
—it causes an estimated loss Of 150,000
years Of healthy life annually.

CONCLUSION
Indoor environment is a complex issue in
terms of toxicology and health risk
assessment. There are many different types of
pollutants which may give rise to combined
effects. The exposed population is the general
public including vulnerable groups.
Many different factors influence air quality,
e.g. ventilation, cleaning conditions,
properties of buildings, products used in
house-holds, cultural habits. climate, outdoor
air etc. Thus, large variations in indoor
environments can be expected across the EU.
The SCHER considers that the health risk
assessment of the pollutants in indoor
environments should be done according to
the principles used in the EU for risk
assessment of chemicals as this is an evidence
based approach. Those principles should be
applied on the data available and the specific
features related to indoor environment taken
into account. The risk assessment paradigm
should be used flexibly. taking into account
that complaints and diseases related to indoor
exposures may have a complex cause-effect
relationship.
The SCHER considers that the data base for
indoor air risk assessment is in general limited.
Frequently, there are more data available
for risk assessment of "classical" indoor air
pollutants such, as organic pollutants as
compared to particles and microbes.
Especially, more data on exposure, in
quantitative terms, are required. Available
dose-response data seldom cover
vulnerable groups.
The SCHER has identified several gaps of
knowledge, presented in answer to Question 2,
which should be addressed by European-wide
multidisciplinary research-As to single known
compounds, SCHER considers carbon
monoxide, formaldehyde, benzene, nitrogen
oxides and naphthalene to be compounds of
concern because they have caused adverse
health effects as indoor pollutants or have a
high potential to cause them.
Environmental tobacco smoke, radon, lead and
organophosphates are also of concern. For
most other pollutants the data available are
yet limited for risk assessment as indoor air
pollutants.
Consumer products, one source of chemicals
in indoor environment, emit mostly volatile
organic compounds. Lack of data on true
exposure for emissions in consumer products
has hampered evaluation of the associations
with possible health effects most Of which are
also caused by other factors. The recent data
suggest that some of the emitted products
may react further in air and on surfaces
producing secondary products, including fine
and ultrafine particles. The health effects of
those reaction products are poorly known.
Indoor air may contain over 900 chemicals,
particles, and biological materials with
potential health effects. Since their
concentrations are usually higher than
outdoors and people spend more time
indoors than outdoors, the SCHER
recommends that any studies to correlate
outdoor air concentration with health
effects need to consider the impact of
indoor exposure.
The composition and concentrations of the
different components in indoor air vary
widely and are influenced by human
activities. Since it is not feasible to regulate
all possible scenarios, prevention from
possible health effects and protection of
sensitive populations is best achieved by
reducing exposure. As a consequence the
SCHER recommends that all relevant sources
that are known to contribute should be
evaluated. Such sources include tobacco
smoke, any open fires including candles,
building materials, furniture. pets and pests,
use of household products, as well as
conditions that lead to the growth of molds.
Constructers, maintenance personnel and
inhabitants should also be aware that
appropriate humidity avoids annoyances and
sufficient air exchange reduces accumulation
of pollutants.