Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of News Item titled “CSE report finds dangerous increase in ozone pollution across urban India” appearing in Down to Earth dated 06.08.2024. The Principal Bench of the NGT heard the matter on March 21, 2025. In the original application, registered suo …
Hydroxyl radicals are often called the "detergent" of the atmosphere because they control the atmosphere's capacity to cleanse itself of pollutants. In this article the researchers show that the reaction of electronically excited nitrogen dioxide with water can be an important source of tropospheric hydroxyl radicals.
More than a hundred people live in cities that fail to meet international standards for air quality. Efforts to improve conditions in these urban areas have usually focussed on reducing emissions of reactive hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxide free radicals and primary and secondary sources of particulate matter.
In December 2005, Stephen Johnson dunked himself in hot water. Johnson, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), decided to discard advice from a scientific advisory committee when he set a major air-quality standard for soot. Scientists and environmental groups were outraged. This time Johnson did it again …
Some of the major airlines of the world seem to be lately realizing the adverse role of their big passenger jets on climate changes resulting in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the engine-exhausts into the earth's atmosphere. In this context Virgin Atlantic's first flight of a …
Over the past decade there has been mounting evidence that ambient air pollution during pregnancy influences fetal growth. This study was designed to examine possible associations between fetal ultrasonic measurements collected from 15,623 scans (13
Air quality in Europe has declined in recent years, according to a report from the European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change (ETC/ACC), which also cautions that the short time period involved makes it difficult to draw reliable conclusions. March 2008
Increased carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere also could worsen air pollution worldwide and lead to the deaths of up to 22,000 people a year, a new study shows. Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels from burning fossil fuels have been linked to sea-level changes, snowmelt, disease, heat stress, severe weather, …
Greasy hair may not help you to attract the object of your affection, but it might reduce the amount of ozone you breathe in. Lakshmi Pandrangi and Glenn Morrison from the University of Missouri in Rolla exposed eight washed and eight unwashed hair samples to ozone for 24 hours. They …
With booming industries, Beijing finds it difficult to control SO2 and particulate matter. NO2 and toxic hydrocarbons add to its problems. After seven years of controls, SO2 and CO are down by nearly 25 per cent, but NOx is down by 17 per cent and PM10 levels marginally. Inhalable particles …
The present study deals with the evaluation of effects of ambient gaseous air pollution on wheat (Triticum aestivum L. var. HUW-234) growing in a suburban area situated in eastern Gangetic plain of India, using open top chambers. Eight hourly air monitoring was conducted for ambient concentrations of SO2, NO2 and …
the us Environmental Protection Agency (epa) has proposed to revise the national ambient air quality standards for ozone for the first time since 1997. The proposal recommends an ozone standard within a range of 0.07-0.075 ppm (parts per million). At the same time, it has asked for comments on a …
Five years air monitoring study was carried out to assess the primary air pollutants present in the ambient air in Chennai city during 1999-2003 at two different sampling stations.
Paul J Crutzen received the 1995 Chemistry Nobel prize for showing that nitrogen oxides react catalytically with ozone, thus accelerating the rate of reduction of the atmospheric ozone content. His findings have triggered off much research on biogeochemical cycles like the carbon and nitrogen cycle. But he tells Archita Bhatta …
In October 2006, the World Health Organisation (who) released new guidelines challenging governments around the world to improve air quality in their cities. The recommended limits of pm10, ozone and sulphur dioxide have been substantial lowered. The prescribed standards are far tougher than the those in vogue in many parts …
What does the ubiquitous auto-rickshaw and the plush aeroplane have in common, other than getting us from one place to another? The auto-rickshaw, as India's largest manufacturer Rahul Bajaj will tell you, is the symbol of democratic mobility - it provides transport for large numbers of people at what he …
Country-level analyses of global Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) relationships that use multicountry panel data sets are likely to suffer from several types of aggregation bias that may explain why previous studies have yielded conflicting results. The authors analyze 1990 cross-sectional data for the United States for three pollutants and test …
