Lethal air pollution booms in emerging nations

GENEVA-“International experts are warning that potentially lethal (dangerous) air pollution has boomed in fast-growing big cities in Asia and South America in recent decades.

While Europe has managed to drastically cut some, but not all, of the most noxious pollutants over the past 20 years, emerging nations experienced the opposite trend with their fast economic growth, scientists at the UN’s meteorological agency said.

Their comments came ahead of World Meteorological Day on March 26 , which had the theme “The Air We Breathe”.

The World Health Organisation estimates that about two million people die prematurely every year as a result of air pollution, while many more suffer from breathing ailments, heart disease, lung infections and even cancer.

Fine particles or microscopic dust from coal or wood fires and unfiltered diesel engines are rated as one of the most lethal forms or air pollution caused by industry, transport, household heating, cooking and ageing coal or oil-fired power stations.

In 2005, the WHO estimated that death rates in cities with higher particle pollution were 15 to 20 per cent above those found in cleaner cities.

“Particulate matter is of great concern in cities,” said Liisa Jalkanen, atmospheric environment research chief at the World Meteorological Organisation,(WHO).

“In Asia many cities such as Karachi, New Delhi, Kathmandu, Dacca, Shanghai, Beijing, and Mumbai exceed all the limits.” “Also several cities in South America such as Lima, Santiago and Bogota. The worst city in Africa is Cairo,” she told journalists.Half of the world’s population now live in urban areas, and the proportion is expected to grow to two-thirds by 2030, according to the United Nations.The WMO says more resources are needed for a global air monitoring network it runs with national weather offices.

Len Barrie, director of WMO research, said restrictions set up in Europe after concern about acid rain emerged in the 1980s have cut concentrations of another pollutant, sulphur dioxide, there “by a factor of 20”.

“In other areas where economic growth has leapt forward, such as Asia, China, India, the opposite is true,” he added. In North America levels were largely kept in check.

But Barrie told AFP that such pollution in China appeared to be reaching its peak.

“There?s a real awakening in China on the economic benefits of reducing air pollution,” he added.

Attempts are being made to bring developing and emerging nations, as well as the United States, into a new global warming pact in Copenhagen in December.

While such curbs on carbon emissions can have a substantial impact on overall air pollution, they may not tackle it completely. Levels of another harmful pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, from vehicle traffic have not decreased in Europe by as much as the WMO expected, while the impact of weather patterns on pollution is also a concern.

- AFP

Alaska’s Mount Redoubt volcano erupts

WILLOW, Alaska - Alaska’s Mount Redoubt volcano erupted six times on March 23, sending an ash plume more than nine miles into the air in the volcano’s first emissions in nearly 20 years.

Residents in the state’s largest city were spared from falling ash, though fine gray dust fell Monday morning on small communities north of Anchorage.

Ash from Alaska’s volcanos is like a rock fragment with jagged edges and has been used as an industrial abrasive. It can injure skin, eyes and breathing passages.

The young, the elderly and people with respiratory problems are especially susceptible to ash-related health problems. Ash can also cause damage engines in planes, cars and other vehicles.

The first eruption, in a sparsely populated area across Cook Inlet from the Kenai Peninsula, occurred at 10:38 p.m. Sunday (March 22). The sixth happened at 7:41 p.m. Monday, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

There were reports of a quarter-inch of ash in Trapper Creek and up to a half-inch at a lakeside lodge near Skwentna.

Dave Stricklan, a hydrometeorogical technician with the National Weather Service, expected very fine ash.

There’s going to be a very fine amount of it that’s going to be suspended in the atmosphere for quite some time,” he said. “The finer ash is going to travel farther, and any ash can affect aviation safety.” The 10,200-foot Redoubt Volcano, roughly 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, last erupted during a four-month period from 1989-90.

In its last eruption, Redoubt sent ash 150 miles away into the path of a KLM jet and its four engines flamed out. The jet dropped more than two miles before the crew was able to The volcano became restless earlier this year. The observatory had warned in late January that an eruption could occur at any time.

Three seismometers on the mountain were damaged in the eruption but seven others remained in place, said observatory geophysicist John Power.

-AP