The urban boundary layer (UBL), in comparison with "rural" homogeneous atmospheric boundary layers, is characterised by greatly enhanced mixing, resulting from both the large surface roughness and increased surface heating, and by horizontal heterogeneity of the mixing height (MH) and other meteorological fields due to variations in surface roughness and ...

A mechanistic model was developed to predict the highway runoff pollutographs during precipitation events. Pollutants were assumed to be in two phases, attached to the pavement surface and mobile in the runoff water. Detachment and reattachment of contaminants were considered as rate-limited processes and the detachment rate was assumed to ...

Two commonly used sampling devices (a wind tunnel and the US EPA dynamic emission chamber), were used to collect paired samples of odorous air from a number of agricultural odour sources. The odour samples were assessed using triangular, forced-choice dynamic olfactometry. The odour concentration data was combined with the flushing ...

The need to collect data representative of overall urban pollution is all-important in order to monitor the population exposure. High spatial resolution monitoring using diffusive samplers allows studying of the urban pollutant distribution, thus enabling deeper investigation of their generation and diffusion mechanisms. Nevertheless, such a monitoring campaign has a ...

The outcome of COST 715 is reviewed from the viewpoint of a potential user who is required to consider urban meteorology within an air pollution assessment. It is shown that descriptive concepts are helpful for understanding the complex structure of the urban boundary layer, but that they only apply under ...

A study was performed to characterize the concentration of dozens of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at 10 locations within a single large building and track these concentrations over a 2-year period. The study was performed at a shopping center (strip mall) in New Jersey. A total of 130 indoor air ...

This study performed a time-series analysis, frequency distribution and prediction of SO(2) levels for five stations (Pardisan, Vila, Azadi, Gholhak and Bahman) in Tehran for the period of 2000-2005. Most sites show a quite similar characteristic with highest pollution in autumn-winter time and least pollution in spring-summer. The frequency distributions ...

In the present paper, the BOXURB model results, as they occurred in the Greater Area of Athens after model application on an hourly basis for the 10-year period 1995-2004, are evaluated both in time and space in the light of observed pollutant concentrations time series from 17 monitoring stations. The ...

A practical, risk-based monitoring approach using the combined data collected from actual experiments and computer simulations was developed for the qualification of an EU GMP Annex 1 Grade B, ISO Class 7 area. This approach can locate and minimize the representative number of sampling points used for microbial contamination risk ...

In air pollution epidemiology, improvements in statistical analysis tools can help improve signal-to-noise ratios, and untangle large correlations between exposures and confounders. For this reason, we welcome a novel model-selection approach that helps to identify the time-windows of exposure to pollutants that produces adverse health effects. However, there are concerns ...

Certain widely used wind rose programs and air dispersion models use an overly simple data-transfer algorithm that induces a directional bias in their output products. The purpose of this paper is to provide a revised algorithm that corrects the directional bias that occurs from the aliasing that occurs when the ...

In order to simulate the impact of mesoscale wind fields and to assess potential capability of atmospheric Lagrangian particle dispersion model (LPDM) as an emergency response model for the decision supports, two different simulations of LPDM with the mesoscale prognostic model MM5 (Mesoscale Model ver. 5) were driven. The first ...

Efficient environmental management calls for the consideration of multiple pollutants, for which two main types of transferable discharge permit (TDP) program have been described: separate permits that manage each pollutant individually in separate markets, with each permit based on the quantity of the pollutant or its environmental effects, and weighted-sum ...

Increasing tropospheric ozone levels over the past 150 years have led to a significant climate perturbation; the prediction of future trends in tropospheric ozone will require a full understanding of both its precursor emissions and its destruction processes. A large proportion of tropospheric ozone loss occurs in the tropical marine ...

THE APHENA (AIR POLLUTION AND HEALTH: A Combined European and North American Approach) study is a collaborative analysis of multicity time-series data on the effect of air pollution on population health, bringing together data from the European APHEA (Air Pollution and Health: A European Approach) and U.S. NMMAPS (National Morbidity, ...

Carbon-14 (14C) is one of the most important radionuclides from the perspective of dose estimation due to the nuclear fuel cycle. Ten years of monitoring data on 14C in airborne emissions, in atmospheric CO2 and in rice grain collected around the Tokai reprocessing plant (TRP) showed an insignificant radiological effect ...

This report reviews past research on hair analysis development for organic contaminants from the point of view of analytical procedures, successful applications and their limitations. For the past 20 years, hair analysis for organic pollutants has received more and more attention, since it is non-invasive, easily available and ethically not ...

The School of Occupational and Environmental Health was contracted to develop spatial regression models for Greater Vancouver similar to those developed or underway for the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Montreal and Hamilton. This report briefly introduces the rationale for such models and gives detailed discussion of our methods and results. ...

Methane production from enteric fermentation in cattle is one of the major sources of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission in the United States and worldwide. National estimates of methane emissions rely on mathematical models such as the one recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Models used for prediction ...

Chronic epidemiological studies of airborne particulate matter (PM) have typically characterized the chronic PM exposures of their study populations using city- or countywide ambient concentrations, which limit the studies to areas where nearby monitoring data are available and which ignore within-city spatial gradients in ambient PM concentrations. To provide more ...

The urban waterfront is in the spotlight. During the last decades harbour facilities have been moved away from urban centres. Projects for the recovery and restructuring of obsolete industrial areas by the water are sprawling all over the globe. The process of recovery of the urban waterfront that takes place ...

Different passive air sampler (PAS) strategies have been developed for sampling in remote areas and for cost-effective simultaneous spatial mapping of POPs (persistent organic pollutants) over differing geographical scales. The polyurethane foam (PUF) disk-based PAS is probably the most widely used. In a PUF-based PAS, the PUF disk is generally ...

With few exceptions, studies of short-term health effects of air pollution use pollutant concentrations that are averaged citywide as exposure indicators. They are thus prone to exposure misclassification and consequently to bias. Measurement of the relations between air pollution and health, generally and in specific populations, could be improved by ...

The Traffic Air Quality (TAQ) model is a simple tool to estimate traffic fine particulate emissions on roadways (g/km) and can be used for both real-time analysis and for localized conformity analysis ("hot-spot" analysis for nonattainment areas) as defined by 40 CFR 93.123. This paper is a follow-up to a ...

French traffic noise prediction models are based on vehicle noise emission values defined by the "Guide du Bruit des Transports Terrestres", issued in 1980. A research programme was established in order to update these values and take into account developments in car and road technology. The methodology followed to output ...

Noise impact prediction or measurement of Wind Farms requires wind reference data at 10 meters. From data collected on more than 200 Farms in France, over the last 5 years, this paper shows that, in the sampling of noise and meteolological data for noise prediction and assessment, differences in the ...

Noise from military airplane operations is a serious problem in affected surroundings of military airports. Usually, military airplane noise emission data are not available in databases of common programs, which causes problems in noise load modeling. In such cases it is necessary to obtain emission data by measurement. Measurement must ...

A robust methodology was developed to compute population-weighted daily measures of ambient air pollution for use in time-series studies of acute health effects. Ambient data, including criteria pollutants and four fine particulate matter (PM) components, from monitors located in the 20-county metropolitan Atlanta area over the time period of 1999-2004 ...

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common diseases of the central nervous system. Although the disease has been associated with some genetic and environmental factors, it has neither clear causes nor clear temporality with respect to exposure. The purpose of this study was to explore potential relationships between ...

A distributed lag model (DLagM) is a regression model that includes lagged exposure variables as covariates; its corresponding distributed lag (DL) function describes the relationship between the lag and the coefficient of the lagged exposure variable. DLagMs have recently been used in environmental epidemiology for quantifying the cumulative effects of ...

The authors propose a regression-based approach for obtaining multiday estimates of the adverse health effects of ambient particulate matter less than 10 microm in diameter (PM(10)) when daily PM(10) time-series data are unavailable. This situation is common in the United States, because most US cities take PM(10) measurements every 6 ...

In contrast to conventional carbon capture systems for power plants and other large point sources, the system described in this paper captures CO2 directly from ambient air. This has the advantages that emissions from diffuse sources and past emissions may be captured. The objective of this research is to determine ...

Ammonia emissions (NH3) are characterised by a high spatial variability at a local scale. When modelling the spatial distribution of NH3 emissions, it is important to provide robust emission estimates, since the model output is used to assess potential environmental impacts, e.g. exceedance of critical loads. The aim of this ...

Land use regression (LUR) is a method for predicting the spatial distribution of traffic-related air pollution. To facilitate risk and exposure assessment, and the design of future monitoring networks and sampling campaigns, we sought to determine the extent to which LUR can be used to predict spatial patterns in air ...

Prior to 2000 a network of conventional ozone (O3) analysers existed in the Province of Firenze (Tuscany, central Italy). Between 2000 and 2004 the network was extended to incorporate a newly designed bioindicator network of tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum Bel W3). The objective was to set-up an integrated monitoring system ...

In this paper, we examine the changes in ambient ozone concentrations simulated by the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model for summer 2002 under three different nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission scenarios. Two emission scenarios represent best estimates of 2002 and 2004 emissions; they allow assessment of the impact of the ...

An evaluation of lateral landfill gas migration was carried out at the Saint-Michel Environmental Complex in Montreal, City of Montreal Landfill Site, Canada, between 2003 and 2005. Biogas concentration measurements and gas-pumping tests were conducted in multilevel wells installed in the backfilled overburden beside the landfill site. A migration event ...

Used ventilation air filters have been shown to reduce indoor environmental quality and worker performance and increase symptoms, with effects stronger after reaction of filters with ozone. We analyzed data from the US EPA Building Assessment Survey and Evaluation (BASE) study to determine if ozone and specific filter media have ...

Interest in the health effects of particulate matter (PM) has focused on identifying sources of PM, including biomass burning, power plants, and gasoline and diesel emissions that may be associated with adverse health risks. Few epidemiologic studies, however, have included source-apportionment estimates in their examinations of PM health effects. We ...

We examined the utility of a newly developed perceived air pollution (PAP) scale and of a modeled air pollution (MAP) scale derived from it for predicting previously observed birth outcomes of pregnant women enrolled following September 11, 2001. Women reported their home and work locations in the four weeks after ...

Although several previous studies have found a positive association between ambient ozone and mortality, the observed effect may be confounded by other secondary pollutants that are produced concurrently with ozone. We addressed the question of whether the ozone-mortality relationship is entirely a reflection of the adverse effect of ozone, or ...

For ground-level ozone (O(3)) prediction, a predictive model, with reliable performance not only on non-polluted days but, more importantly, on polluted days, is favored by public authorities to issue alerts, so that concerned citizens and industrial organizations could take precautions to avoid exposure and reduce harmful emissions. However, the class ...

To ease the NIMBY (not in my back yard) syndrome of constructing municipal solid waste (MSW) incinerators in Taiwan, compensatory funding is widely allocated to the impacted communities to gain the acceptance and support of residents living the impacted areas. This paper presents a spatial methodology for distributing a compensatory ...

There are several models that can be used to evaluate roadside air quality. The comparison of the operational performance of different models pertinent to local conditions is desirable so that the model that performs best can be identified. Three air quality models, namely the 'modified General Finite Line Source Model' ...

Changes in atmospheric mercury deposition are used to evaluate the effectiveness of regulations controlling emissions. This analysis can be complicated by seemingly incongruent data from different model runs, model types, and field measurements. Here we present a case study example that describes how to identify trends in regional scale mercury ...

The case-crossover design has been increasingly applied to epidemiologic investigations of acute adverse health effects associated with ambient air pollution. The correspondence of the design to that of matched case-control studies makes it inferentially appealing for epidemiologic studies. Case-crossover analyses generally use conditional logistic regression modeling. This technique is equivalent ...

A large body of literature published in recent years suggests increased health risk due to exposure of people to air pollution in close proximity to roadways. As a result, there is a need to more accurately represent the spatial concentration gradients near roadways to develop mitigation strategies. In this paper, ...

Controlling VOC emissions on the basis of their individual contribution to ozone formation has been subject to extensive discussion and research in past years, and the concept has gained some acceptance in the air pollution community for certain product categories and industrial operations. Despite its potential to decrease ozone formation, ...

The primary health concern associated with exposures to chromite ore processing residue (COPR)-affected soils is inhalation of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] particulates. Site-specific soil alternative remediation standards (ARSs) are set using soil suspension and dispersion models to be protective of the theoretical excess cancer risk associated with inhalation of soil suspended ...

The prediction of wind direction is a prerequisite for the intelligent and efficient operation of wind turbines. This is a complex task, due to the intermittent behaviour of wind, its non-Gaussian and nonlinear nature, and the coupling between the wind speed and direction. To provide improved wind direction forecasting, we ...