Impact of air pollution on reproductive health in Afghanistan

Author(s):  
Khalid Akbar ◽  
Taj Mohammad Khaksar

The presence of one or more contaminants (harmful substances) in the atmosphere in a specific quantity, for such duration, which is injurious or tends to be injurious to human health, welfare, animal, or plant life is called air pollution. Air pollutants are of commonly two types, which are produced through natural pollutants; they include dust (crustal material), sea salts, biological material, pollen, spores or plant-animal debris, volcanic eruptions (which release a very large quantity of gases and particles into the atmosphere), periodic forest fires, thunderbolts, wind erosion, and low concentration ozone. Other types of pollutants are produced in human-made (technical) environments, like mobile sources (cars, trucks, airplanes, marine engines, etc.) or point sources (factories, electric power plants, etc.). The high level of air pollution is a big problem all over the world and also in Afghanistan, and all residents of this country are severely exposed to this ever-worsening situation. Air pollution and other extraordinary environmental problems are factors that threaten the livelihood of millions of Afghans, as a study report shows that 60% of Kabul’s residents are exposed to increased levels of harmful toxins, such as, nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxide. According to the State of Global Air report, more than 26,000 afghan deaths could be attributed to pollution in 2007, but United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documented nearly 3,500 civilian casualties from the war for the same time period, so air pollution is killing more Afghans than war because they burn anything possible to get energy and heat they need. Result of air sampling in major urban centers of Afghanistan shows high amounts of particulate matters (PM), benzo-a-pyrene, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) originating from vehicle exhaust emission. The highest concentrations were founded in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif (13.6 ng/m3 ). The absence of industrial parks, nonconformity of environmental protection rules, especially by industries, urbanization, degradation of fertile lands, deforestation, seasonal winds, drought, internal migration, and low knowledge about pesticides and herbicides use, are factors that boost the severity of air pollution in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, women are more exposed to high levels of indoor air pollution because they spend more time at home due to their cultural rules; also, women have responsibility for household activities, working in the kitchen to prepare food, they are exposed to poor sanitation and contaminated water supplies, they clean and sweep rooms and yards with inadequate protection equipment, which are significant sources of dust, so they are often exposed to high levels of smoke and dust for long periods.

Author(s):  
Sri Neneng Sundari

Abstract: Motor Vehicle Pollution Doesn't Affect Against ISPA Disease. Air pollution is a problem that often occurs in the big cities, one of which is in the city of Bandung. Air pollution can cause various diseases from the most important ones namely respiratory, cardiovascular diseases, and to other diseases that attack certain organs. Based on the results of the study, air pollution from the transportation sector reached 60 percents, therefore this study will highlight the impact of motor vehicle air pollution on human’s health in Bandung, especially Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI), because the disease is the 2nd largest of the 20 biggest types of diseases in Community Health Centers / Puskesmas in Bandung. From several air pollutant parameters resulting from vehicle exhaust emissions, SO2 compounds were studied, because SO2 can cause irritation to the respiratory tract. This research using descriptive method, it can be concluded that air pollution caused by vehicle exhaust emission gas doesn’t directly affect the occurrence of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) in Bandung. The disease can occur due to other factors not examined in this paper, due to indoor air pollution, cigarette smoke pollution, industrial pollution or the continued use of synthetic chemicals.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Christensen ◽  
Andrew Gettelman ◽  
Jan Cermak ◽  
Guy Dagan ◽  
Michael Diamond ◽  
...  

Abstract. Aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) are considered to be the most uncertain driver of present-day radiative forcing due to human activities. The non-linearity of cloud-state changes to aerosol perturbations make it challenging to attribute causality in observed relationships of aerosol radiative forcing. Using correlations to infer causality can also be challenging when meteorological variability also drives both aerosol and cloud changes independently. Natural and anthropogenic aerosol perturbations from well defined sources provide “opportunistic experiments” (also known as natural experiments) to investigate ACI in cases where causality may be more confidently inferred. These perturbations cover a wide range of locations and spatio-temporal scales, including point sources such as volcanic eruptions or industrial sources, plumes from biomass burning or forest fires, and tracks from individual ships or shipping corridors. We review the different experimental conditions and conduct a synthesis of the available satellite data sets and field campaigns to place these opportunistic experiments on a common footing, facilitating new insights and a clearer understanding of key uncertainties in aerosol radiative forcing. Strong liquid water path increases due to aerosol perturbations are largely ruled out by averaging across experiments. Cloud albedo perturbations are strongly sensitive to background meteorological conditions. Opportunistic experiments have significantly improved process level understanding of ACI, but it remains unclear how reliably the relationships found can be scaled to the global level, thus, demonstrating a need for deeper investigation in order to improve assessments of aerosol radiative forcing and climate change.


Author(s):  
Cheledi E. Tshehla ◽  
Caradee Y. Wright

Air pollution from industrial point sources accounts for a large proportion of air pollution issues affecting many communities around the world. However, emissions from these sources are technically controllable by putting in place abatement technologies with feasible and stringent regulatory conditions in the operation licenses. Pollution from other sources such as soil erosion, forest fires, road dust, and biomass burning, are subject to several unpredictable natural or economic factors. In this study, findings from dispersion modelling and spatial analysis of pollution were presented to evaluate the potential impacts of PM10 emissions from point sources in the Greater Tubatse Municipality of Limpopo, South Africa. The Air Pollution Model (TAPM) was used to model nested horizontal grids down to 10 km for meteorology and 4 km resolution for air pollution was used for simulation of PM10. An analysis of annual and seasonal variations of PM10 emissions from point sources was undertaken to demonstrate their impact on the environment and the surrounding communities based on 2016 emissions data. A simple Kriging method was used to generate interpolation surfaces for PM10 concentrations from industrial sources with the purpose of identifying their areas of impact. The results suggest that valley wind channeling is responsible for the distribution of pollutants in a complex terrain. The results revealed that PM10 concentrations were higher closer to the sources during the day and distributed over a wide area during the night.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-39
Author(s):  
Yos Nofendri

ABSTRAK Penurunan kualitas udara pada bumi terus menurun. Ini disebabkan oleh polusi udara semakin lama semakin meningkat. Peningkatan jumlah kendaraan juga menjadi salah satu penyebab menurunnya kualitas udara. Penegakan aturan yang ketat dalam pengendalian pencemaran pada emisi gas buang semakin diperketat. Oleh itu diperlukan suatu bahan bakar kendaraan yang dapat mengurangkan emisi gas buang pada kendaraan. Pada saat sekarang ini pencarian bahan bakar ramah lingkungan difokuskan dengan menggunakan aditif berbahan dasar alami. Dengan demikian perlu diteliti penambahan aditif ditambahkan ke minyak solar, dengan tujuan untuk mengurangi emisi gas buang. Sebuah mesin diesel satu silinder telah digunakan yang digabungkan gas analyzer Bosc tipe BEA 150 / 250 / 350. Oksigenat berbahan dasar nabati digunakan sebagai aditif dalam bahan bakar diesel dengan campuran 1% - 5% volume. Tes emisi gas buang dilakukan pada kecepatan antara 900 - 1.700 rpm dan kondisi beban penuh. Percobaan dilakukan untuk mendapatkan parameter emisi gas buang. Hasil percobaan menunjukkan bahwa penambahan aditif oksigenat sebanyak 1 % bisa menurunkan jelaga 30%, meningkatkan CO2 sebanyak 5%, menurunkan CO 35% dan peningkatan NOx sebanyak 9% dibanding solar murni. Kata Kunci : Mesin diesel, Oksigenat, Emisi Gas Buang ABSTRACT Decline in air quality on earth continues to occur. One of its causes is air pollution which is the mistake of vehicle exhaust emissions. Strict enforcement of pollution control on exhaust emissions is one way to control exhaust emissions. It is therefore necessary to fuel a vehicle that can reduce exhaust emissions on vehicles. At the present time this environmentally friendly fuel search is focused using natural based additives. Thus it is necessary to examine the addition of additives added to the diesel oil, with the aim of reducing exhaust emissions. A single-cylinder diesel engine has been used which incorporates a BEA 150/250/350 Bosc gas analyzer. Vegetable oxygenates are used as additives in diesel fuel with a mixture of 1% - 5% by volume. The exhaust emission test is carried out at speeds between 900 - 1,700 rpm and full load conditions. The experiment was conducted to obtain the parameters of exhaust emissions. The experimental results show that the addition of 1% oxygenate additive can decrease carbon 30%, increase CO2 by 5%, decrease CO 35% and increase NOx by 9% compared to pure diesel. Keyword : Diesel Engine, Oxygenat, Emission Engine


2019 ◽  
Vol 802 ◽  
pp. 57-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Viktorovna Semenyutina ◽  
Viktoria Alekseevna Semenyutina ◽  
Aliya Shamilyevna Khuzhakhmetova ◽  
Igor Petrovich Svintsov

During the operation of thermal power plants, boilers, incinerators, vehicles, industrial enterprises for the production of synthetic fatty acids, building materials, paints, textiles, cardboard, paper, as well as resins and products based on them – plywood, chipboards, wood-fiber boards, plastics, etc. The environment is contaminated with formaldehyde. Formaldehyde acts climatically and toxically on local, regional and global processes in the environment and contributes to a high level of air pollution (air pollution index > 14) in almost all industrialized regions of Russia. Products containing formaldehyde, getting into residential and non-residential premises, create an environmental risk to public health. The article is devoted to determining the effect of formaldehyde on woody plants by biochemical and electrophysiological methods and developing a method of reducing the concentration of formaldehyde in the environment by introducing into industrial materials aluminosilicate sorbents of different crystal chemical structure, processed thermo-, in a pulsed magnetic field and under the combined effect of a pulsed magnetic field and temperature effects.


Author(s):  
PELLUMB ISLAMI ◽  
ADNAN BOZALIJA ◽  
HILMI ISLAMI

Objective: This study aimed to determine the effects of indoor air pollution on workers and the effects of discharged gases, such as CO, CO2, NO2, O3, SO2, NH3, and PM, on the manifestation of bronchial reactivity during the process of gasification at the power plants in Kastriot, Kosovo. Methods: Parameters of lung function were determined using body plethysmography. Airway resistance (Raw) and intrathoracic gas volume (ITGV) were measured; based on these values, specific airway resistance (SRaw) and specific airway conductance were calculated. Results: The study was performed in two groups: the control group and the experimental group. The control group consisted of 32 healthy people, whereas the experimental group consisted of 55 workers of the gasification department of the power plants in Kastriot, Kosovo. The results of this study indicated that the mean value of SRaw significantly increased in the experimental group (p<0.05) compared to the control group (p>0.1). This study also showed that smoking is in favor of the negative effects of air pollution at the premises of the gasification department (p<0.01). Measurements of the respiratory systems were made before and following provocation with histamine–aerosol (1 mg/ml) in the control and experimental groups. Changes between these two groups following this provocation with histamine–aerosol were found to be statistically significant (p<0.01). Conclusion: Although air pollution requires time to cause a respiratory pathology, it permanently affects the manifestation of bronchial reactivity. This finding suggests that the real situation of these workers exposed to air pollution during the process of gasification poses a serious risk to their health and particularly to normal respiratory function.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document