Conceiving Comparative Policy Analysis : Implementing Air Quality Improvement Programs

The comparative analysis of air quality control policies provides an interesting field for studies of comparative policy analysis including program formulation and implementation processes. In European countries, the problem is comparable, whereas implementation structures, programs and policy impacts vary to a considerable extent. Analysis testing possibilities and constraints of air control policies under varying conditions are likely to contribute to a further development of a theory of policy analysis. This paper presents the analytical framework applied in a continuing empirical study explaining program formulation and implementation processes with respect to the different actors involved. Concrete emitter behavior can be explained by interaction processes at the very local level, by program elements of national legislation, and by structural constraints under which such programs are produced.

Air Quality,

The Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) is committed to assisting economic developers as they advise businesses with new projects and expansions. IDED and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) have developed this fact sheet as a guide to help a business or project meet state and federal air quality regulations.

Water Quality Monitoring Report - 2005-2009 Monitoring of Prairie Pothole Wetlands

Prior to European settlement, wetland basins covered 4 to 6 million acres, or approximately 11% of Iowa's surface area. Wetlands were part of every watershed in the state, but nearly 95% of them have been drained for agriculture. As Iowa was settled wetlands were drained and developed, resulting in the loss of wildlife habitat, damage to water quality, rapid topsoil erosion, and increased incidents and severity of flooding. The condition of Iowa’s remaining wetlands is poorly known. The goal of this project was to assess the ecological condition of prairie pothole wetlands in a defined region of north-central Iowa. This project has worked to develop and establish our wetland sampling methods, while providing baseline data regarding the basic chemical, physical, and biological status of Iowa’s permanent and semi-permanent wetland resources. The baseline data obtained from our monitoring methods is mainly in the form of numerical values derived from the lab analyses of our samples. This data will be used to begin building a database to interpret ecological condition changes in Iowa’s wetlands as the sampling regime and assessment methodology are repeated over time.

Outdoor/indoor air quality in primary schools in Lisbon: a preliminary study

Simultaneous measurements of outdoor and indoor pollution were performed at three schools in Lisbon. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), formaldehyde and NO2 were passively monitored over a two-week period. Bacterial and fungal colony-forming units and comfort parameters were also monitored at classrooms and playgrounds. The highest indoor levels of CO2 (2666 μg/m³), NO2 (40.3 μg/m³), VOCs (10.3 μg/m³), formaldehyde (1.03 μg/m³) and bioaerosols (1634 CFU/m³), and some indoor/outdoor ratios greater than unity, suggest that indoor sources and building conditions might have negative effects on air indoors. Increasing ventilation rates and use of low-emission materials would contribute towards improving indoor air quality.

Influence of different systems of minimum ventilation on air quality in broiler houses

To maintain a competitive development of the Brazilian aviculture, some measures must be taken to enable the identification and reduction of risks to the health of birds, as well as for the physical environment. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of three different systems of minimum ventilation (positive pressure - SVMP, negative pressure - SVMN and natural ventilation - SVMNat) in the air quality during the first 21 days of life of broiler chicks, during winter. Three points were selected along the length to verify ammonia, carbon monoxide and oxygen concentrations at 3a.m., 9a.m., 3p.m. and 9p.m., by the respiration level of birds and workers. The averages of pollutant gases did not exceed the tolerance levels for the three minimum ventilation systems evaluated, which is 20 and 10ppm for the birds level and 20 and 39ppm for the workers level, for ammonia and carbon monoxide, respectively. It was evident that the minimum ventilation systems were appropriately sized for the required minimum ambient air renovation, in respect to ventilation rates applied for the SVMN and SVMP systems, and with air velocity at levels that do not stress the chicks, including for the SVMNat. The three studied systems of minimum ventilation allowed the birds to externalize their productive performance, with values close to the ones considered satisfactory for all evaluated parameters, in accordance with the Brazilian aviculture standards.

Indoor air quality at a waste incineration plant in Finland

Waste has been incinerated for energy utilization for more than a hundred years, but the harmful emissions emitted from the incineration plants did not begin to cause concern until the 1980s. Many plants were shutdown and the waste incineration plant in Kyläsaari Helsinki was one of them. In later years, new landfill regulations have increased the interest in waste incineration. During the last year, four new plants were taken into operation in Finland, Westenergy in Vaasa among them. The presence of dust has been observed indoors at Westenergy waste incineration plant. Dust is defined as particles with a diameter above 10 μm, while fine particles have a diameter smaller than 2.5 μm, ultrafine under 0.1 μm and nanoparticles under 0.05 μm. In recent years, the focus of particle health research has been changed to investigate smaller particles. Ultrafine particles have been found to be more detrimental to health than larger particles. Limit values regulating the concentrations of ultrafine particles have not been determined yet. The objective of this thesis was to investigate dust and particles present inside the Westenergy waste incineration facility. The task was to investigate the potential pollutant sources and to give recommendations of how to minimize the presence of dust and particles in the power plant. The total particle number concentrations and size distributions where measured at 15 points inside the plant with an Engine Exhaust Particle Sizer (EEPS) Spectrometer. The measured particles were mainly in the ultrafine size range. Dust was only visually investigated, since the main purpose was to follow the dust accumulation. The measurement points inside the incineration plant were chosen according to investigate exposure to visitors and workers. At some points probable leakage of emissions were investigated. The measurements were carried out during approximately one month in March–April 2013. The results of the measurements showed that elevated levels of dust and particles are present in the indoor air at the waste incineration plant. The cleanest air was found in the control room, warehouse and office. The most polluted air was near the sources that were investigated due to possible leakage and in the bottom ash hall. However, the concentrations were near measured background concentrations in European cities and no leakage could be detected. The high concentrations were assumed to be a result of a lot of dust and particles present on surfaces that had not been cleaned in a while. The main source of the dust and particles present inside the waste incineration plant was thought to be particles and dust from the outside air. Other activities in the area around the waste incineration facility are ground work activities, stone crushing and traffic, which probably are sources of particle formation. Filtration of the outside air prior entering the facility would probably save personnel and visitors from nuisance and save in cleaning and maintenance costs.

Design, implementation, and evaluation of an online water quality monitoring system in Lake Saimaa, Finland

Environmental threats are growing nowadays, they became global issues. People around the world try to face these issues by two means: solving the current affected environs and preventing non-affected environs. This thesis describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of online water quality monitoring system in Lake Saimaa, Finland. The water quality in Lake Saimaa needs to be monitored in order to provide responsible bodies with valuable information which allows them to act fast in order to prevent any negative impact on the lake's environment. The objectives were to design a suitable system, implement the system in Lake Saimaa, and then to evaluate the applicability and reliability of such systems for this environment. The needs for the system were first isolated, and then the design, needed modifications, and the construction of the system took place. After that was the testing of the system in Lake Saimaa in two locations nearby Mikkeli city. The last step was to evaluate the whole system. The main results were that the application of online water quality monitoring systems in Lake Saimaa can benefit of many advantages such as reducing the required manpower, time and running costs. However, the point of unreliability of the exact measured values of some parameters is still the drawback of such systems which can be developed by using more advanced equipments with more sophisticated features specifically for the purpose of monitoring in the predefined location.

The use of lichens as indicators of ambient air quality in Southern Ontario

The inverse relationship between arboreal lichen species richness and sulphur dioxide in ambient air has been thoroughly documented in the literature. Previous work in southern Ontario has shown that lichen bioindication can identify areas of potential concern regarding air quality. The EMAN suite of l i chens was applied in the City of Samia by surveying 458 Sugar Maple trees, in order to test the applicability of lichen bioindication under conditions of high mean S02 levels and high species richness values. The results of the survey were explored using Geographic Information Systems. A spatial relationship between lichen community variables, the Bluewater Bridge and the highway was identified. Lichen species richness, lichen percent cover and Index of Atmospheric Purity values were higher along the bridge and highway. No strong gradients were found between other known pollution sources and no lichen deserts were identified. The most common community grouping consisted of Physcia millegrana Degel, Candelaria concolor (Dicks) B. Stein, Physcia aipolia (Ehrh ex Humb.) Furnrohr; all of which are known nitrophytes. The relationship between substrate pH and lichen species richness was examined. Sites with a known source of anthropogenic chemical contamination were found to have a correlation of l=0.8 between lichen species richness and pH. The inverse was found for sites with no known source of contamination with a correlation of r 2 =-0.72. The findings suggest that species richness may be influenced by altering substrate pH which promotes the growth of nitrophytic species capable of tolerating high S02 levels.

”Public Health Protection through Air Quality Controls”

Health is an important aspect of everybody’s life. Today, there is an increasing recognition and commitment to the pursuit of health both within government and beyond. Any attempt on the part of the " State to protect and promote people’s health, in turn, must be accompanied by effective controls on air quality, as air constitutes ‘ one of the important elements of man’s life and the consequences of air pollution covers a very wide spectrum ranging from material ---damage to personal discomfort and illness. The broad social and economic objectives adumbrated in the Directive Principles of State Policy including the commitment to improve public health underlying in Article 47 and the obligation to preserve and protect-the natural environment cast under Article 48A of the Constitution are being used as versatile weapons by the State to regulate the public health scenario. Preservation and maintenance of air quality is a significant area within the sphere of public health, where the regulatory arm of the law is not adequately touched and in this arena urgent State intervention through legislative and administrative action is called for in the well-being of the society. Judiciary also plays a pivotal role in this arena in the larger interest of the society and for the benefit of the present and future generations. The research study is an attempt to analyze how far the existing legal system, for maintaining air quality and in controlling air pollution, is effective in protecting public health. The study also analyzes the limitations of the control mechanisms. The study focuses on industrial air pollution, indoor and personal air pollution, vehicular pollution and noise pollution which are today appearing as the major public health hazards affecting the air quality. However, this is not to overlook the importance of controls required under other areas of public health.

Predicting origins of passerines migrating through Canadian migration monitoring stations using stable-hydrogen isotope analyses of feathers: a new tool for bird conservation

The Canadian Migration Monitoring Network (CMMN) consists of standardized observation and migration count stations located largely along Canada’s southern border. A major purpose of CMMN is to detect population trends of migratory passerines that breed primarily in the boreal forest and are otherwise poorly monitored by the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). A primary limitation of this approach to monitoring is that it is currently not clear which geographic regions of the boreal forest are represented by the trends generated for each bird species at each station or group of stations. Such information on “catchment areas” for CMMN will greatly enhance their value in contributing to understanding causes of population trends, as well as facilitating joint trend analysis for stations with similar catchments. It is now well established that naturally occurring concentrations of deuterium in feathers grown in North America can provide information on their approximate geographic origins, especially latitude. We used stable hydrogen isotope analyses of feathers (δ²Hf) from 15 species intercepted at 22 CMMN stations to assign approximate origins to populations moving through stations or groups of stations. We further constrained the potential catchment areas using prior information on potential longitudinal origins based upon bird migration trajectories predicted from band recovery data and known breeding distributions. We detected several cases of differences in catchment area of species passing through sites, and between seasons within species. We discuss the importance of our findings, and future directions for using this approach to assist conservation of migratory birds at continental scales.