Air Pollution: Act or Its too late

Well the topic seems to be boring one. It has been one of our concerns from the time when we were in kindergarten (as I remember) and it still persists and bothers us. Still what we are doing is just talking about planting trees and other less pragmatic methods and solutions. Here I have tried to cover the seriousness of the issue as well as have tried to explain some very practical solutions. Hope you will find it benefitting one.

To specify things and to pen down my matter in precise manner, I have taken Raipur as my subject city.

Raipur is the capital city of Chhattisgarh. Having 24 hour electricity, major educational institutions (NIT, IIM) in its heart and having good administrative track record makes Raipur a perfect city to live in. But then I come across this news and then I think that somewhere in hurry of becoming a megacity, Raipur missed something and the coming generation have to pay that cost.

When it comes to air pollution, a World Health Organization (WHO) report concluded that Raipur has gained the dubious distinction of being the third worst city in India and has found its way on the list of top twenty polluted cities in world. Environmentalists fear that it's only a matter of time that this city would top the list, if urgent steps aren't taken to improve the air quality. And if local researchers and environmentalists are to be believed, the annual average levels of PM10 is 700 per cubic meter in some areas of city, which is 11 times more than Central Pollution Control Board's prescribed safe limit of 60 micrograms per cubic meter.

What is PM10?

Particulate matter is the collective term used to describe very small solid, liquid or gaseous particles in the air. Some of these particles are big enough to be seen while others are so small that they are invisible to the human eye and small enough for us to inhale. A PM10 particle is less than 10 micrometers (9m) in size, or one fifth of the diameter of a human hair. PM10 comes from man-made sources such as burning coal, oil, wood and light fuel oil in domestic fires, motor vehicles and industrial processes. Natural sources of particles include sea salt, dust, pollens and volcanic activity.

                           

                            FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CURRENT SCENARIO

1.       Sudden increase in the number of vehicles.

2.       Toxic industrial waste.

3.        Domestic waste.

According to a reliable source state's industrial policy does not protect the interests of local people and the environment. Many sponge iron units have come up in the area and many others are in the process. It is estimated that approximately 10,000 tons coal is used by functional sponge iron units. Some small-scale industries, like nearly 50-60 brick kilns, are also mushrooming around Raipur. A study by NGM says most of these kilns operate as Bull Trench Kilns and don't follow the norms of Fixed Chimney methods. Their wastes cause rspm content to exceed the permissible limit by over four-five per cent. Air pollution caused by their contaminants affects an area of up to 10 square kilometers (sq. km) during winters and monsoons and 25-30 sq. km during summer.

                                                      SOLUTION

There are various realistic ways through which we can tackle this problem.

1.       We can plant trees and organize ‘Vanmahotsav’. Someone has said that “ If trees were to double as Wi-Fi antenna wed be living in a greener planet and spend more time in parks than in pc”

2.       We can install Air quality monitors which can be installed in each and every home of Raipur city as it is quite affordable and inexpensive.

AirCasting is a platform for recording, mapping, and sharing health and environmental data using your smartphone. Each AirCasting session lets you capture real-world measurements, annotate the data to tell your story, and share it via the Crowd Map.

Using the AirCasting Android app, AirCasters can record, map, and share:

• Sound levels recorded by their phone microphone;
• Temperature, humidity, carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) gas concentrations recorded by the Arduino-powered AirCasting Air Monitor;
• Heart rate, heart rate variability, R to R, breathing rate, activity level, peak acceleration and core temperature measurements.

• Air quality sensor are very cheap. As shown above it is of maxm. Rs. 600. Along with it we need an Arduino board which costs approx rs. 800 and now all we need is a smartphone through which we can get update on the current level of pollutants in air.

The code and the application are open sourced by the developer and one needs not panic about it. One can install in his/her home by his own and can be conscious about the air pollution.

3.      Generally after using appliances we switch off the appliance but often forget to unplug it from socket board. Some of the facts are pointed below that will make you ponder on your decision aftermath when you don’t unplug your appliance.

Your microwave consumes 3.5W when plugged in and not in use (that’s 35 mobile phone chargers worth), printer draws 5.9W when on and not actually printing (59 mobile phone chargers worth), Nintendo Wii draws a whopping 9.5W when on and not in use (95 mobile phone chargers worth), even cradles for cordless home phones can be consuming 8 times more electricity than mobile phone chargers.

4.      Site giving real time data about the air quality standards so that there could be partiality and we could feel as well see the changes. Many countries have did so early and we are lagging behind them. For instance in China, real time updates are made on their site and even we could see that and learn many things.

Source:  http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/m/

5.       Car pooling and by using public transport as much as we can.

6.       Travel lightly and remove any unnecessary items that may weigh down your vehicle.

7.       Store all solvents in airtight containers.

8.       Print and photocopy on both sides of paper.

9.       Bring your lunch or walk to a nearby restaurant to reduce auto emissions.

So from above methods we could get an outlay to minimise air pollution. We can even contribute our part by instaliing air quality monitor in our departments. There are various other methods by which we can control air pollution.

And we can contribute our bit, and we must do that.

Thanks for reading. I hope that the content might have gone fine. Please don't forget to leave a comment. Your views and reviews always matter. :-)

Serendipity: how the vogue word became vague

In the history of human scientific progress chance discoveries have played a major role. But the chance finds have always succeeded in hogging the limelight only when followed by careful and systematic scientific analysis.

What does the discovery of America, Teflon, and cornflakes have in common? They were all the results of serendipity. Serendipity is defined as the ability of making fortunate and unexpected discoveries by accident. This term has an interesting origin. It was coined in 1754, by an English novelist- Horace Walpole. Horace enjoyed foraging through reference works for information, and once chanced upon what he called ‘an exotic fairy tale’ that caught his imagination. It was the story of three princes of Serendib who were highly trained in arts and sciences. (Serendib was the anglicized version of swarnadweepa- Sone ki lanka, the old name of Srilanka). The three princes were privileged individuals not only gifted by their noble origin but also endowed with a unique talent: the gift of casual discovery. These three individuals were able to find answers to questions or mysteries they were not in search of. Thanks to their natural sagacity they would solve unexpected dilemmas. Stopping at an inn on evening, they met a distraught man who had lost his camel. Although the three princes had not seen the camel, they asked the camel driver if the lost camel was blind in one eye, missing a tooth, and lame. This description were based on signs they had observed along their way. They also deduced that it probably carried a load of butter on one side and honey on the other, and was ridden by a pregnant woman. After this detailed description of the camel, the camel driver was convinced that the three princes had stolen his camel, and they were imprisoned. Later on, when the camel was found, the princes were released.

Horace must have found the gift of the three princes’ sublime. Though quite difficult to describe, he invented an expressive little word for their unique gift- SERENDITY.

Keep that mind open

In examining many of science’s most famous moments, serendipity has played a crucial role and we owe a debt to serendipity for some of the greatest discoveries in science. However, one needs to be aware that many of the principal beneficiaries of serendipity ‘clearly recognized’ the difference between an accident and an accidental discovery. In this context, Louis Pasteur put forth the famous quote, “in the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.”

One of the most amazing accidental discoveries in science is the invention of Dynamite Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel in 1873. The invention was also fortuitous because it led to the creation of today’s Nobel prizes. It happened when Nobel was trying to control the super powerful explosive nitroglycerine, which had killed hundreds of people including Alfred’s brother, Emil. In the lab, Nobel combined many substances with nitroglycerine; but nothing defused the explosives unmanageability. One day, Nobel noticed that nitroglycerine was leaking from its storage casks and being soaked up by the diatomaceous earth used to pack and protect the containers. When he examined the leak, Nobel found the diatomaceous earth absorbed three times its own weight of nitroglycerine. Moreover, when dry, the mixture could be hit with by a hammer and even set afire without exploding. Only a blasting cap would set off the new explosive. Nobel become fabulously wealthy but was nonetheless troubled by the death and destruction caused by some who used dynamite for nefarious purposes or in warfare. To help offset some of the mayhem, he used his great wealth to set up a fund which stills provides the cash awards given out yearly along with the Noble Prizes. And the list goes on…

For instance, the man whose name graces a thousand years- Charles Goodyear- worked out how to get rubber from an awkward material that melted in warm weather, when he accidently dropped a piece on a stove. And thus began an age in which natural substances could be altered through industrial processes. Neoprene was also serendipitous find made when a lab assistant left a chemical impurity in a test tube for over a weekend. A week and a half later, in the same laboratory, the first artificial fiber was created, also by accident by the scientist in charge, Wallace Carothers- a development that lead to nylon. In yet another incidence in the early 1950s, George de mestral while returning home after a walk in the countryside in Switzerland, noticed that his coat was covered with cockleburs. As he tried to pick them off, he wondered why they were so sticky. In search of an answer, he with the help of a microscope discovered that cockleburs are covered with hooks that became embedded in the loops of the fabric. This knowledge of the cockleburs spawned development of a product known as Velcro (derived from velvet and crochet). In another incidence, German physicians’ joseph von mering and Oscar minkowski removed pancreas from a healthy dog in order to study the role of pancreas in digestion. Several days after the dogs pancreas was removed, the doctors happened to notice a swarm os flies feeding on a puddle of the dog’s urine. On testing the urine to determine the cause of the flies’ attraction, the doctors realized that the dog was secreting sugar in its urine, assign of diabetes. Because the dog was healthy prior to the surgery, the doctors knew that they had created its diabetic condition by removing its pancreas and thus understood for the first time the relationship between the pancreas and diabetes.

Examples of serendipity in science:

1.    1.    Polyethylene by Hans von Pechmann, who prepared it by accident in 1898 while heating diazomethane.

2.     2.   Bioelectricity, by Luigi Galvani. He was dissecting a frog at a table where he had been performing experiments with static electricity. Galvani’s assistant touched an exposed sciatic nerve of the frog with a metal scalpel, which had picked up a charge, provoking a muscle contraction.

3.     3.   S.N. Bose discovered Bose- Einstein statistics when a mathematical error explained anomalous data.

4.      4.  Electromagnetism, by Hans Christian Oersted. While he was setting up his material for a lecture, he noticed a compass needle deflecting from magnetic north when the electric current from the battery he was using was switched on and off.

5.     5.   Discovery of the principle behind inkjet printers by a canon engineer. After putting his hot soldering iron by accident on his pen, ink was ejected from the pens point a few moments later.

And the List goes on.

References:

1.     1.   Science reporter, (Edition: May, 2008)

2.     2.   http://en.wikipedia.org