‘Unbearable’: Lorry drivers and environment pay price of air pollution at Bulgaria-Romania border

By Cristian GherasimPublished on 26/11/2023 -

Hours-long border queues are taking a climate toll in Bulgaria and Romania. Could entry into the Schengen Area help?

Pollution is on the rise as lorries queue for kilometres on both sides of the crossing between Romania and Bulgaria.

People in Giurgiu, a border town in southern Romania have for years felt that the air they breathe is no longer as clean as it used to be. It gets worse nearest to the checkpoint with Bulgaria where hundreds of lorries wait for hours to be inspected and allowed passage.

Romania and Bulgaria have been EU member states since 2007. Their campaign to become part of the Schengen Zone - an area that allows people and goods to travel freely between member countries without going through border controls - however, is ongoing.

Being admitted into Schengen would slash border waiting times, congestion and emissions from running engines.

For tourists going on vacation, long queues are an inconvenience. But for drivers of heavy duty vehicles that transit EU borders on a daily basis, the economic and health impact is huge.
Slow-moving traffic makes air ‘unbearable’ at Bulgaria and Romania’s borders

“The seven kilometre bypass stretching from Giurgiu in Romania to the border with Bulgaria is packed day and night with hundreds of lorries,” Bogdan Priceputu, born and raised in Giurgiu, tells Euronews Green.

“Not only is the air dirtiest in that vicinity but the field nearby gets littered with garbage as drivers wait by the side of the road for hours, without amenities and sanitation facilities, to cross the border into Bulgaria.”

Until recently, Bogdan’s father worked as a customs officer on the Romanian side of the border. “I know that several times a day the air got unbearable due to the slow moving traffic,” he says.


Albania, Colombia, Moldova: Which countries are doing the most for air pollution and climate?

This English city is banning gas stoves in new homes. Here’s why

Things are not much better on the Bulgarian side of the border. For years the border town of Ruse has been trying to curb its air pollution problem but to no avail. People have taken to the streets to protest against the issue and it has even become a topic of debate in the European Parliament.

The river Danube acts as the border between Romania and Bulgaria. Bogdan explains that when he gets on his boat and goes out on the river he can sometimes see smog plumes gliding across the nearby canal. “I don’t know if it’s from the traffic, but the increasing number of lorries waiting nearby at the border sure doesn’t help.”

Lorry drivers don’t have it any easier.

“A couple of weeks ago I ended up waiting for over 24 hours to cross the border from Bulgaria into Romania,” a Romanian lorry driver tells Euronews Green. “Of course it was unbearable, of course there’s pollution. I am driving a chiller lorry and the engine needs to be running almost all of the time otherwise the shipment goes bad.”

What are the health risks of traffic pollution in Bulgaria and Romania?

According to Eurostat southeastern Europe has some of the EU's most polluted cities. Bulgaria and Romania have the first and third highest values of fine particulate matter - also known as PM2.5 - in the entire European Union.

This is only set to worsen as winter descends: studies show levels of the larger PM 10 rise as temperatures drop in Bulgaria, fuelled by transport, industry and domestic heating.

Pollutants such as particulate matter suspended in the air are particularly worrisome as they reduce people’s life expectancy, aggravating many chronic and acute respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, according to the European Environment Agency.

Excess traffic emissions put border communities at risk of pollution-related health problems.
Can the Balkans steer away from fossil fuels? Albania and Romania are banking on it

“Air pollution is one of the leading causes for pulmonary cancer,” oncologist Roxana Macarie, tells Euronews Green. “It also increases the risk of breast, liver and pancreatic cancer in all age groups.”

Roxana practises medicine in Bucharest, Romania’s capital, but travels frequently to the border city of Giurgiu where some of her relatives live.

“Traffic has increased significantly over the past years. There are hundreds of lorries waiting each day around the city, some with their engines running, to cross into Bulgaria. That can’t be good for air quality in the area,” she says.

PM 2.5 can also have long-term impacts on children’s lung function and development. This can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, including asthma, which affects nine per cent of young people in Europe.

The environmental toll of keeping Romania and Bulgaria outside the Schengen area is adding up.
What’s keeping Bulgaria and Romania out of the Schengen area?

Both Bulgaria and Romania met the necessary criteria to join the passport-free zone over a decade ago.

They have received backing from the European Commission and the European Parliament. But the final green light has to come from the Council of the European Union.

They need approval from all 27 EU countries but still face opposition from Austria and the Netherlands.

Austria’s resistance stems from a broader dissatisfaction with Schengen and flows of migrants that cross into the EU. The Netherlands has signalled it might approve Bulgaria's bid if a series of conditions on judicial reform and anti-corruption fight is met.

A new vote is slated to be held next month.
What is the environmental impact of border crossing delays?

In a statement calling for Bulgaria and Romania’s Schengen ascension by the end of 2023, the European Parliament highlights the environmental and health burden of delaying the decision.

MEPs say that queues faced at two countries’ border crossings can last from a few hours to even days. This translates into 46,000 tonnes of CO2 emitted each year, according to recent analysis by accounting organisation KPMG.

The added pollution inflicts “irreparable damages” on the environment and will have health repercussions for drivers, customs agents and people living near border crossings, the statement continues.

The European Parliament believes that limiting border crossings and obstructing the free flow of goods between EU member states do not align with the bloc’s climate neutrality goal, which aims for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Already, the years of delays have led to half a million tonnes of excess CO2 emissions, according to KPMG. This is the equivalent of over 600 GWh of electricity produced from climate-wrecking coal sources, or enough to power 60,000 homes for a year.

Heat, disease, air pollution: How climate change impacts health

Paris (AFP) – Growing calls for the world to come to grips with the many ways that global warming affects human health have prompted the first day dedicated to the issue at crunch UN climate talks starting next week.

Issued on: 26/11/2023 -

Air pollution, such as the extremes seen in India's capital New Delhi, are just one way that fossil fuels affect human health © Arun SANKAR / AFP/File

Extreme heat, air pollution and the increasing spread of deadly infectious diseases are just some of the reasons why the World Health Organization has called climate change the single biggest health threat facing humanity.

Global warming must be limited to the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius "to avert catastrophic health impacts and prevent millions of climate change-related deaths", according to the WHO.

However, under current national carbon-cutting plans, the world is on track to warm up to 2.9C this century, the UN said this week.

While no one will be completely safe from the effects of climate change, experts expect that most at risk will be children, women, the elderly, migrants and people in less developed countries which have emitted the least planet-warming greenhouse gases.

On December 3, the COP28 negotiations in Dubai will host the first "health day" ever held at the climate negotiations.

- Extreme heat -

This year is widely expected to be the hottest on record. And as the world continues to warm, even more frequent and intense heatwaves are expected to follow.

Heat is believed to have caused more than 70,000 deaths in Europe during summer last year, researchers said this week, revising the previous number up from 62,000.

Climate change increasing dangerous heat © Maxence D'AVERSA, Sabrina BLANCHARD / AFP

Worldwide, people were exposed to an average of 86 days of life-threatening temperatures last year, according to the Lancet Countdown report earlier this week.

The number of people over 65 who died from heat rose by 85 percent from 1991-2000 to 2013-2022, it added.

And by 2050, more than five times more people will die from the heat each year under a 2C warming scenario, the Lancet Countdown projected.

More droughts will also drive rising hunger. Under the scenario of 2C warming by the end of the century, 520 million more people will experience moderate or severe food insecurity by 2050.

Meanwhile, other extreme weather events such as storms, floods and fires will continue to threaten the health of people across the world.
Air pollution

Almost 99 percent of the world's population breathes air that exceeds the WHO's guidelines for air pollution.

Outdoor air pollution driven by fossil fuel emissions kills more than four million people every year, according to the WHO.

It increases the risk of respiratory diseases, strokes, heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes and other health problems, posing a threat that has been compared to tobacco.

The damage is caused partly by PM2.5 microparticles, which are mostly from fossil fuels. People breathe these tiny particles into their lungs, where they can then enter the bloodstream.

World map showing the concentration of fine PM2.5 particles in the air © Valentin RAKOVSKY, Sabrina BLANCHARD / AFP

While spikes in air pollution, such as extremes seen in India's capital New Delhi earlier this month, trigger respiratory problems and allergies, long-term exposure is believed to be even more harmful.

However it is not all bad news.

The Lancet Countdown report found that deaths from air pollution due to fossil fuels have fallen 16 percent since 2005, mostly due to efforts to reduce the impact of coal burning.

Infectious diseases

The changing climate means that mosquitoes, birds and mammals will roam beyond their previous habitats, raising the threat that they could spread infectious diseases with them.

Mosquito-borne diseases that pose a greater risk of spreading due to climate change include dengue, chikungunya, Zika, West Nile virus and malaria.

Health risks linked to climate change © Gal ROMA / AFP

The transmission potential for dengue alone will increase by 36 percent with 2C warming, the Lancet Countdown report warned.

Storms and floods create stagnant water that are breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and also increase the risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea.

Scientists also fear that mammals straying into new areas could share diseases with each other, potentially creating new viruses that could then jump over to humans.
Mental health

Worrying about the present and future of our warming planet has also provoked rising anxiety, depression and even post-traumatic stress -- particularly for people already struggling with these disorders, psychologists have warned.

In the first 10 months of the year, people searched online for the term "climate anxiety" 27 times more than during the same period in 2017, according to data from Google Trends cited by the BBC this week.

© 2023 AFP

US coal power plants killed at least 460,000 people in past 20 years – report

Nina Lakhani climate justice reporter
Thu, November 23, 2023 

Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Coal-fired power plants killed at least 460,000 Americans during the past two decades, causing twice as many premature deaths as previously thought, new research has found.

Cars, factories, fire smoke and electricity plants emit tiny toxic air pollutants known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5, which elevate the risk of an array of life-shortening medical conditions including asthma, heart disease, low birth weight and some cancers.

Researchers analyzed Medicare and emissions data from 1999 and 2020, and for the first time found that coal PM2.5 is twice as deadly as fine particle pollutants from other sources. Previous studies quantifying the death toll from air pollution assumed all PM2.5 sources posed the same risk, and therefore probably underestimated the dangers of coal plants.

Related: ‘Insanity’: petrostates planning huge expansion of fossil fuels, says UN report

Government regulations save lives, according to the research, which is published in Science, as most deaths happened when environmental standards were weakest and PM2.5 levels from coal-fired power stations highest.

“Air pollution from coal is much more harmful than we thought, and we’ve been treating it like it’s just another air pollutant,” said the lead author, Lucas Henneman, an assistant professor in the Sid and Reva Dewberry department of civil, environmental and infrastructure engineering at George Mason University. “This type of evidence is important to policymakers like EPA [the US Environmental Protection Agency] as they identify cost-effective solutions for cleaning up the country’s air, like requiring emissions controls or encouraging renewables.”

Henneman led a group of researchers who used publicly available data to track air pollution – and its health effects – from the 480 US coal power plants that operated at some point between 1999 and 2020. A model was used to track the wind direction and reach of the toxins from each power station. Annual exposure levels were then connected with more than 650m Medicare health records that covered most people over age 65 in the US.

The coal plants associated with most deaths were located east of the Mississippi River in industrialized states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, where power stations were historically constructed close to population hubs. But every region had at least one plant linked to 600 deaths, while 10 were associated with more than 5,000 deaths across the study period.






About 85% of the total 460,000 coal plant-related deaths occurred between 1999 and 2007, an average of more than 43,000 deaths per year. The death toll declined drastically as plants closed or scrubbers – a type of sulphur filter – were installed to comply with new environmental rules. By 2020, the coal PM2.5 death toll had dropped 95%, to 1,600 people.

“By linking records of where Medicare beneficiaries lived and when they died, we found that risks due to PM2.5 from coal were more than double the risks related to PM2.5 from all sources,” said co-author Francesca Dominici, a professor of biostatistics, population and data science at the Harvard TC Chan school of public health.

Coal use has declined in the US, but there are still more than 200 coal-fired power plants, accounting for 20% of electricity generation in 2022, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Indiana, Kentucky and Texas have the most operational coal plants, followed by Illinois, Missouri and Pennsylvania.

Globally, coal-generated power is still rising, with South Africa, China, India and Poland among the countries most dependent on the dirtiest of fossil fuels.

“As countries debate their energy sources – and as coal maintains a powerful, almost mythical status in American energy lore – our findings are highly valuable to policymakers and regulators as they weigh the need for cheap energy with the significant environmental and health costs,” said Dominici.

Mortality burden of air pollution from coal-burning power plants has been underestimated

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)

Between 1999 and 2020, more than 460,000 deaths in the United States were attributable to exposure to air pollution emissions from coal-burning power plants, according to the longest-term national study of its kind. While the findings highlight the increased mortality risks from coal electricity generation, they also underscore the effectiveness of emission-reduction policies in preventing excess death. Exposure to air pollution is associated with poor health and an increased risk of death. Coal-burning electricity-generating units (EGUs), also known as power plants, are a major contributor to poor air quality. Although coal EGU air pollution emissions have declined in the U.S. in recent decades, global coal use for electricity generation is projected to increase. Recent studies have suggested that exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) containing sulfur dioxide (SO2) from coal-burning emissions is more deadly than PM2.5 from other sources. Policymakers seeking to limit the impact of coal use justify regulations by quantifying the health burden attributable to exposure to these sources. However, measuring the magnitude of the impact of coal EGU-derived air pollution on human health, as well as the success of measures to mitigate such impacts, is challenging. Efforts have been hampered by the limited availability of large-scale health databases and source-specific exposure estimates.

 

To better estimate U.S. deaths attributable to exposure to PM2.5 emitted from coal-burning power plants, and how related mortality patterns have changed over time, Lucas Henneman and colleagues combined a reduced complexity atmospheric transport model, which they used to estimate emissions from 480 individual coal EGUs, with historical individual-level US Medicare death records encompassing more than 650 million person-years. They found that exposure to coal-derived PM2.5 was associated with 2.1 times greater mortality risk than exposure to PM2.5 from all other sources. And, coal-derived PM2.5 was responsible for 460,000 cumulative deaths among those over 65 years of age over the past two decades, accounting for ~25% of the total deaths attributable to PM2.5. According to the findings, the mortality burden of coal PM2.5 has been underestimated. Critically, Henneman et al. also show that the rapid decline of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from coal power plants over the last 20 years – through emissions reduction regulations and coal EGU closures – has led to a large reduction in excess deaths. In a related Perspective, Robert Mendelsohn and Seung Min Kim discuss the study and its limitations in greater detail. Note: The authors have provided an interactive online tool that illustrates how deaths attributed to each individual U.S. coal EGU have changed over time.

---

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adf4915 

ARTICLE TITLE

Mortality risk from United States coal electricity generation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Nov-2023

Pollution from coal power plants contributes to far more deaths than scientists realized, study show

Lucas Henneman, George Mason University
Thu, November 23, 2023 

Kids jump on a trampoline as steam rises from a coal power plant in Adamsville, Ala., in 2021. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images


Air pollution particles from coal-fired power plants are more harmful to human health than many experts realized, and it’s more than twice as likely to contribute to premature deaths as air pollution particles from other sources, new research demonstrates.

In the study, published in the journal Science, colleagues and I mapped how U.S. coal power plant emissions traveled through the atmosphere, then linked each power plant’s emissions with death records of Americans over 65 years old on Medicare.

Our results suggest that air pollutants released from coal power plants were associated with nearly half a million premature deaths of elderly Americans from 1999 to 2020.

It’s a staggering number, but the study also has good news: Annual deaths associated with U.S. coal power plants have fallen sharply since the mid-2000s as federal regulations compelled operators to install emissions scrubbers and many utilities shut down coal plants entirely.

In 1999, 55,000 deaths were attributable to coal air pollution in the U.S., according to our findings. By 2020, that number had fallen to 1,600.

How PM2.5 levels from coal power plants in the U.S. have declined since 1999 as more plants installed pollution-control devices or shut down. Lucas Henneman.

In the U.S., coal is being displaced by natural gas and renewable energy for generating electricity. Globally, however, coal use is projected to increase in coming years. That makes our results all the more urgent for global decision-makers to understand as they develop future policies.
Coal air pollution: What makes it so bad?

A landmark study in the 1990s, known as the Harvard Six Cities Study, linked tiny airborne particles called PM2.5 to increased risk of early death. Other studies have since linked PM2.5 to lung and heart disease, cancer, dementia and other diseases.

Following that research, the Environmental Protection Agency began regulating PM2.5 concentrations in 1997 and has lowered the acceptable limit over time.

PM2.5 – particles small enough to be inhaled deep into our lungs – comes from several different sources, including gasoline combustion in vehicles and smoke from wood fires and power plants. It is made up of many different chemicals.

Coal is also a mix of many chemicals – carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, even metals. When coal is burned, all of these chemicals are emitted to the atmosphere either as gases or particles. Once there, they are transported by the wind and interact with other chemicals already in the atmosphere.

As a result, anyone downwind of a coal plant may be breathing a complex cocktail of chemicals, each with its own potential effects on human health.

Two months of emissions from Plant Bowen, a coal-fired power station near Atlanta, show how wind influences the spread of air pollution. Lucas Henneman.
Tracking coal PM2.5

To understand the risks coal emissions pose to human health, we tracked how sulfur dioxide emissions from each of the 480 largest U.S. coal power plants operating at any point since 1999 traveled with the wind and turned into tiny particles – coal PM2.5. We used sulfur dioxide because of its known health effects and drastic decreases in emissions over the study period.

We then used a statistical model to link coal PM2.5 exposure to Medicare records of nearly 70 million people from 1999 to 2020. This model allowed us to calculate the number of deaths associated with coal PM2.5.

In our statistical model, we controlled for other pollution sources and accounted for many other known risk factors, like smoking status, local meteorology and income level. We tested multiple statistical approaches that all yielded consistent results. We compared the results of our statistical model with previous results testing the health impacts of PM2.5 from other sources and found that PM2.5 from coal is twice as harmful as PM2.5 from all other sources.

Residents living near the Cheswick coal-fired power plant in Springdale, Pa., publicly complained about the amount of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and coal particles from the plant for years. Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

The number of deaths associated with individual power plants depended on multiple factors – how much the plant emits, which way the wind blows and how many people breathe in the pollution. Unfortunately, U.S. utilities located many of their plants upwind of major population centers on the East Coast. This siting amplified these plants’ impacts.

In an interactive online tool, users can look up our estimates of annual deaths associated with each U.S. power plant and also see how those numbers have fallen over time at most U.S. coal plants.

A US success story and the global future of coal

Engineers have been designing effective scrubbers and other pollution-control devices that can reduce pollution from coal-fired power plants for several years. And the EPA has rules specifically to encourage utilities that used coal to install them, and most facilities that did not install scrubbers have shut down.

The results have been dramatic: Sulfur dioxide emissions decreased about 90% in facilities that reported installing scrubbers. Nationwide, sulfur dioxide emissions decreased 95% since 1999. According to our tally, deaths attributable to each facility that installed a scrubber or shut down decreased drastically.

As advances in fracking techniques reduced the cost of natural gas, and regulations made running coal plants more expensive, utilities began replacing coal with natural gas plants and renewable energy. The shift to natural gas – a cleaner-burning fossil fuel than coal but still a greenhouse gas contributing to climate change – led to even further air pollution reductions.

Today, coal contributes about 27% of electricity in the U.S., down from 56% in 1999.

Globally, however, the outlook for coal is mixed. While the U.S. and other nations are headed toward a future with substantially less coal, the International Energy Agency expects global coal use to increase through at least 2025.

Our study and others like it make clear that increases in coal use will harm human health and the climate. Making full use of emissions controls and a turn toward renewables are surefire ways to reduce coal’s negative impacts.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.

It was written by: Lucas Henneman, George Mason University.

Read more:


3 reasons US coal power is disappearing – and a Supreme Court ruling won’t save it


How poisonous mercury gets from coal-fired power plants into the fish you eat


Soot pollution from coal-fired power plants is more deadly than soot from other sources, study shows

Michael Hawthorne, Chicago Tribune
Thu, November 23, 2023 


Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS


Burning coal to generate electricity is on the way out in the United States, but the nation’s long dependence on the fossil fuel took a devastating toll.

A new study determined for the first time that soot pollution from coal-fired power plants is more dangerous than soot from other sources. During the past two decades, the researchers found, coal plant soot contributed to the deaths of at least 460,000 Americans, including 25% of all deaths among Medicare recipients before 2009.

Only Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio recorded more deaths associated with coal plant pollution than the 25,000 deaths in Illinois during the period studied.

An interactive map accompanying the study, published Thursday in the journal Science, reveals glimmers of hope amid the grim statistics.

Deaths attributed to coal plant soot have declined dramatically in recent years as utilities closed scores of their dirtiest plants and cleaned up others — changes prompted by more stringent federal clean air regulations, competition from less expensive gas-fired power plants and legal pressure from environmental groups.

“The fact that they estimated more than 40,000 deaths a year two decades ago and the number is now down to 1,600 a year is a pretty remarkable success story,” said Jonathan Levy, chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Boston University, who wasn’t involved in the study.

Soot, also known as particulate matter, is a byproduct of incomplete combustion and can be formed by chemical reactions between sulfur dioxide emitted by fossil fuel power plants and other compounds in the atmosphere. The type of soot that most concerns public health researchers — PM 2.5 — is so tiny that thousands of the fine particles could fit on the period at the end of this sentence.

Breathing even small amounts can inflame the lungs and trigger asthma attacks. Previous studies have linked soot exposure with heart attacks and premature death.

The latest study comes as President Joe Biden’s administration is moving to tighten a national limit on soot pollution, which in turn could force new regulations on power plants and other industrial sources.

Utilities fiercely opposed clean air laws for decades. But in one of a series of stark departures from previous debates about anti-pollution rules, the chief trade group for investor-owned utilities appears to be more concerned about how the Biden proposal would be implemented rather than opposing it outright.

“The electric industry has significantly reduced air pollutants such as (sulfur dioxide), (nitrogen oxide), and hazardous air pollutants such as mercury,” Sarah Durdaller, a spokeswoman for the Edison Electric Institute, said in an email. “Additional emissions reductions are expected as the industry continues its clean energy transition.”

A Chicago Tribune review of the new study’s interactive map shows why former President Donald Trump’s attempts to gut the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, roll back clean air laws and leave regulatory decisions to the states could have made it difficult to continue reducing deaths from coal plant pollution.

For instance, Illinois coal plants were responsible for more deaths associated with soot-related deaths in Wisconsin and Iowa than coal plants in the two other states, the researchers found.



At the same time, the study shows, several Wisconsin coal plants were responsible for more Illinois deaths than those in Wisconsin.

While researchers linked most of the Illinois deaths to coal plants within the state, others as far away as North Carolina, North Dakota and Texas contributed.

“Pollution doesn’t respect state boundaries,” said the study’s lead author, Lucas Henneman, a professor of environmental engineering at George Mason University.

The EPA found similar dynamics at work earlier this year when it took a new look at smog, another type of air pollution.

Chicago and the rest of Cook County are the nation’s worst neighbors when it comes to smog, the EPA concluded in research supporting its proposed “good neighbor rule” pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Henneman and his colleagues based their analysis on emissions data reported to the EPA and a massive database of Medicare enrollees. They used well-tested computer models to track how emissions from individual coal plants contributed to soot-related deaths in every state.

In an editorial published in the same issue of Science, researchers at Yale and Columbia said Henneman’s study showed that reducing coal plant pollution has been more beneficial than previously thought.

Though PM 2.5 can’t be seen with the naked eye, the spread of smoke from Canadian wildfires during the summer provided a vivid example of how soot pollution can make the air so dirty that even healthy people have trouble breathing, said Francesca Dominici, a Harvard biostatistics professor who contributed to the study and previously linked soot exposure to COVID-19 deaths.

Bruce Nilles, former director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, said the declining number of deaths associated with coal plant pollution is a result of a long battle that led utilities to close or announce the retirement of 374 power plants that burned the fossil fuel.

About a fifth of the nation’s electric generation now comes from coal plants, down from more than half a decade ago.

All but two coal plants in Illinois are expected to be closed by the end of the decade. Eight that already have closed in and near Chicago were responsible for 5,660 soot-related deaths between 1999 and 2020, the new study found.

“We’ve come a long way,” Nilles said. “But this study shows there are still some big problems out there, and that means we need the EPA to step in and ensure everyone is protected.”

Particulate pollution from coal associated with double the risk of mortality than PM2.5 from other sources

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Key points:

• In an examination of emissions data and Medicare records, researchers calculated that exposure to fine particulate air pollutants emitted by coal-fired power plants (coal PM2.5) is associated with a mortality risk 2.1 times greater than that of PM2.5 from other sources.
• Between 1999 and 2020, 460,000 deaths among Medicare enrollees were attributable to coal-fired power plants; 10 of these plants each contributed at least 5,000 deaths.
• The vast majority of deaths took place between 1999 and 2007, and by 2020 deaths from coal-fired power plants decreased substantially—pointing to the efficacy of regulations on coal PM2.5, researchers say.

Exposure to fine particulate air pollutants from coal-fired power plants (coal PM2.5) is associated with a risk of mortality more than double that of exposure to PM2.5 from other sources, according to a new study led by George Mason University, The University of Texas at Austin, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Examining Medicare and emissions data in the U.S. from 1999 to 2020, the researchers also found that 460,000 deaths were attributable to coal PM2.5 during the study period—most of them occurring between 1999 and 2007, when coal PM2.5 levels were highest.

The study will be published on November 23, 2023, in Science.

While previous studies have quantified the mortality burden from coal-fired power plants, much of this research has assumed that coal PM2.5 has the same toxicity as PM2.5 from other sources.

“PM2.5 from coal has been treated as if it’s just another air pollutant. But it’s much more harmful than we thought, and its mortality burden has been seriously underestimated,” said lead author Lucas Henneman, assistant professor in the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering at Mason. “These findings can help policymakers and regulators identify cost-effective solutions for cleaning up the country’s air, for example, by requiring emissions controls or encouraging utilities to use other energy sources, like renewables.” 

Using emissions data from 480 coal power plants in the U.S. between 1999 and 2020, the researchers modeled where wind carried coal sulfur dioxide throughout the week after it was emitted and how atmospheric processes converted the sulfur dioxide into PM2.5. This model produced annual coal PM2.5 exposure fields for each power plant. They then examined individual-level Medicare records from 1999 to 2016, representing the health statuses of Americans ages 65 and older and representing a total of more than 650 million person-years. By linking the exposure fields to the Medicare records, inclusive of where enrollees lived and when they died, the researchers were able to understand individuals’ exposure to coal PM2.5 and calculate the impact it had on their health.

They found that across the U.S. in 1999, the average level of coal PM2.5 was 2.34 micrograms per cubic meter of air (μg/m3). This level decreased significantly by 2020, to 0.07 μg/m3. The researchers calculated that a one μg/m3 increase in annual average coal PM2.5 was associated with a 1.12% increase in all-cause mortality, a risk 2.1 times greater than that of PM2.5 from any other source. They also found that 460,000 deaths were attributable to coal PM2.5, representing 25% of all PM2.5-related deaths among Medicare enrollees before 2009.

The researchers were also able to quantify deaths attributable to specific power plants, producing a ranking of the coal-fired power plants studied based on their contribution to coal PM2.5’s mortality burden. They found that 10 of these plants each contributed at least 5,000 deaths during the study period. They visualized the deaths from each power plant in a publicly available online tool (https://cpieatgt.github.io/cpie/).

The study also found that 390,000 of the 460,000 deaths attributable to coal-fired power plants took place between 1999 and 2007, averaging more than 43,000 deaths per year.  After 2007, these deaths declined drastically, to an annual total of 1,600 by 2020.

“Beyond showing just how harmful coal pollution has been, we also show good news: Deaths from coal were highest in 1999 but by 2020 decreased by about 95%, as coal plants have installed scrubbers or shut down,” Henneman said.

“I see this as a success story,” added senior author Corwin Zigler, associate professor in the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences at UT Austin and founding member of the UT Center for Health & Environment: Education & Research. “Coal power plants were this major burden that U.S. policies have already significantly reduced. But we haven’t completely eliminated the burden—so this study provides us a better understanding of how health will continue to improve and lives will be saved if we move further toward a clean energy future.”

The researchers pointed out the study’s continuing urgency and relevance, writing in the paper that coal power is still part of some U.S. states’ energy portfolios and that global coal use for electricity generation is even projected to increase.

“As countries debate their energy sources—and as coal maintains a powerful, almost mythical status in American energy lore—our findings are highly valuable to policymakers and regulators as they weigh the need for cheap energy with the significant environmental and health costs,” said co-author Francesca Dominici, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population, and Data Science at Harvard Chan School and director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative.

Funding for the study came from the National Institutes of Health (grants R01ES026217, R01MD012769, R01ES028033, 1R01ES030616, 1R01AG066793, 1R01MD016054-01A1, 1R01ES 034373-01, 1RF1AG080948, and 1R01ES029950); the Environmental Protection Agency (grant 835872); the EmPOWER Air Data Challenge (grant LRFH); the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (grant G-2020-13946); and the Health Effects Institute (grants R-82811201 and 4953).

“Mortality risk from United States coal electricity generation,” Lucas Henneman, Christine Choirat, Irene Dedoussi, Francesca Dominici, Jessica Roberts, Corwin Zigler, Science, online November 23, 2023, doi: 10.1126/science.adf4915.

###

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere. As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to people’s lives—not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices. Each year, more than 400 faculty members at Harvard Chan School teach 1,000-plus full-time students from around the world and train thousands more through online and executive education courses. Founded in 1913 as the Harvard-MIT School of Health Officers, the School is recognized as America’s oldest professional training program in public health.

George Mason University is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolled over 40,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states for the fall 2023 semester. Mason has grown rapidly over the last half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity, and commitment to accessibility. Also in 2023, the university launched Mason Now: Power the Possible, a $1 billion comprehensive campaign to support student success, research, innovation, community, and sustainability. Learn more at gmu.edu.

The University of Texas at Austin is a bold, ambitious leader supporting some 52,000 diverse students, 3,000 teaching faculty, and top national programs across 19 colleges and schools. As Texas’ leading research university, UT attracts more than $650 million annually for discovery. Amid the backdrop of Austin, Texas, a city recognized for its creative and entrepreneurial spirit, the university provides a place to explore countless opportunities for tomorrow’s artists, scientists, athletes, doctors, entrepreneurs and engineers.

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adf4915 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Mortality risk from United States coal electricity generation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

23-Nov-2023

Millions of Indians set Diwali world record as air pollution worries rise

Homes decked with lights as annual Hindu festival celebrated across country

 

 

Devotees light earthen lamps on the banks of the Saryu river in Ayodhya on Saturday. AFP

AP
Nov 12, 2023


Millions of Indians celebrated Diwali on Sunday, setting a Guinness World Record for the number of bright earthen oil lamps, as concerns about air pollution soared in the country.

Across the country, dazzling multi-colored lights decked homes and streets as devotees celebrated the annual Hindu festival of light symbolizing the victory of light over darkness.

But the spectacular and long-awaited lighting of the oil lamps took place as usual on the banks of the Saryu river in Ayodhya, the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama.
READ MORE
When is Diwali 2023 and how will the festival of lights be celebrated this year?

At dusk on Saturday, devotees lit more than 2.22 million lamps and kept them burning for 45 minutes as religious hymns filled the air at the banks of the river, setting a new world record. Last year, more than 1.5 million earthen lamps were lit.

After counting the lamps, Guinness World Records representatives presented a certificate to Uttar Pradesh state’s top elected official, Yogi Adityanath.


More than 24,000 volunteers, mostly college students, helped prepare for the new record, said Pratibha Goyal, vice chancellor of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University in Ayodhya.

Diwali, a national holiday across India, is celebrated by socialising and exchanging gifts with family and friends. Many light earthen oil lamps or candles as fireworks are set off as part of the celebrations.

A Hindu woman holds a clay lamp during a ceremony to celebrate Diwali at Krishna temple in Lahore, Pakistan, on Sunday. AP

In the evening, a prayer is dedicated to the Hindu deity Lakshmi, who is believed to bring luck and prosperity.

Over the weekend, authorities ran extra trains to accommodate the huge numbers trying to reach their home towns to join in family celebrations.

Air quality concerns

The festival came amid rising worries about air quality in India.

A “hazardous” 400-500 level was recorded on the air quality index last week, more than 10 times the global safety threshold, which can cause acute and chronic bronchitis and asthma attacks.

But on Saturday, unexpected rain and a strong wind improved the levels to 220, according to the government-run Central Pollution Control Board.

Fireworks light up the night sky in Mumbai on Sunday. AFP

Air pollution levels are expected to soar again after the celebrations end on Sunday night because of the fireworks used.

Last week, officials in New Delhi shut down primary schools and banned polluting vehicles and construction work in an attempt to reduce the worst haze and smog of the season, which has posed respiratory problems for people and enveloped monuments and high-rise buildings in and around India’s capital.

Authorities used water sprinklers and anti-smog guns to control the haze and many people used masks to escape the air pollution.

Almost every year, New Delhi is named as India's city with the worst air quality, particularly in the winter, when the burning of crop residues in neighbouring states coincides with cooler temperatures that trap deadly smoke.

Some Indian states have banned the sale of fireworks and imposed other restrictions to stem the pollution. Authorities have also urged residents to light “green crackers” that emit less pollutants than normal fireworks. But similar bans have often been disregarded in the past.

This year's Diwali celebrations took place as authorities prepared for the January opening of a temple to Rama at former the site of the 16th-century Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

The mosque was destroyed by a Hindu mob with pickaxes and crowbars in December 1992, sparking violence between Hindus and Muslims that left about 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslims. The Supreme Court’s verdict in 2019 allowed a temple to be built in place of the demolished mosque.

 

Smoke clouds Indian capital on Diwali as revellers defy firecracker ban

Revellers lighting firecrackers on the night of Deepavali in New Delhi on Nov 12

. PHOTO: AFP

NEW DELHI – A toxic haze began to circulate in New Delhi on Sunday as people in the city of 20 million, which has struggled with heavy pollution recently, defied a ban on firecrackers on the night of Diwali, the annual Hindu festival of light.

Smoke plumes were visible across the sky as revellers let off firecrackers in the evening to mark the country’s biggest festival.

Every year government authorities or India’s Supreme Court impose bans on firecrackers – but only rarely do those bans appear to be enforced.


The Air Quality Index (AQI) across all 40 monitoring stations in the capital averaged 219 on a scale of 500, according to the federal pollution control board data, indicating “poor” conditions that can affect most people on prolonged exposure.

The AQI data also showed that the concentration of PM2.5 poisonous particulate matter was around 100 microgrammes per cubic m of air – 20 times higher than the World Health Organisation’s recommended maximum.

Globally, air pollution was the worst in India’s eastern city of Kolkata, while Delhi was the fifth-most polluted, according to Swiss group IQAir.

Doctors say the air quality is likely to worsen on Monday as smoke from firecrackers lingers in the air, potentially causing itchy eyes and irritation in the throat.

“I can see my patients are getting distressed. As a society, we have not understood the value of clean air,” said senior consultant Desh Deepak at Delhi’s Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

Some Hindus resent the Diwali firecracker bans, which they see as an attempt to interfere with their observing their religious festivals.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai had urged citizens to steer clear of firecrackers to prevent citizens from having breathing problems later.

Just before the weekend, a spell of rain had brought some relief to the city, where the AQI dipped below 160 after hovering around the 400-500 level over the past week.

The world’s most polluted capital typically experiences heavy smog in the winter months as particulate matter gets trapped in the cold air, leading to spikes in cases of respiratory distress. 

REUTERS

India’s Yearly Air Haze Carnival is Here!

D Raghunandan | 12 Nov 2023

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The real worry for the country should be the high baseline AQI of around 200-250 in almost all major Indian cities.

A thick smog blankets the capital city of Delhi, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. Air pollution level is Delhi-NCR has started rising owing much to stubble (parali) burning in adjoining states. Image Courtesy: PTI Photo/Arun Sharma

So here we are once again, regular like the seasons, with Delhi and the entire Indo-Gangetic plains right down to West Bengal, shrouded in a grey haze of pollutants as visible in photographs from space.  As many as 13 of the world’s 20 worst polluted cities or towns in the world are in India, including Delhi, satellite towns and other urban centres in northern and eastern India. This has now become such a hardy and recurrent annual feature that it may as well be declared yet another festival of which we already have so many in this country.

As with other Indian festivals, this one too has by now acquired ritual trappings. The press carries daily articles on different aspects, but really only provides snippets of information with little or no meaningful analysis leading to effective policies. The media discourse has utterly confused the issues, and obscured the basic causes behind high levels of air pollution and its major sources, thereby preventing a clear understanding of the problem and a focused policy direction for a long-term and permanent solution.

The same holds true for establishment political parties. The Union government and the ruling dispensation, which daily clamour for control over the administration of Delhi, now only maintains a studious silence, leaving things to a committee and to the different states, while taking pot-shots at Opposition-rules states.

The Delhi government and its ruling party, which used to cry hoarse against the neighbouring states, especially Punjab and Haryana formerly governed by the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, respectively, now only speaks against pollutants coming from Haryana, obviously because Punjab is now ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party!

Even the august Supreme Court, which often shies away from important decisions which it says may cross the line separating it from executive or legislative jurisdictions, now questions the basis for different executive decisions, but then proceeds to itself pass orders directing this or that policy or executive action, which too have no basis in science or empirical evidence!

Marx said that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, and the next time as farce. But what does one say when a sorry history repeats itself annually?  

THE BASICS OF AIR POLLUTION IN DELHI
(AND OTHER INDIAN CITIES)

Let us first get to a basic understanding of the problem of air pollution in urban centres in India.

There is much talk of seasonal or other variations, weather conditions, wind flows, seasonal or other spurts in one or another pollution source, but not clearly identifying the major sources of pollution. Extensive discussions about farm fires in north-western states, the inversion phenomenon in winter wherein cold air stays close to the ground gets trapped, make it appear as if the problem is more acute in North India than in peninsular and southern India. In major coastal cities such as in Mumbai, Chennai and even to some extent Kolkata, sea-breezes regularly flush out air pollutants over these cities, ensuring lower ambient pollution and beguilingly low air quality indices. 

It needs to be clearly understood that total pollutants released into the air, especially over cities, come from specific sources in quantities that can be determined by scientific studies and models. The major sources of air pollution in any urban centre in India would mostly comprise vehicle exhaust, coal-fired power plants in the vicinity, brick and other kilns in the region, construction and ambient dust, domestic, industrial or commercial burning of solid fuels such as coal and firewood, open burning of garbage or waste, industrial air pollution including and especially from burning of highly polluting fuels such as rubber and poor grades of furnace oil etc in boilers or other equipment, diesel generators and some other sources.

Of all these, as numerous studies have shown, vehicular pollution, construction and ambient dust, and industrial pollution are the major sources which account for most of the baseline or uniform, underlying air pollution in almost all Indian cities.

The main point here, however, is that, besides these variations and seasonal factors, a finite and determinate quantity of pollutants are emitted from these sources in or near any given city. Out of this total quantity of pollutants, some will stay over these urban centres and their surrounding areas, and some will be blown away or otherwise diffuse through the air due to seasonal and daily variations including rainfall, winds, summer and winter etc.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) is a measure of pollutants determined by sensors placed at different points in the city, and often cited and used to categorise conditions as “good,” “poor” or “severe.” AQI is a good indicator of air pollution under current conditions including as influenced by seasonal and weather patterns, and can help guide additional seasonal or other variable responses. But we need to look closer at the main, or baseline, total air pollutants emitted in and around the city in order to determine, plan and implement long-term strategies to curb air pollution on a permanent basis.

So, if one looks at the numbers, Delhi, surrounding National Capital Region or NCR and other Indo-Gangetic belt cities are being driven to panic by AQI numbers of close to 500 due to seasonal spikes in farm fires and winter conditions. While farm fires etc. can be tackled, the real worry should be the high baseline AQI of around 200-250 in almost all major Indian cities.

KNEE-JERK REACTIONS, FALSE SOLUTIONS
This is certainly not what is being done, or even being addressed, in any city in India or in the country as a whole. 

There is a National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in existence which aims at a 20-30% reduction of PM 2.5 and PM 10 (particulate matter of 2.5 or 10 microns or thousandths of a millimetre size), of which the former is particularly dangerous since it can easily penetrate into the lungs and cause serious respiratory diseases, as compared to 2017 levels. The needle has barely moved on these indicators, and funds have mostly been spent only on providing sensors to different cities. No strategy as such is visible, and no effective inter-departmental coordination mechanism has been set up.

Instead, what the country is witnessing is panic-driven knee-jerk reactions and false solutions offered by all and sundry without any scientific basis or evidence-based reasoning based, among other things, on valuable experiences of other countries which have successfully tackled air pollution in cities over decades resulting in steady and continuing low air pollution today. We shall learn about these in the next section.

In the current tragi-comedy in Delhi, there is first the over-concentration on farm fires in Punjab and Haryana, which have been discussed ad nauseam, including in these columns. Stubble burning is, of course, worrying, but the problem is not amenable to short-being caught between high costs and the urgent need to clear fields of straw to enable planting of winter wheat within an extremely short window of two-three weeks.  Various interventions of providing machines and subsidies to various user industries have indeed shown some results, but not enough.

The Centre's Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has reported a substantial decrease in stubble-burning incidents in Punjab and Haryana between September 15 to October 29, of around 56% and 40%, respectively, compared with the same period last year. Yet, as harvest time neared, this has risen again and spiked.

Clearly, more holistic, end-to-end solutions, which cannot simply be left to market forces, are required by state governments with pro-active support and coordination by the Centre. It is pointless for the Supreme Court to peremptorily order the state governments concerned to ensure that all farm fires should be stopped forthwith, as it did earlier this week.

Besides this, the Delhi government decided to introduce its vehicle-rationing “odd-even” (now deferred) scheme under which vehicles with number plates ending with odd or even numbers would ply only on alternative days. The Supreme Court sneered at this idea, asked for evidence to prove that such a scheme works, and sharply called it “sheer optics''. But surely, in theory, a scheme which reduces vehicles on Delhi’s roads by half would cause a substantial dent in air pollution. This was clearly evidenced during the pandemic lockdown when, due to lack of vehicular movement, air quality in Indian cities was better than it had been in several decades!

International experience in Mexico, China and Brazil has shown that such schemes to reduce numbers of vehicles on the roads do indeed work, but have been thwarted to cunning vehicle-owner dissenting response of buying additional vehicles with different number plates to circumvent the “odd-even” norms. In Delhi, two-wheelers which account for 7 million vehicles, have been exempted!

At the same time, the SC asked the Delhi government to consider banning app-based taxis, with the latter then proposing to stop out-of-state taxis from entering Delhi. This would only curb a tiny fraction of the one million vehicles on Delhi’s roads! What evidence does the august court have that this scheme would work?

The same applies to the infamous “smog towers” which the Supreme Court ordered to be installed in 2020 despite evidence-based reluctance of various agencies and academic institutions. Yet, in the past few days, the SC ordered the by now dysfunctional smog towers in Connaught Place to be restarted, even though studies have shown that the tower is effective only over a few tens of metres.

And now the Delhi government is preparing for cloud seeding to produce rain!

More pipedreams.
 
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
In sharp contrast to India, Europe as a whole has substantially improved its air quality over the past two decades by concerted and holistic efforts, including strict enforcement of high standards for industrial, vehicular and domestic air pollution by cooking and heating fuels especially coal. These measures have been backed by EU and national legislation, national commitments with strict timelines, and a comprehensive approach tackling all sources of pollution and all major pollutants. 

As a result, more than half of EU countries, mostly in Western Europe, have brought down average PM 2.5 levels to under the EU standard of 25 micrograms per cubic metre, compared with the India average of well over 100, and aim to achieve the WHO (World Health Organisation) standard of matter, especially PM 2.5.

The EU has also sharply focused on the dangerous nitrogen dioxide emanating mainly from vehicles and thermal power plants, on surface level ozone, a major carcinogen, and on toxic carbon monoxide, which hardly find mention in the discourse in India. Having earlier tackled power generation and polluting industries, most present efforts are aimed at vehicular pollution.

Another outstanding example is Beijing, widely studied and appreciated by UN agencies and other international agencies. About a decade or two ago, Beijing had the dubious distinction of consistently ranked the most polluted city in the world, with PM 2.5 well in excess of 100. Its smog was notorious, driving many multinational companies and diplomatic missions to seriously consider and publicly speak about relocating out of Beijing.

Even though China as a whole ranked quite poorly in international pollution rankings, it put in highly focused and major efforts into tackling air pollution in Beijing. It moved all coal-based power plants and industries out of the city, ensured phasing out of older and more polluting vehicles, and introduced low-emission zones in the city where only the cleanest or electric vehicles were allowed, an idea also enforced in London and other European cities.

Beijing has been transformed from a car-centred city to what agencies have described as an example of sustainable mobility, expanding urban rail, bicycle and pedestrian mobility. A major afforestation effort was also taken in the northern regions from where recurring dust-storms bringing fine dust into Beijing were curbed.

Widespread use of domestic coal-burning stoves was also curbed. As a result of all these measures, Beijing’s air pollution levels have been reduced by almost half its earlier levels, also bringing down pollution in the huge extended tri-city “megapolis” area.

There is no reason at all why India cannot emulate these international examples. But this would call for political will, planning and enforcement… and stop tilting at windmills!

The writer is with the Delhi Science Forum and All India People’s Science Network. The views are personal.

Killer Delhi Air Reminds, Pollution Needs National Solution

Rashme Sehgal | 10 Nov 2023

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Experts say air pollution needs a regional approach, not finger-pointing, and certainly not complete neglect.

Commuters cross railway tracks amid low visibility due to smog, in Gurugram, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023. Image Courtesy: PTI

Delhi’s air quality worsens every Diwali season, and this year is no exception. The rainfall in parts of the National Capital Region (NCR) brings some relief, but will hardly change things unless the rainfall is widespread and prolonged—which will have other negative consequences for the economy and people. Hence, Delhi and its surroundings, with the air quality index hitting 500, 100 times above what the World Health Organization (WHO) has deemed healthy, needs to be part of a national solution for the pollution crisis.

The 3.3 crore people living in the NCR are only too aware that the cold-weather smog sees the PM2.5 levels register a dangerous 100% increase, piercing the lungs of citizens and precipitating a host of diseases. On November 2 alone, they recorded a 68% increase in 24 hours. Similar statistics emerged from around the country, making people worried about what miseries the expected spike in pollution with Diwali cracker-burning will bring. 

The weary citizens, and especially the elderly and young of this mega city, are asking why the central and state governments, including those of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have failed to get together and draw up a game-plan that will resolve this annual catastrophe that afflicts all? They know that blaming seasonal factors like crop-residue burning and festival-related pollution is not the answer. 

However, the seriousness of this matter seems lost on our decision-makers. A few years ago, Dr Arvind Kumar, who headed the Lung Care Foundation at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, recreated a pair of large human lungs with the help of HEPA (High-efficiency Particulate Air) filters, which are used to trap dust in operation theatres. These “lungs’ were designed to mimic the workings of a pair of human lungs. Dr Kumar had expected the lungs to become dark (signifying high pollution) over time, but they started to darken in just one day and went utterly dark within six days. Dr Kumar said, speaking not only about the effects of pollution in the capital and the entire country, “There are no non-smokers left in India. We have become a nation of smokers.”

The point Dr Kumar was trying to make was that in Delhi, to cite an example, the PM 2.5 levels are high around the year, with doctors insisting this toxic air is the equivalent of smoking over ten cigarettes a day, even for newborn children. With air pollution levels having risen alarmingly across all the major cities of the Indo-Gangetic plain, the situation has become alarming throughout the country. 

“This is a failure on the part of individuals, officials, organisations to take cognisance of the fact that breathing is killing [us],” he said in a widely-circulated interview. 

Dr Piyush Ranjan from the Department of Medicine AIIMS recently warned, “Air pollution affects various systems of the body apart from causing respiratory diseases. Pollution has direct relations with coronary artery diseases like heart attack, brain stroke and arthritis, and there is scientific evidence to show its relationship with different types of cancer.”

Delhi has set up a Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), a statutory body responsible for strategies to combat pollution. It has prepared a graded response plan, and the Grade 4 response has kicked in under the present circumstances. The CAQM has banned diesel BS-4 and all BS-3 private cars and banned diesel-run medium goods vehicles and heavy goods vehicles in the city. But despite a ban on construction activities and the closure of schools until November 26, the ambient air quality has not improved. This is because the root of the problem is not being addressed. 

The political class does a great deal of name-calling, with each blaming this mess on the rival party. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress are pointing fingers at the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi, blaming it for the present situation given that farm fires are spiking in Punjab. Indeed, reports of these fires continue to come in despite the Supreme Court ordering the Punjab and Haryana governments to ensure farmers stop burning stubble in their fields.

Can AAP escape blame for the crisis in Delhi? According to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party has failed to provide alternatives to the farmers, resulting in farm fires. Priyanka Kakkar, a party spokesperson, defended her party and called the criticism baseless as she believes Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has taken steps to clear Delhi’s air. This includes introducing electric buses, stopping waste burning, and ensuring all industries run on CNG.

According to Kakkar, there were 81,000 farm fires in Punjab in 2016 and only 19,000 in 2023. However, this is contradicted by NASA figures, which paint a very different picture. 

She says ensuring 24x7 electricity supply reduced diesel generator use in the capital, unlike Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, where power cuts force industry and housing societies to use diesel generators.

Herein lies the crux of the problem. While there is no doubt that the farm fires helped accelerate the crisis, several neighbouring cities including Ghaziabad, NOIDA, Greater NOIDA and Faridabad report highly hazardous air. According to the Central Pollution Control Board data for the first week of November, Greater NOIDA has the dubious distinction of being the country’s most polluted city. Meanwhile, last year, the World Air Quality Report ranked Delhi the fourth most polluted of 50 cities in the world. This year, Delhi is in an equally bad, if not worse, situation.

How, then, should our planners bring about a turnaround? How should PM 2.5 levels be immediately reduced by 60% to meet the National Ambient Air Quality standards? For one, they must recognise the different sources causing 24/7 pollution around the year. However, the government must also ensure a significant transition from private vehicles to public transport use. In New York and London, exorbitant parking fees have made even the wealthy feel the pinch of driving personal cars and two-wheelers.

By contrast, 1.2 crore vehicles in Delhi were recorded as registered in 2020, though this dipped in the following year. Still, the number of vehicles plying in Delhi on any day exceeds the registered vehicles figure because of cabs from neighbouring cities (which are banned now). Further, trucks and buses using BS 3 diesel supply essential commodities to the city. The government will have to introduce strict laws and restrictions to control private vehicles, but this will only work if there is efficient, reliable and inexpensive last-mile connectivity for public transport, especially the Delhi Metro and bus services.

By and large, industries in Delhi have switched to CNG, but the government needs to take adequate steps to ensure that CNG remains a viable option against the price of coal. If not, people will rely on coal, whatever the environmental consequences.

The other major problem in Delhi is waste management. The CPCB’s annual report for waste management in 2021 revealed that Delhi had the highest per-capita waste generation (450 grams per day), while 263 tonnes of solid waste was generated daily, which is unaccounted for. This is because a lot of trash has been outsourced to private players and is not handled by municipal corporations.

Delhi’s waste-to-energy plants also need to be more efficient. For every tonne of burnt waste, 300 kg of trash is dumped in landfills. 

Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of the Centre for Science and Environment, says, “The states and Centre need to act on a massive scale and with rapid speed to fill some glaring gaps in policy. They must realise that transportation remains the biggest polluter in Delhi, much more than farmers’ fires. The 1.2 crore vehicles plying in the capital add to the traffic congestion on the streets. The government needs to follow a regional approach to resolve this issue, a Delhi-centric approach alone will not work.”

Medical experts say that all sections of society, including politicians, religious leaders and others, must join hands. As Dr Kumar has said, he tried to engage with spiritual figures so they could tell followers what steps to take to curb pollution. Sadly, he claims, he met with little success.

The government continues to be one of the biggest polluters in the NCR, given the number of building projects being undertaken by the Centre. Dust and smoke remain two of the biggest polluters, which can only be curbed if all non-essential construction stops immediately. 

Pollution is a deadly killer, and it is questionable how ‘slow’ it is in claiming victims, for India has had unacceptably poor air quality for well over a decade. Unfortunately, governments are blind to the consequences and the toll it has been taking on the country’s entire population.

The author is an independent journalist. The views are personal. 

 

Delhi: Air Quality Severe Again; PM 2.5 at 30 to 40 Times Healthy Limit set by WHO

PTI | 08 Nov 2023

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Smoke from post-harvest paddy straw burning in neighbouring states accounts for one-third of the air pollution in the national capital, say officials.

Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Flickr

New Delhi, Nov 8 (PTI) Air quality in Delhi and its suburbs dropped to the severe category again on Wednesday morning, with smoke from post-harvest paddy straw burning in neighbouring states accounting for one-third of the air pollution in the national capital.

The city's Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 421, worsening from 395 at 4 p.m on Tuesday.

Despite a marginal dip, the concentration of PM2.5, fine particulate matter capable of penetrating deep into the respiratory system and triggering health problems, exceeded the government-prescribed safe limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metre by seven to eight times in the capital.

It was 30 to 40 times the healthy limit of 15 micrograms per cubic metre set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Several cities across the Indo-Gangetic plains reported hazardous air quality. Neighbouring Ghaziabad (382), Gurugram (370), Noida (348), Greater Noida (474), and Faridabad (396) also reported hazardous air quality.

According to data from the Decision Support System, a numerical model-based framework capable of identifying sources of particulate matter pollution in Delhi, stubble burning in neighbouring states, especially Punjab and Haryana, accounted for 37% of the air pollution in Delhi on Tuesday. It is likely to be 33% on Wednesday.

The Delhi government on Monday announced the return of its flagship odd-even scheme after four years anticipating further deterioration of air quality post-Diwali.

The odd-even scheme, under which cars are allowed to operate on alternate days based on their odd or even number plates, will be implemented between November 13 and November 20. The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) and Evidence for Policy Design had analysed the impact of the odd-even system in 2016 and found that Delhi saw a 14-16 per cent reduction in PM2.5 levels during the hours it remained in force in January that year. However, there was no reduction in pollution when the scheme was brought back in April that year.

To protect the health of school children, the government also decided to suspend in-person classes in all schools, except for students in grades X and XII preparing for board exams, until November 10.

According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi-NCR, the region is likely to experience severe air quality for another five to six days.

Doctors say breathing in the polluted air of Delhi is equivalent to the harmful effects of smoking approximately 10 cigarettes a day.

Prolonged exposure to high levels of pollution can cause or exacerbate respiratory problems such as asthma, bronchitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and can dramatically raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, said Rajesh Chawla, senior consultant in pulmonology and critical care at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital.

Stringent restrictions mandated under the final stage of the Central government's air pollution control plan for Delhi-NCR, called the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), have also been implemented in Delhi.

The restrictions under stage IV of GRAP, including a ban on all kinds of construction work and the entry of polluting trucks into the capital, took effect on Sunday after air quality in the capital dropped to severe plus (AQI above 450) levels.

GRAP categorises actions into four stages: Stage I - Poor (AQI 201-300); Stage II - Very Poor (AQI 301-400); Stage III - Severe (AQI 401-450); and Stage IV - Severe Plus (AQI above 450).

Unfavourable meteorological conditions, combined with vehicular emissions, paddy straw burning, firecrackers, and other local pollution sources, contribute to hazardous air quality levels in Delhi-NCR during the winter every year.

According to a Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) analysis, the capital experiences peak pollution from November 1 to November 15 when the number of stubble-burning incidents in Punjab and Haryana increases.

Air quality in Delhi-NCR declined over the last two weeks due to a gradual drop in temperatures, calm winds that trap pollution, and a surge in post-harvest paddy straw burning across Punjab and Haryana.

Delhi's air quality ranks among the worst in the world's capital cities.

A report by EPIC in August said that air pollution is shortening lives by almost 12 years in Delhi.