Saving the human race: environmental sustainability
Théodore H MacDonald, Noël A Kinsella, John A Gibson in The Global Human Right to Health, 2018
We have already observed that it is practically impossible to ‘repack’ carbon once it has been released into the environment. Methods of capturing it and storing it underground – usually in space once required by oil or gas – have been elaborated, but at present they are prohibitively expensive. Another approach could be to develop technologies by which coal can be burned with greater efficiency (with more of the carbon being used to create heat, and less released). Encouraging progress in this regard has already been made over the past two or three decades, and includes the following. Washing the coal to reduce the sulphur content. This means that when it is burned, it releases far less sulphur dioxide (SO2) and ash. The production of sulphur dioxide produces a terrible environmental deficit. When it combines with water vapour, it forms acid rain.Precipitation, like the famous Cottrell precipitation, electronically captures up to 99% of the ash that rises up the flumes in factories.Flue gas desulphurisation can reduce sulphur dioxide release by up to 97%. This process is already routinely used in developed countries, but due to the expense involved is still largely absent in such large coal-producing countries as China.
Global environmental change and health
Kevin McCracken, David R. Phillips in Global Health, 2017
Outdoor (ambient) air pollution is due to emissions from a range of sources – e.g. from motor vehicles (e.g. carbon monoxide and dioxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, particulates), industrial facilities and fossil fuel-based power plants (e.g. particulate matter, lead, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, methane), agriculture (e.g. fertilizers, pesticides, burning off) and residential energy use (e.g. heating and cooking). Shipping emissions should also be added to this list, the major growth in global seaborne trade over recent decades producing large increases in CO2, SO2, PM2.5 and other air pollutants. East Asia, with eight of the top ten container ports in the world, is particularly vulnerable to this form of pollution and associated adverse health impacts (Liu et al., 2016). All the above are so-called primary pollutants – that is, pollutants in their own right. Some of these in turn undergo chemical reactions in the atmosphere and create further (secondary) pollution. Ground-level ozone, discussed earlier in this chapter, is a major secondary pollutant. Acid rain, formed through the combination of sulphur and nitrogen oxides with water, is another.
Impact of Sulphur Dioxide Deposition on Medicinal Plants' Growth and Production of Active Constituents
Azamal Husen in Environmental Pollution and Medicinal Plants, 2022
Acid deposition impacts the proper growth and health of plants (Wyrwicha and Sklodowska 2006). Sulphuric acid has a negative impact on the growth and yield performance because of a decrease in photosynthesis which causes chlorosis, necrosis, and leaf abscission. The plant growth and yield reduce in acid rain due to foliar injury (Balasubramanian et al. 2007). Sulphuric acid rain decreases the essential nutrients of soil formed by magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), nitrogen (N), and calcium (Ca), etc. The non-toxic form of manganese (Mn), aluminium (Al), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), and cadmium (Cd) in the soil become toxic in the presence of sulphuric acid rain that causes damage or death to plant parts (Curtis and Childs 2010; Liu et al. 2011). Red spruce trees become less cold tolerant and exhibit winter injury and may even die when calcium is decreased from the needles (Lazarus et al. 2006). Sulphuric acid rain alters the chemistry of the leaf surface; pollen germination, fertilization, and seed development and fruit formation are diminished. The acid rain kills useful soil microbes that liberate nutrients from decaying organic matter into the soil; as a result, plants lose nutrients. Even though some plants can stay alive in the aftermath of acid rain, they become weak and incapable of surviving in natural calamities like strong winds, heavy rainfall, and drought. It has been observed that the genetic variation between the individual plant’s sensitivity to SO2 may be the cause for the augmented variability as the SO2 concentration is increased (Coleman et al. 1990).
Ethical Dilemmas in Protecting Susceptible Subpopulations From Environmental Health Risks: Liberty, Utility, Fairness, and Accountability for Reasonableness
Published in The American Journal of Bioethics, 2018
David B. Resnik, D. Robert MacDougall, Elise M. Smith
Under this type of system, the government creates private property in a feature of the environment that would otherwise be treated as a commons. For example, the government may treat the air as a private resource, and then sell a limited number of credits granting permission to pollute it. Such a system establishes an upper pollution limit (or cap) for a year, presumably one that guarantees some level that is compatible with acceptable levels of pollution experienced by nonconsenting individuals, and then distributes a limited number of pollution credits by auction or some other way. Companies owning such rights would not be permitted to pollute more than their allotted amount, unless they purchase rights from other companies. Cap and trade has been implemented for SO2 emissions in the United States via the Acid Rain Program, established by the Clean Air Act (1990). The EPA claims that SO2 emissions have fallen significantly under this program (Environmental Protection Agency 2017). Similar schemes could be implemented for other pollutants.5 The European Union has a carbon emissions cap and trade system, for example (European Commission 2017). Cap and trade systems stand in sharp contrast, philosophically and practically, to command and control (CAC) regimes, which provide standards for concentrations of pollutants or ceilings for emissions from polluters (Ferrey 2016). Some examples of CAC systems include regulation of ozone levels in metropolitan areas, automobile emission standards, and coal-burning electric power plant regulations.
A call for a new environmental physiotherapy - An editorial
Published in Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, 2019
A recent study from the US showed that in 2013 the health care sector was ‘responsible for significant fractions of national air pollution emissions and impacts, including acid rain (12%), greenhouse gas emissions (10%), smog formation (10%), criteria air pollutants (9%), stratospheric ozone depletion (1%), and carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic air toxins (1–2%)’ (Eckelman and Sherman, 2016). This suggests that healthcare may be having a bigger effect on climate change and ecological degradation than many people may have realised so far.
Aluminum neurotoxicity and autophagy: a mechanistic view
Published in Neurological Research, 2023
Sajjad Makhdoomi, Saba Ariafar, Fatemeh Mirzaei, Mojdeh Mohammadi
Aluminum exposure can occur in various ways such as air, water, soil, food, and medication. Dust from soil and rocks has the largest aluminum particles [16]. Also, anthropogenic activities, such as aluminum production, mining, coal combustion, iron and steel foundries, and motor vehicle emission are the major sources of aluminum-containing particulates [17]. Approximately 13% of atmospheric aluminum is related to anthropogenic emissions [18]. Moreover, it has been reported that cigarette smoking may interfere with the air aluminum concentration [19]. Due to the weathering of aluminum-containing minerals and rocks, aluminum may be moved from terrestrial to aquatic sources [20]. Meanwhile, some manufacturing facilities are interfered to release aluminum from sewage into surface waters, which, in turn, can be dangerous for aquatic life. Notably, water treatment by aluminum sulfate (alum) as a coagulant agent can increase drinking water aluminum concentration [21]. It is necessary to note that pH has a key role in aluminum water solubility since it has the minimum solubility in the pH range of 5.5–6.5 [22]. As it has been mentioned, aluminum is widely distributed in the environment and aluminum hydroxide is one of the prevalent compounds in the soil. Thus, acid rain and surface water may lead to an elevation in the dissolved aluminum compounds of surrounding water [23]. In addition, aluminum is present in foods or aluminum-containing food additives, and aluminum cookware. Also, fish grilled on aluminum foil results in the accretion of aluminum in foods. On the other hand, some foods such as spinach, potato, and tea are found to have a naturally high amount of aluminum. The point is that aluminum concentration depends on the geographical areas in which the food crops are grown. It should be noted that human aluminum intake from foods ranges from 3.4 to 9 mg/day [24–28]. The last way of aluminum exposure is medication. Phosphate binders, antacids, vaccines, antidiarrheal drugs, and antiulcer drugs are aluminum-containing medications. It has been shown that each tablet, capsule, or 5 ml suspension of antacid contains 104–208 mg aluminum, while, in healthy humans, the total aluminum body burden has been reported to be in the range of 30–50 mg/kg body weight, and the normal level of aluminum in serum should be about 1–3 µg/L [29–31].
Related Knowledge Centers
- Acid
- Carbon Dioxide
- Carbonic Acid
- Corrosion
- Distilled Water
- Hydronium
- Nitrogen Oxide
- Ph
- Sulfur Dioxide
- Properties of Water