Smog

Smog in New York City as viewed from the World Trade Center in 1988

German road sign, Verkehrsverbot bei Smog (No traffic allowed in smog conditions)

Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a blend of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine with the primary emissions to form photochemical smog. Smog is also caused by large amounts of coal burning in an area caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur dioxide.

Origin of term

Coinage of the term "smog" is generally attributed to Dr. Henry Antoine Des Voeux in his 1905 paper, "Fog and Smoke" for a meeting of the Public Health Congress. The July 26, 1905 edition of the London newspaper Daily Graphic quoted Des Voeux, "He said it required no science to see that there was something produced in great cities which was not found in the country, and that was smoky fog, or what was known as 'smog.'"^[1] The following day the newspaper stated that "Dr. Des Voeux did a public service in coining a new word for the London fog." "Smog" also appears in a January 19, 1893, Los Angeles Times article and is attributed to "a witty English writer."

Photochemical smog

Smog in the Syrian city of Aleppo, summer 2006

In the 1950s a new type of smog, known as photochemical smog, was first described.
This forms when sunlight hits various pollutants in the air and forms a mix of inimical chemicals that can be very dangerous. A photochemical smog is the chemical reaction of sunlight, nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere, which leaves airborne particles (called particulate matter) and ground-level ozone.^[2]

Nitrogen oxides are released by nitrogen and oxygen in the air reacting together under high temperature such as in the exhaust of fossil fuel-burning engines in cars, trucks, coal power plants, and industrial manufacturing factories. VOCs are released from man-made sources such as gasoline (petrol), paints, solvents, pesticides, and biogenic sources, such as pine and citrus tree emissions.

This noxious mixture of air pollutants can include the following:

• Aldehydes (RCHO)
• Nitrogen oxides, such as nitrogen dioxide
• Peroxyacyl nitrates (PAN)
• Tropospheric ozone
• Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

All of these chemicals are usually highly reactive and oxidizing. Photochemical smog is therefore considered to be a problem of modern industrialization. It is present in all modern cities, but it is more common in cities with sunny, warm, dry climates and a large number of motor vehicles.^[3] Because it travels with the wind, it can affect sparsely populated areas as well.

Characteristic coloration for smog in California in the beige cloud bank behind Golden Gate Bridge. The brown coloration is due to the NOx in the photochemical smog.

Health effects

Highland Park Optimist Club wearing smog-gas masks at banquet, Los Angeles, circa 1954

Smog is a serious problem in many cities and continues to harm human health.^[4] Ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide are especially harmful for senior citizens, children, and people with heart and lung conditions such as emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma.^[5] It can inflame breathing passages, decrease the lungs' working capacity, cause shortness of breath, pain when inhaling deeply, wheezing, and coughing. It can cause eye and nose irritation and it dries out the protective membranes of the nose and throat and interferes with the body's ability to fight infection, increasing susceptibility to illness. Hospital admissions and respiratory deaths often increase during periods when ozone levels are high.^[6]

The U.S. EPA has developed an Air Quality Index to help explain air pollution levels to the general public. 8 hour average ozone concentrations of 85 to 104 ppbv are described as "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups", 105 ppbv to 124 ppbv as "unhealthy" and 125 ppb to 404 ppb as "very unhealthy".^[7] The "very unhealthy" range for some other pollutants are: 355 μg m⁻³ - 424 μg m⁻³ for PM10; 15.5 ppm - 30.4ppm for CO and 0.65 ppm - 1.24 ppm for NO₂.^[8]

The Ontario Medical Association announced that smog is responsible for an estimated 9,500 premature deaths in the province each year.^[9]

A 20-year American Cancer Society study found that cumulative exposure also increases the likelihood of premature death from a respiratory disease, implying the 8-hour standard may be insufficient.^[10]

Areas affected

Beijing air on a day after rain (left) and a smoggy day (right)

Smog can form in almost any climate where industries or cities release large amounts of air pollution, such as smoke or gases. However, it is worse during periods of warmer, sunnier weather when the upper air is warm enough to inhibit vertical circulation. It is especially prevalent in geologic basins encircled by hills or mountains. It often stays for an extended period of time over densely populated cities or urban areas, such as London, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, New Delhi, New York, Cairo, Los Angeles, Sacramento, São Paulo, Mexico City, Santiago of Chile, Toronto, Athens, Beijing, Shanghai, Manila, Hong Kong, Seoul, the Randstad or Ruhr Area and can build up to dangerous levels.

London

Victorian London was notorious for its thick smogs, or "pea-soupers", a fact that is often recreated to add an air of mystery to a period costume drama

In 1306, concerns over air pollution were sufficient for Edward I to (briefly) ban coal fires in London.^[11] In 1661, John Evelyn's Fumifugium suggested burning fragrant wood instead of mineral coal, which he believed would reduce coughing. The Ballad of Gresham College the same year describes how the smoke "does our lungs and spirits choke, Our hanging spoil, and rust our iron."

Severe episodes of smog continued in the 19th and 20th centuries and were nicknamed "pea-soupers". The Great Smog of 1952 darkened the streets of London and killed approximately 4,000 people in the short time of 4 days (a further 8,000^[12] died from its effects in the following weeks and months). Initially a flu epidemic was blamed for the loss of life. In 1956 the Clean Air Act introduced smokeless zones in the capital. Consequently, reduced sulfur dioxide levels made the intense and persistent London smog a thing of the past. It was after this the great clean-up of London began and buildings recovered their original stone façades which, during two centuries, had gradually blackened. Smog caused by traffic pollution, however, does occur in modern London.

Mexico City

Due to its location in a highland "bowl", cold air sinks down onto the urban area of Mexico City, trapping industrial and vehicle pollution underneath, and turning it into the most infamously smog-plagued city of Latin America. Within one generation, the city has changed from being known for some of the cleanest air of the world into one with some of the worst pollution, with pollutants like nitrogen dioxide being double or even triple international standards.^[13]

Tehran

In December 2005, schools and public offices had to close in Tehran, Iran and 1600 people were taken to hospital, in a severe smog blamed largely on unfiltered car exhaust.^[14]

United States

A NASA astronaut photograph of a smog layer over central New York.

Counties in the United States where one or more National Ambient Air Quality Standards are not met, as of June 2007.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has designated over 300 U.S. counties to be non-attainment areas for one or more pollutants tracked as part of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.^[15] These areas are largely clustered around large metropolitan areas, with the largest contiguous non-attainment zones in California and the Northeast. Various U.S. and Canadian government agencies collaborate to produce real-time air quality maps and forecasts.^[16]

Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley

Being in low basins surrounded by mountains, Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley are notorious for their smog. The millions of vehicles in these basins plus the added effects of the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles/Long Beach port complexes contribute to further air pollution. While strict regulations by the multiple California government agencies overseeing this problem have reduced the number of Stage 1 smog alerts from several hundred annually to just a few, these geologically predisposed entrapment zones collect pollution levels from cars, trucks and fixed sources which still exceeds health standards and is a pressing issue for the more than 25 million people who live there.

Major incidents in the US

• 1948, October 30–31, Donora, PA: 20 died, 600 hospitalized, thousands more stricken. Lawsuits were not settled until 1951.^[17]
• 1953, November, New York: Smog kills between 170 and 260 people.^[17]
• 1954, October, Los Angeles: heavy smog shuts down schools and industry for most of the month.^[17]
• 1963, New York: blamed for 200 deaths ^[18]
• 1966, New York: blamed for 169 deaths ^[18]

Southeast Asia

Singapore's Downtown Core on 7 October 2006, when it was affected by forest fires in Sumatra, Indonesia

Smog is a regular problem in Southeast Asia caused by land and forest fires in Indonesia, especially Sumatra and Kalimantan, although the less political term haze is preferred in describing the problem. Farmers and plantation owners are usually responsible for the fires, which they use to clear tracts of land for further plantings. Those fires mainly affect Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, and occasionally Guam and Saipan.^[19][20] The economic losses of the fires in 1997 have been estimated at more than US$9 billion.^[21] This includes damages in agriculture production, destruction of forest lands, health, transportation, tourism, and other economic endeavours. Not included are social, environmental, and psychological problems and long-term health effects. The latest bout of haze to occur in Malaysia, Singapore and the Malacca Straits is in October 2006, and was caused by smoke from fires in Indonesia being blown across the Straits of Malacca by south-westerly winds.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reacted and signed Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, formed a Regional Haze Action Plan (RHAP) and established a co-ordination and support unit (CSU).^[22] RHAP, with the help of Canada, established a monitoring and warning system for forest/vegetation fires and implemented a Fire Danger Rating System (FDRS). The Malaysian Meteorological Service (MMS)^[23] has issued a daily rating since September 2003. The Indonesians have been ineffective at enforcing legal policies on errant farmers.

Natural causes

An erupting volcano can also emit high levels of sulphur dioxide, creating volcanic smog, or vog.

Pollution index

Smog in São Paulo

The severity of smog is often measured using automated optical instruments such as Nephelometers, as haze is associated with visibility and traffic control in ports. Haze however can also be an indication of poor air quality though this is often better reflected using accurate purpose built air indexes such as the American Air Quality Index, the Malaysian API (Air Pollution Index) and the Singaporean Pollutant Standards Index.

In hazy conditions, it is likely that the index will report the suspended particulate level. The disclosure of the responsible pollutant is mandated in some jurisdictions.

The American AQI is divided into six color coded categories. Technically AQI runs only from 0 to 500. The 301 to 500 range is categorised as hazardous and colored maroon.^[24]

The Malaysian API does not have a capped value; hence its most hazardous readings can go above 500. Above 500, a state of emergency is declared in the affected area. Usually, this means that non-essential government services are suspended, and all ports in the affected area are closed. There may also be prohibitions on private sector commercial and industrial activities in the affected area excluding the food sector. So far, state of emergency rulings due to hazardous API levels were applied to the Malaysian towns of Port Klang, Kuala Selangor and the state of Sarawak during the 2005 Malaysian haze and the 1997 Southeast Asian haze.

Cultural references

Claude Monet made several trips to London between 1899 and 1901, during which he painted views of the Thames and Houses of Parliament which show the sun struggling to shine through London's smog-laden atmosphere.

• The London "pea-soupers" earned the capital the nickname of "The Smoke". Similarly, Edinburgh was known as "Auld Reekie". The smogs feature in many London novels as a motif indicating hidden danger or a mystery, perhaps most overtly in Margery Allingham's The Tiger in the Smoke (1952), but also in Dickens' Bleak House (1852):

[A]s he handed me into a fly after superintending the removal of my boxes, I asked him whether there was a great fire anywhere? For the streets were so full of dense brown smoke that scarcely anything was to be seen.
"Oh, dear no, miss," he said. "This is a London particular."
I had never heard of such a thing.
"A fog, miss," said the young gentleman.

—Charles Dickens, Bleak House

• The 1970 made-for-TV movie A Clear and Present Danger, which featured Hal Holbrook, E.G. Marshall, Joseph Campanella, Jack Albertson and Pat Hingle, was one of the first American television network entertainment programs to warn about the problem of smog and air pollution.^[25] (This film is not to be confused with the 1994 film with a similar name.)
• 'Smog' or 'Smoggy' has also come into use to describe a resident of Teesside (in North East England) or a supporter of Middlesbrough Football Club, due to the high concentration of chemical and heavy industry in the Teesside area. Although it has now been proven that the Teesside air is cleaner than London, Newcastle, Sunderland and many other British cities, the main source of pollution in the air is now vehicle exhaust fumes, like most urban areas.
• Ulrich Beck, Classic Quote by Ulrich ‘Poverty is hierarchic, smog is democratic’.^[26]
• Hedorah, a monster from the Godzilla movie, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, feeds on pollution and is referred to as "The Smog Monster".
• South Park, The town of South park is beset by smug, in the episode Smug Alert!, a satirical reference to both smog and celebrities who wish to prevent environmental degradation.
• The history of smog in LA is detailed in Smogtown by Chip Jacobs and William J. Kelly (Overlook Press).^[27]

See also

• 1997 Southeast Asian haze
• 2005 Malaysian haze
• 2006 Southeast Asian haze
• Contrail
• Criteria air contaminants
• Emission standard
• Inversion effect
• Nitric oxide
• Ozone
• Umweltzone

References

External links

• Eoearth.org, London Smog Disaster, Encyclopedia of Earth
• NPI.gov.au, National Pollutant Inventory - Particulate matter fact sheet
• Contrails.nl, Pictures of Contrails and Aviation Cirrus (- Smog), since 1995 until now.
• Ausetute.com.au, Photochemical Smog
• Iras.uu.nl, Airnet Workgroup Toxicology Report

News

• BBC.co.uk, "When smog was a frequent occurrence, WW2 People's War, BBC 2005-08-10. Accessed 2006-08-03.