To Air is Human

by Hans Tammemagi

            How do you describe air, after all it is invisible and has no odour? Perhaps you envision it as a gentle puff of wind that caresses your cheek like the soft hand of a lover. Or perhaps air is the fluffy white cloud that scampers like a lamb across the brilliant blue sky. Or, hearkening back to high-school days, you might think of air as the precious commodity you so desperately gasped after a 400-metre race left your lungs searing. However you picture it, this ephemeral thing called air is very real.

            Air is composed of many gases, primarily nitrogen, oxygen, argon, water vapour and carbon dioxide as well as many other gases in lesser quantities. This complex mixture formed over the eons to create the atmosphere, an environment in which humans, animals and plants have evolved and on whose delicate balance all life is dependent. Water vapour is the source of rain, which yields lush gardens and nourishing crops. Carbon dioxide gives life to plants through the process of photosynthesis. Ozone in the higher reaches of the atmosphere provides a shield against the sun’s damaging ultraviolet radiation. And oxygen, absorbed by our lungs and transported by hemoglobin through a miraculously intricate network of arteries to all parts of the body, is essential for life.

            But in the past century the machinations of man have begun to upset the atmosphere’s fragile balance, to the point where our very survival may be at stake. There is another darker image of air: the murky fumes issuing from industrial smokestacks, the black soot belching from diesel

trucks, and the smog hanging like a deadly brown umbrella over Toronto on hot hazy summer days.

            Is the situation really so bad? Judge for yourself. The Ontario Medical Association recently estimated that approximately 1,900 deaths a year in Ontario is caused by bad air. Toronto’s Public Health Department has reached the same conclusion estimating that air pollution kills about 1,000 per year in Toronto. And the Auditor General of Canada also agrees, stating "Air pollution can be linked to 5,000 premature deaths each year in 11 major Canadian cities."

Causes

            What causes this deadly air pollution? The main culprit is the burning of fossil fuels namely, coal, oil and natural gas to provide humans with our level of comfort. Coal, in particular, contains a nasty brew of chemicals including sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxides, and volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, particulate matter, and more. Toronto is down wind from two major coal-burners: the big steel mills in Hamilton and the Nanticoke power generating station on the north shore of Lake Erie, North America’s largest single emitter of sulphur and nitrogen.

            The millions of cars, buses and trucks that clog the roads create significant air pollution simply because of their vast numbers. And the car is a determined killer, for if it doesn’t get you with the big bang of an accident it will kill you slowly with the gases that it sends quietly out its exhaust. For this reason, the car is a perfect symbol for air pollution.

            And there are many other sources that throw contaminants into the air such as asphalting of roads, lawn mowers, barbeques, pesticide spraying, fireplaces, landfills, refineries, chemical industries, and the furnaces in every home and office.

Types of Air Pollution

            Smog has the most direct health impact, as it is a major cause of respiratory illness. Ground-level ozone, the key component of smog, forms when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds react in sunlight. Smog can drift with the winds for hundreds of kilometres; it is estimated that about 50% of smog in southern Ontario comes from the United States. Smog also attacks plants reducing Ontario’s crop yields by an estimated $70 million annually.

            Acid rain is a long-range air pollution caused by nitrogen and sulphur oxides mostly from coal-fired power plants and metal smelters. Not only is aquatic life in lakes damaged or killed - scientists estimate that 14,000 lakes have become acidified - but it also results in reduced

growth of crops, trees and plants. For decades Canada has complained of acid rain coming from the coal-fired electricity plants in the mid-west US, but recently New York State has accused Ontario’s power plants of killing lakes in the Adirondacks.

            Air pollution also occurs at higher atmospheric levels yielding global problems. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) released from air-conditioning units are destroying ozone. Note that ozone at ground level is bad but at high altitudes is beneficial as it absorbs dangerous ultra-violet

light. Thinning of the protective ozone layer results in increased cases of skin cancer. The industrial countries are making good strides in reducing and replacing these chemicals with more ozone-friendly ones.

            Unfortunately, the developing nations continue to manufacture and use CFCs. In fact, CFCs have become one of the largest contraband commodities smuggled into the United States.

            Another international problem is global warming. Over hundreds of millions of years nature has been locking up carbon in underground deposits of coal, oil and natural gas. Now the industrial revolution is undoing this work in a matter of a century or so -- a mere heartbeat in geological time -- releasing enormous quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which trap the sun’s heat, like a greenhouse. At the same time the worldwide loss of forests is reducing the amount of carbon

dioxide that is converted to oxygen by photosynthesis.

            You might scoff that a cold country like Canada could use some warming, but the consequences, which include melting of polar ice caps and rising sea levels, would dramatically affect our coastline and for some countries like Holland could be utterly devastating. Global warming also causes extreme weather such as hurricanes and killer heat waves and leads to tropical diseases moving northward.

Monitoring

            Ontario has established 33 air quality monitors around the province that measure the six most common air pollutants: sulphur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter. An Air Quality Index (AQI) that ranges from 0 (good) to over 100 (very bad) is calculated; values over 31 are considered to have adverse effects on health. The data are used to prepare smog alerts and advisories (check the Ministry of Environment web site: www.ene.gov.on.ca).

            A different type of monitoring network, the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network, is operated jointly by Canada and the USA and measures air pollutants deposited into the Great Lakes. The results are depressing. They suggest that air pollution from cities is contributing to contamination in the Great Lakes at levels greater than expected. Also, contaminants such as the pesticide DDT, long banned in North America, are still present because they are used in other countries and carried long distances by winds. We live in a connected global village -- connected by pollution.

Government Action

            Air pollution has long been an environmental priority for governments and many steps have been taken including catalytic converters and improved gasoline efficiency in cars and lower allowable emissions from industrial smokestacks. These steps have been largely offset by the

large increase in total number of cars and by the recent shutting down of eight nuclear power plants by Ontario Power Generation and their replacement by coal and oil-fired stations. Many people may have cheered when the nuclear power plants were closed, but this has led to hundreds and perhaps thousands of deaths.

            Progress has been made in some areas. For example, emissions of sulphur dioxide, an acid-forming gas, have decreased by about 50% since 1980. In addition, Ontario has introduced a program called Drive Clean to test motor vehicle emissions. A national plan to fight smog was developed, however, it was never implemented.

            The depressing fact is that the ever-growing population of southern Ontario cancels much of the progress with its attendant increase in cars, infrastructure, and industry and energy consumption. Smog, in particular, continues to be a very serious problem.

            But the battle goes on. Ontario has made a commitment to reducing smog by 45% by 2015. Only time will tell if this very optimistic goal will be achieved.

Solutions

            What can be done about the situation? Many band-aids can be applied, but the long-term solution -- curbing our voracious consumerism -- is more difficult. If we don92t start making some changes voluntarily, however, they may be forced on us. The day when we need air purification systems on homes and offices and need to wear gasmasks when outside is a lot closer than we dare imagine.

Here are a few suggestions:

- We are energy gluttons. We need to go on a diet by insulating our homes better, turning off lights and equipment when not needed, and much more. Non-polluting and renewable energy sources should replace fossil fuels to the extent possible.

- Urban planning must leave generous green spaces, for plants are natural air cleaners. A simple step in high-density urban areas is to plant gardens on rooftops. And let’s preserve our precious farmland, woodlots and the Niagara Escarpment.

- Air emission standards should be made increasingly more stringent so that improved pollution-control technologies will be continually developed.

- The Ontario Medical Association calculated that smog costs the health-care system more than $1 billion annually by increased emergency room visits and hospital admissions. This cost, along with crop and other damages, should be built into the price of the products and services that cause air pollution. Industry would then have a very significant financial incentive to reduce the contamination they emit.

- A lot of lives would be saved if trucks were taken off the roads and trains did virtually all the long hauling of freight.

- We should cut down our reliance on the motor vehicle by using more mass transit, car-pooling and riding bicycles.

            How is it that a dozen deaths due to water contamination in Walkerton is a national catastrophe but 1,900 deaths a year due to air pollution is largely shrugged off? Beware of that next puff of wind gently caressing your cheek.