Musings on Pure Air

Prana Air, a leading Indian company specializing in air quality monitoring solutions, is a case study of how technology can be harnessed to work with different industries in addressing the issue of air pollution. The company has worked and aided the likes of TATA Steel, Microsoft, and Ola in finding the causes of air pollution, the extent of the pollution, and ways to tackle the same.    In Jamshedpur in the eastern part of India, where one-fourth of the entire city is occupied by the TATA Steel plant, Prana, after making a preliminary study, installed 80 air quality monitors. These aimed to monitor the hyoerlocal air quality index and pinpoint the specific processes within the TATA Steel plant that caused maximum localized pollution. 70 monitors were fitted with PM sensors and attached to a weather station. Tata’s fuel and environment management system was connected with the ambient pro air quality monitor that could take readings for PM, SO2, NO2, O3, CO, humidity, and particulat

  The earth is inhabited by millions of species within the plant and animal worlds. All co-exist and live alongside human beings. Anything in nature that affects humans also affects plants and animals equally, and sometimes in more advanced ways, positively or negatively. One such thing that currently poses a harmful and seriously damaging influence on flora and fauna worldwide is Air Pollution or a very poor Air Quality Index (AQI).  While humans have evolved technologies, air travel, industrial processes, waste disposal methods, and other infrastructural activities, these have steadily deteriorated air quality to unmanageable levels. While human beings are responsible for the health and other damages due to this, the plants and animals bear the brunt of air pollution for no fault of their own. Some are also on the brink of extinction due to this. It is well-known that if plant and animal species keep vanishing from the face of the earth, the time is not far when the human race’s surv

In our previous blogs, we have discussed what constitutes air pollution, its quantified statistics, and the governmental regulations and measures to tackle the problem. However, such an effort can only be successful if we know the accurate methods to interpret these pollution statistics and pinpoint the precise reasons or things that cause such pollution. This blog thus attempts to uncover some of the components that together form a recipe for disaster related to the health and safety of people. Each comes with its set of causes, and each requires our attention and effort to prevent or minimize it.   Air pollution is caused by solid and liquid particles called aerosols, suspended gases, and chemical reactions that make them worse pollutants than in their original form. Most air pollution comes from energy use and production. Certain gases in the atmosphere can also cause air pollution. In addition, EPA (United States Environmental Agency) has identified six pollutants as "criteria

  In 2014, The World Health Organization studied the air quality of 1,600 cities in 91 countries. New Delhi, India, was ranked number 1 as the most polluted city in the world. Beyond the findings for Delhi, 13 of the top 20 cities with the highest annual averages of PM2.5 in the WHO study were also in India. The figures were alarming and concerning!   Using satellite-based remote sensing technology and ground-level data from the Central Pollution Control Board, Dr. Michael Greenstone and his team from WHO produced an insightful study (Greenstone et al., 2015) showing that 660 million people (more than half of India’s population at that time) lived in areas that highly exceed India’s standards for fine particulate pollution. Large portions of India, particularly in the north along the Indo-Gangetic plain, were heavily polluted and in non-compliance with India’s National Air Quality Standards (NAAQS.) Since 2014, this data has been updated yearly by the W.H.O. Though New Delhi subseq

With air pollution remaining critically high and serious health since 2010 in India, especially in the capital city of New Delhi, the Supreme Court of India in 2015 mandated the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to draw up an urgent and comprehensive action plan to tackle this problem. The action plan was mapped out by an expert committee and submitted to the Supreme Court in December 2016. After proper analysis and deliberation, it was accepted and rolled out, thus introducing the Graded Response Action Plan or GRAP to the city of Delhi and the National Capital Region. Implemented in January 2017 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, this plan aimed to ensure the “prevention, control, and abatement” of air pollution in Delhi-NCR. The central government set up the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to implement the program. This statutory body was tasked to work with other Indian states to develop and implement similar plans for a more considerable i

Poor air quality has a direct effect on human health. Exposure to air pollutants or airborne allergens can harm our respiratory and cardiovascular systems or exacerbate existing conditions in susceptible populations. Children, older adults, persons with asthma, and immune compromised persons are most vulnerable to air quality impacts. Respiratory impacts can include advanced-stage asthma, respiratory allergies, and airway diseases, while cardiovascular effects can include hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart attack, and stroke. Bad air quality is also linked to eye problems up to and including partial blindness, skin allergies, lack of mental alertness, and kidney problems due to inhalation of chemical particles that are bad for kidney health. The national library of medicine at the National Centre for Biotechnology Information in the United States has published a detailed report on each particulate element in polluted air and its effect on people. The  same report  validates o

It is a known fact that humans and animals can last a few weeks or months without food, a few weeks without water, but only a few minutes at the most without air. Thus the importance of constant air presence for sustaining life is a must. Yet it is not enough to be surrounded by the all-pervasive air. It is also crucial that the air is clean, fresh, and pollution free since inhaling polluted air can lead to diseases of various proportions and gravity. However, in the present world, this natural resource that we cannot live without has become the cause of human deaths, chronic diseases, infant and maternal mortality, and food and water contamination. Air pollution is now one of the leading causes of death in India and Asia.    The India-specific findings of the new Global Burden of Disease (GBD) count, a global initiative involving the World Health Organisation, stated that air pollution had become the fifth largest killer in India. These India-specific finding