Lecture 25 Notes on Air Quality & Domestic Waste Management

**[Lecture 25 notes ( Air Quality & Domestic waste Management)]** **[Air pollution]** **Def :-It**  is the presence of substances in the [atmosphere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere) that are harmful to the [health](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health) of [humans](https://en.wikipedia.or...

**[Lecture 25 notes ( Air Quality & Domestic waste Management)]** **[Air pollution]** **Def :-It**  is the presence of substances in the [atmosphere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere) that are harmful to the [health](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health) of [humans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human) and other [living organisms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_life_forms), or cause damage to the [climate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate) or to materials. **[Magnitude of the problem ]** - 4.2 million deaths every year occur as a result of exposure to ambient (outdoor air pollution) - 3.8 million deaths every tear as of household exposure to smoke from dirty cookstoves and fuels - 9 out of 10 people worldwide live in places where air quality exceeds WHO guidelines limits. **[Types of air pollution: either indoor or outdoor]** - Around 2.6 billion people still cook using solid fuels (such as wood, crop wastes, charcoal, coal and dung) and kerosene in open fires and inefficient stoves. Most of these people are poor, and live in low- and middle-income countries. - These cooking practices are inefficient, and use fuels and technologies that produce high levels of household air pollution with a range of health-damaging pollutants, including small soot particles that penetrate deep into the lungs. In poorly ventilated dwellings, indoor smoke can be 100 times higher than acceptable levels for fine particles. Exposure is particularly high among women and young children, who spend the most time near the domestic hearth. **A,2-Impacts of indoor air pollution on health** A-About 3.8 million people a year die prematurely from illness attributable to the household air pollution. Among these deaths: - 27% are due to pneumonia - 18% from stroke - 27% from ischaemic heart disease - 20% from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) - 8% from lung cancer. B- Other health impacts and risks impairing immune response and reducing the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. Outdoor air pollution is a major environmental health problem affecting everyone in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. Ambient (outdoor) air pollution in both cities and rural areas was estimated to cause 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide per year in 2016; this mortality is due to exposure to fine particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM2.5), which cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and cancers **[Types of air pollutants]**, 1. Primary (carbon monoxide-nitric oxide-sulpher dioxide-nitrogen dioxide-Ammonia-Particulates-Volatile Organic compounds). 2. Secondry:( sulphur trioxide-sulphoric acid-nitric acide-hydrogen peroxide-ozone-Ammonium-Particulates) **Health and environmental effects of air pollution** - **[Short term health effects♣]** Irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat ♣ Wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and breathing difficulties ♣ Worsening of existing lung and heart problems, such as asthma ♣ Increased risk of heart attack. - **[long-term health effects]** ♣ lung cancer and damage to the immune, neurological, reproductive, and respiratory systems. In extreme cases, it can even cause death. - **[Environmental effects]** : - Acid rain:- for more information (. ) - Eutrophication is a condition in a water body where high concentrations of nutrients (such as nitrogen) stimulate blooms of algae, can cause fish kills and loss of plant and animal diversity. - Haze is caused when sunlight encounters tiny pollution particles in the air. Haze obscures the clarity, color, texture, and form of what we see. Web page:. - Effects on wildlife:-(birth defects, reproductive failure, and disease in animals). - Ozone depletion. - Global climate change. For more information(. ) **[Built environment]** refers to the human-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from buildings and parks or green space to neighbourhoods and cities that can often include their supporting infrastructure, such as water supply or energy networks. **Basic Information about the Built Environment** EPA's Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2017 -- 2022 identifies advancing SMM in the Built Environment - **Why is Advancing SMM in the Built Environment important?** Globally, consumption of materials continues to increase, with the greatest increases for construction minerals, ores, and industrial minerals. The application of SMM in the built environment includes practices such as: - Beneficially using [industrial non-hazardous secondary materials](https://www.epa.gov/smm/sustainable-management-industrial-non-hazardous-secondary-materials) as replacements for virgin materials in construction (e.g. coal ash, foundry sand, iron and steel slag, etc.), and - [Sustainable management of construction & demolition (C&D) materials](https://www.epa.gov/smm/sustainable-management-construction-and-demolition-materials). **[Waste mangement]** Ways of Waste Generation 1. Municipal Waste from Major Cities 2. Municipal Waste from Rural areas 3. Agricultural Wastes 4. Hospital Wastes (Hazardous and Non-hazardous) 5. Construction Wastes 6. Non-Hazardous Industrial Wastes 7. Hazardous Industrial Wastes 8. Dredged sludges from canals 9. Sludges from Municipal Wastewater Hospital waste was discussed in semester 5, this topic will study domestic waste, **Domestic hazardous waste:** Some quick tips for the safe handling of household hazardous wastes stated by Environmental Protection Agency include: 1. Follow any instructions for use and storage provided on product labels carefully to prevent any accidents at home. 2. Be sure to read product labels for disposal directions to reduce the risk of products exploding, igniting, leaking, mixing with other chemicals, or posing other hazards on the way to a disposal facility. 3. Never store hazardous products in food containers; keep them in their original containers and never remove labels. Corroding containers, however, require special handling. Call your local hazardous materials official or fire department for instructions. 4. When leftovers remain, never mix HHW with other products. Incompatible products might react, ignite, or explode, and contaminated HHW might become unrecyclable. 5. Remember, even empty containers of HHW can pose hazards because of the residual chemicals that might remain so handle them with care also **[Final domestic waste disposal ways:]** 1\. A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, 2\. Incineration is a disposal method in which solid organic wastes are subjected to combustion so as to convert them into residue and gaseous products. 3\. Recycling is a resource recovery practice that refers to the collection and reuse of waste materials such as empty beverage containers. This process involves breaking down and reusing materials that would otherwise be gotten rid of as trash. 4\. Pyrolysis is often used to convert many types of domestic and industrial residues into a recovered fuel. Different types of waste input (such as plant waste, food waste, tyres) placed in the pyrolysis process potentially yield an alternative to fossil fuels. 5\. Energy recovery from waste is the conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into usable heat, electricity, or fuel through a variety of processes, including combustion, gasification, pyrolyzation, anaerobic digestion, and landfill gas recovery 6\. Recoverable materials that are organic in nature, such as plant material, food scraps, and paper products, can be recovered through composting and digestion processes to decompose the organic matter. The resulting organic material is then recycled as compost for agricultural or landscaping purposes.