[en] One of the concerns of the air pollution studies is to compute the concentrations of one or more pollutants' species in space and time in relation to the independent variables, for instance emissions into the atmosphere, meteorological factors and parameters. One of the most significant statistical disciplines developed for the applied sciences and many other disciplines for the last few decades is the extreme value theory (EVT). This study assesses the use of extreme value distributions of the two-parameter Gumbel, two and three-parameter Weibull, Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) and two and three-parameter Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD) on the maximum concentration of daily PM10 data recorded in the year 2010 - 2012 in Pasir Gudang, Johor; Bukit Rambai, Melaka; and Nilai, Negeri Sembilan. Parameters for all distributions are estimated using the Method of Moments (MOM) and Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE). Six performance indicators namely; the accuracy measures which include predictive accuracy (PA), Coefficient of Determination (R2), Index of Agreement (IA) and error measures that consist of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Normalized Absolute Error (NAE) are used to find the goodness-of-fit of the distribution. The best distribution is selected based on the highest accuracy measures and the smallest error measures. The results showed that the GEV is the best fit for daily maximum concentration for PM10 for all monitoring stations. The analysis also demonstrates that the estimated numbers of days in which the concentration of PM10 exceeded the Malaysian Ambient Air Quality Guidelines (MAAQG) of 150 mg/ m"3 are between 1/2 and 11/2 days. (author)

[en] The method of separate power plant contribution assessment to harmful substances concentration in city atmosphere near ground is proposed. The methodic is based on careful simultaneous measuring of the concentration of specific substances under different meteorological conditions and wide range of changing of enterprise work-load on the one hand, and strict control for enterprise technological regime - on the other hand. (author)

[en] This report presents the results of the third element of a trilogy of studies sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies on the consumption of energy and the emissions of carbon dioxide in the U.S. steel industry

[en] This paper examines the existence of stochastic and deterministic convergence of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in 23 countries over the period 1960-2002. For that purpose, we conduct unit root testing by employing the recently developed panel stationarity test of Carrion-i-Silvestre et al. [Carrion-i-Silvestre, J-L, del Barrio-Castro, T., Lopez-Bazo, E., 2005. Breaking the panels: An application to the GDP per capita. Econometrics Journal 8, 159-175] which assumes a highly flexible trend function by incorporating an unknown number of structural breaks. We accommodate general forms of cross-sectional dependence as well as control for finite-sample bias through bootstrap methods. Overall, our analysis provides strong evidence supporting both stochastic and deterministic convergence in CO₂ emissions, thus confirming Strazicich and List [Strazicich, M.C., List, J.A., 2003. Are CO₂ emission levels converging among industrial countries? Environmental and Resource Economics 24, 263-271] and Westerlund and Basher [Westerlund, J., Basher, S.A., 2007. Testing for convergence in carbon dioxide emissions using a century of panel data. Environmental and Resource Economics, forthcoming] findings of convergence. (author)

[en] A method for presenting the health impact of emissions from furniture is introduced, which could be used in the context of environmental product declarations. The health impact is described by the negative indoor air quality potential, the carcinogenic potential, the mutagenic and reprotoxic potential, the allergenic potential, and the toxicological potential. An experimental study of emissions from four pieces of furniture is performed by testing both the materials used for production of the furniture and the complete piece of furniture, in order to compare the results gained by adding emissions of material with results gained from testing the finished piece of furniture. Calculating the emission from a product based on the emission from materials used in the manufacture of the product is a new idea. The relation between calculated results and measured results from the same products differ between the four pieces of furniture tested. Large differences between measured and calculated values are seen for leather products. More knowledge is needed to understand why these differences arise. Testing materials allows us to compare different suppliers of the same material. Four different foams and three different timber materials are tested, and the results vary between materials of the same type. If the manufacturer possesses this type of knowledge of the materials from the subcontractors it could be used as a selection criterion according to production of low emission products. -- Highlights: • A method for presenting health impact of emissions is introduced. • An experimental study of emissions from four pieces of furniture is performed. • Health impact is calculated based on sum of contribution from the materials used. • Calculated health impact is compared to health impact of the manufactured product. • The results show that health impact could be useful in product development and for presentation in EPDs

[en] Aviation NO_x emissions promote tropospheric ozone formation, which is linked to climate warming and adverse health effects. Modeling studies have quantified the relative impact of aviation NO_x on O₃ in large geographic regions. As these studies have applied forward modeling techniques, it has not been possible to attribute O₃ formation to individual flights. Here we apply the adjoint of the global chemistry–transport model GEOS-Chem to assess the temporal and spatial variability in O₃ production due to aviation NO_x emissions, which is the first application of an adjoint to this problem. We find that total aviation NO_x emitted in October causes 40% more O₃ than in April and that Pacific aviation emissions could cause 4–5 times more tropospheric O₃ per unit NO_x than European or North American emissions. Using this sensitivity approach, the O₃ burden attributable to 83 000 unique scheduled civil flights is computed individually. We find that the ten highest total O₃-producing flights have origins or destinations in New Zealand or Australia. The top ranked O₃-producing flights normalized by fuel burn cause 157 times more normalized O₃ formation than the bottom ranked ones. These results show significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity in environmental impacts of aviation NO_x emissions. (letter)

[en] Indoor air radon concentration was measured by exposing trac ketch detectors in the two elementary schools, one high school, a kindergarten and the hospital in the city of Vushtrri. Measurements were performed with the radon monitor PRM-145, which uses alpha scintillation cells and serves to determine the current concentration of radon. The results we obtained are in the range between the average values of radon for the interior spaces, and values that pose a potential risk for lung cancer. Measuring the concentration of radon was done in total of 34 rooms and came up with values which are between 28Bqm^-3 and 398Bqm^-3. In order to reduce the concentration of radon, we have built a ventilation pump, then we performed repeated measurements and finally came with results between 130-145Bqm^-3.

[en] Methodology for monitoring the emission of polluters in the air is a complex concept that in general embraces following fazes: sampling, laboratory treatment, and interpretation of results. In Company for technological and laboratory investigation and environmental protection - Mining Institute Skopje, the control of emission of polluters in the air is performing according methodology based in general on the recommendation of standard VDI 2.066 prescribe from Ministry of Ecology in Germany, because adequate legislation in our country does not exist. In this article the basic treatment of methodology for the air polluters emission control is presented. (Original)

No abstract available

[en] This report describes a collaborative effort between NRDC, Dow Chemical, and Michigan Environmental Groups. The effort resulted in the identification and implementation of 17 pollution prevention projects that reduced substantial quantities of wastes and emissions and saved Dow considerable money