Monitoring of Gaseous Air Pollution

Abstract

Air pollution can be defined as the presence in the atmosphere of one or more contaminants in such quality and for such duration as is injurious, or tends to be injurious, to human health or welfare, animal or plant life. It is the contamination of air by the discharge of harmful substances. Industrialization have led to air getting more and more polluted over the years. Industries, vehicles, increase in the population, and urbanization are some of the major factors responsible for air pollution. The following industries are among those that emit a great deal of pollutants into the air: thermal power plants, cement, steel, refineries, petro chemicals, and mines. Air pollution can cause health problems and it can also damage the environment and property. It has caused thinning of the protective ozone layer of the atmosphere, which is leading to climate change. The source of pollution may be in one country but the impact of pollution may be felt elsewhere. The discovery of pesticides in Antarctica, where they have never been used, suggests the extent to which aerial transport can carry pollutants from one place to another. The most important tools in environmental protection is monitoring and modeling. Both the monitoring and modeling of air pollution is essential to provide a picture of the damage humans are doing to the environment, and to enable pollution problems to be discovered and dealt with. An environmental monitoring could be defined as a system of detection, measurements, evaluations and forecasts of environmental states, and the collecting, processing and spreading of information on the environment. Air pollution and its control is a global issue demanding international cooperation. Monitoring of air pollution is a very important source of data. However, measurement of the air pollutant concentrations, in comparison to monitoring of other elements in the environment, is the most difficult. The difficulties arise from the large dynamics of the atmosphere, causing that it constitutes the main route of pollution spreading and their transport between remaining environmental compartments and universal exposure for a large population without a chance for isolation, which is possible in the case of polluted waters and soil. Another problem is low concentration of air pollutants and their interaction with other gases. This chapter is divided into two parts. In the first, a general information on gaseous air pollution, parameters used to characterize the pollution level and equipment applied for air