Organic aerosols contribute to smog pollution

Organic aerosols which are the major component of smog particles have been largely underestimated as major air pollutants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This is because EPA used old models that do not tell the right story about what is actually in the air and for how long it remains in the air.

The predominant theory about organic aerosols suggests that organic aerosols in smog pollution form liquid droplets that quickly dissolve potentially unhealthy gases. The latest research done by several U.S. scientists argues this by claiming that once organic aerosols are sucked into a particle, they get buried deeper and deeper which basically means that these gases are sucked into smog particles from which they cannot escape.

Smog pollution is not only major environmental threat but also major health threat that has been connected to everything from asthma to heart attacks. And since EPA and other air regulators use older models the currently predicted levels of smog pollution are everything but certain.

UCI air chemist Barbara Finlayson-Pitts explained this by saying that organic aerosols "check in, but don't check out. They cannot escape. The material does not readily evaporate and may live longer and grow faster in total mass than previously thought."

This latest study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers have already announced the need for further studies in order to straighten the older models, especially in relation with future climate change calculations where aerosols are still the big unknown.

Smog is usually caused by the burning of large amounts of coal in cities. In United States, for instance, one of the worst affected areas with smog pollution is the city of Los Angeles.

Houston has severe smog problem

Smog is problem in many cities around the world but so far in the United States only Los Angeles was classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as city with severe smog problem. But this has changed as Houston has joined Los Angeles by becoming second city in US with severe smog problem.

Smog has harmful effect on human health, especially for children and senior citizens, and Huston has yet failed meeting federal health standards. In fact Houston needed to comply with the federal health standards by the year 2010, but given the current level of air pollution deadline is set by the year 2019.

Houston has severe smog problem and has joined Los Angeles becoming the second place in the U.S. classified by EPA as having a severe smog problem

This is anything but good for people living in in the eight-county Houston area as they could suffer from many smog related illnesses as smog does not only have a negative effect on breathing, but it can also decrease capacity of lungs, cause short breathing, wheezing, coughing, and sometimes even serious pain when inhaling deeply.

But yet this doesn't seem to be getting much attention from Texas Gov. Rick Perry who instead of making some efforts to curb air pollution only asked the EPA for the extension to comply with the federal health standards, which is now the year 2019. Of course, without any plan or some solution that would get Houston closer to the cleaner air.

What is smog?

One of are readers wants to know what exactly is smog, and how can smog affect human health? To answer as simply as possible smog is a kind of air pollution. Smog is usually the result of coal burning, industrial and vehicular emissions. Term "smog" was coined in 1905 by Dr. Henry Antoine Des Voeux in his paper "Fog and Smoke" after he named "smoky fog" that happens only in cities "smog". At that time term smog was used to describe so called "classic smog", namely the one that results from large amounts of coal burning in an area and is caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur dioxide. But much has changed in the last 100 years, and smog in today's cities is no more classic smog but transformed to so called "photochemical smog".

Photochemical smog results from vehicular and industrial emissions that are acted on in the atmosphere by sunlight to form secondary pollutants: afterward these secondary pollutants combine with primary emissions causing photochemical smog. What really happens here is the collision of sunlight and various pollutants in the air. This collision often forms chemicals very dangerous for human health. Since photochemical smog needs sunlight it is more common in sunny cities, with warm, dry climate, and large number of vehicles or industry facilities.

Smog has harmful effect on human health, especially for children and senior citizens, and people suffering from heart and lung diseases. Smog has negative effect on breathing, it can decrease capacity of lungs, cause short breathing, wheezing, coughing, and sometimes even serious pain when inhaling deeply. Smog has become common phenomenon in many cities of Southeast Asia, but there are also many other cities worldwide faced with smog problem, for instance London and New York.

Smog above New York