Friday, July 05, 2019<\/p>\n
By Rajiv Shah
\nA fresh study, which analyzes data between February 2018 and May 2019, obtained from Tropomi, a satellite instrument on board the Dutch Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite, has warned that coal-fired power plants and industrial clusters are India\u2019s \u201cworst nitrogen oxides (NOx) hotspots\u201d contributing hugely to air pollution in Sonbhadra-Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Korba in Chhattisgarh, Talcher in Odisha, Chandrapur in Maharashtra, Mundra in Gujarat and Durgapur in West Bengal.
\nAccording to the study, these \u201chotspots\u201d are in addition to the already identified hotspots, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, adding, the data show that power plants and industrial clusters have clearly turned into \u201cthe most polluting regions\/hotspots\u201d because of the high concentration of NOx.
\nNoting that Tropomi measurements have \u201ca spatial resolution of about 7km\u201d, which is \u201cfiner than the \u201c7-km native satellite data\u201d, the study says, \u201cThe power plant and industrial clusters e.g., Singrauli, Korba, Talcher, Chandrapur, Mundra, Mumbai, Durgapur\u201d are \u201cthe most polluting regions\/hotspots, along with cities like Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad etc.\u201d
\nIn fact, according to the study, the \u201ccontribution\u201d of NOx from \u201cthe power plants and industries can be even more in geographies like Singrauli, Korba, Talcher, Chandrapur. Reason is, here the capacity of coal based power plants “is much more higher than Delhi-NCR.\u201d
\nAccording to the study, \u201cNOx emissions contribute to three types of toxic air pollution: PM2.5, NO2 and Ozone, each of which is responsible for thousands of premature deaths each year in India\u201d, adding, \u201cIt is estimated that air pollution caused 3.4 million deaths worldwide in 2017 and over 1.2 million in India.\u201d
\n\u201cOut of the total deaths in India ambient particulate matter pollution alone results in 673,129 deaths\u201d, the study states, adding, long-term exposure to tropospheric ozone (O3) \u2013 a secondary gaseous pollutant produced by photochemical oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon monoxide (CO) in the presence of NOx \u2013 contributes to \u201cthe risk of premature mortality.\u201d<\/p>\n
It adds, \u201cThe Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) in 2016 attributed 233,638 annual premature mortalities to ambient O3 exposure globally, with 39% of the disease burden in India.\u201d
\nReleased by Greenpeace India, part of one the world\u2019s most powerful environmental NGOs, the study says, \u201cGiven the seriousness of the spread of NOx pollution, it is essential for the country\u2019s decision-makers to ensure the power sector complies with the emission standards notified for coal based power plants in December 2015.\u201d
\nEven as stating that the Government of India decision to \u201cleapfrog\u201d to BS VI emission norms for auto fuels by 2020 would \u201chelpful towards reducing NOx pollution\u201d, the study insists, \u201cIt is important to ensure that the power and industry sector also adheres to strict NOx standards.\u201d
\nThe study defines NOx as \u201cdangerous air pollutants, causing respiratory symptoms and lung damage on acute exposure, increasing the risk of chronic diseases in long-term exposure\u201d, adding, \u201cTropospheric ozone (O3) is a secondary gaseous pollutant produced by photochemical oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon monoxide (CO) in the presence of nitrogen oxides (NOx).\u201d
\nThe study says, \u201cPopulation-weighted seasonal ambient O3 concentrations in India have increased by 27% from 62 parts per billion (ppb) in 1990 to 77 ppb in 2016\u201d, adding, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur study of 2015 \u201cconfirms\u201d the impact of NOx emission (especially from power plants) on air quality in the following words:
\n\u201c\u2026power plants contribute nearly 80% of sulfates and 50% nitrates to the receptor (Delhi-NCR) concentration\u2026 90% reduction in NOx from power plants can reduce the nitrates by 45%. This will effectively reduce PM10 and PM2.5 concentration\u2026\u201d
\nPointing towards the reason why it had to go in for satellite-based identification of hotspots of NOx pollution, the study says, the availability of reliable data in the public domain, \u201ca key to cleaner skies\u201d, is absent as of today, insisting, \u201cThe satellite-based data doesn\u2019t allow the major polluters to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study says, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has recognized \u201cthe significant contribution of coal based thermal power plants to the air pollution and NOx\/SO2 emissions\u201d, and even came up with \u201cNOx and SO2 emission limits based on the age of the power plants through gazette notification dated December 7, 2015\u201d.
\nHowever, information accessed through the Right to Information (RTI) of the discussions between the Ministry of Power, the Central Electricity Authority and MoEFCC suggests that \u201cthe power industry is advocating to dilute the stricter emissions standards for NOx to 450mg\/m3 from the current value of 100-300mg\/m3 sighting non-availability of technology.\u201d
\nThe study wants that \u201cpower utilities and the government need to take public health more seriously and do away with attitude of delaying actions to reduce emission s from power sector and industry, they need to have political will to act and it should come now\u201d, adding, \u201cGovernment should ensure that all the emission sources\/sectors of NOx, i.e., transport, industries and power generation are tackled keeping in view the health emergency India faces today.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, July 05, 2019 By Rajiv Shah A fresh study, which analyzes data between February 2018 and May 2019, obtained from Tropomi, a satellite instrument on board the Dutch Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite, has warned that coal-fired power plants and industrial clusters are India\u2019s \u201cworst nitrogen oxides (NOx) hotspots\u201d contributing hugely to air pollution in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3,35],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUKPQ-43G","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15604"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15605,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15604\/revisions\/15605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}