Smog alert: managing urban air quality

Abstract

This book examines the causes and scale of urban air pollution, identifying who is most at risk, and which particular health risks various pollutants pose. It then considers an effective framework for air quality management. The framework encompasses monitoring networks, emission inventories, air quality standards, modelling, and dissemination of air quality and health information to the public. The author then examines the existing and alternative measures to combat declining air quality. He assesses smog alert systems; the potential for cleaner car and fuel technology; sustainable traffic management and public transport policies; and methods of controlling both industrial and residential emissions. Detailed case studies illustrate the severity and breadth of the problem: from Los Angeles, the first city to suffer serious photochemical smogs, to the dire warning offered by Mexico City; and from London (the city which coined the word "smog') to Athens, pollution phenonemon, the "nefos'. -Publisher