Use of an index to reflect the aggregate burden of long-term exposure to criteria air pollutants in the United States.

Air pollution control in the United States for five common pollutants--particulate matter, ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide--is based partly on the attainment of ambient air quality standards that represent a level of air pollution regarded as safe. Regulatory and health agencies often focus on whether standards for short periods are attained; the number of days that standards are exceeded is used to track progress. Efforts to explain air pollution to the public often incorporate an air quality index that represents daily concentrations of pollutants. While effects of short-term exposures have been emphasized, research shows that long-term exposures to lower concentrations of air pollutants can also result in adverse health effects. We developed an aggregate index that represents long-term exposure to these pollutants, using 1995 monitoring data for metropolitan areas obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Aerometric Information Retrieval System. We compared the ranking of metropolitan areas under the proposed aggregate index with the ranking of areas by the number of days that short-term standards were exceeded. The geographic areas with the highest burden of long-term exposures are not, in all cases, the same as those with the most days that exceeded a short-term standard. We believe that an aggregate index of long-term air pollution offers an informative addition to the principal approaches currently used to describe air pollution exposures; further work on an aggregate index representing long-term exposure to air pollutants is warranted

A New Index of Environmental Quality

An optimal weighting scheme is proposed to construct a new index of environmental quality for different countries using an approach that relies on consistent tests for stochastic dominance efficiency. The test statistics and the estimators are computed using mixed integer programming methods. The variables that are considered include countries’ greenhouse emissions, water pollution and forest benefits, as from the dataset of the World Bank. First, the stochastic efficient weighting for each set of variables is calculated to build three sub-indices (for greenhouse emissions, water pollution and land without forests) and then an overall risk index of environmental quality is constructed. One main result is that land without forest contributes the most (with around 70%), greenhouse emissions contribute with around 20% and water pollution contributes less (with around 10%). Finally, countries are ranked according to their index of environmental quality and their rankings are compared with those of the Kyoto Protocol.Environmental Quality; Emissions; Water Pollution; Nonparametric Stochastic Dominance, Mixed Integer Programming

An Improved Biotic Index of Organic Stream Pollution

Major improvements were made in using a biotic index of the arthropod fauna to evaluate organic stream pollution. All tolerance values were reevaluated, many were changed, and the scale for tolerance values was expanded to 0-10 to provide greater precision. Keys to larvae of Ceratopsyche have been developed and tolerance values for species in this important genus are provided. Sorting of samples in the laboratory instead of in the field is recommended, and directions for processing and evaluating samples are included

Heavy metal distribution in recent sediments along the Tietê River basin (São Pauro, Brazil)

The distribution of heavy metals in recent sediments deposited along the Tietê River, a highly polluted river in southeast region of Brazil was studied. Around the metropolitan area of São Paulo city (25 million people), the pollution is related to municipal wastes and industrial effluents with reinforced downstream by agricultural activities. The observed increase of heavy metal concentrations is particularly important for Zn in the upper basin and Cu, Co and Cr at mouth. Geo-accumulation index calculation, related to the regional background, showed that the sediments along the basin are seriously polluted by heavy metals of anthropogenic origin, mainly Cu, Co, Cr and Zn. Calculated index suggests medium to very strongly pollution

The Environmental Kuznets Curve Under a New framework: Role of Social Capital in Water Pollution

We advance a case for an inclusion of social capital in the environmental Kuznets curve analysis using highly disaggregated data on water pollution in Louisiana. A social capital index and other variables are used in parametric and spatial panel regression models to explain water pollution dynamics.Environmental Economics and Policy,

The relationships between corruption and pollution on corruption regimes

Previous studies have focused mainly on the effect of corruption on pollution. The results of these studies show an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and pollution. In addition, some researchers have suggested that corruption plays an important role in determining pollution. This study proposes the hypothesis of a nonlinear long-run relationship between pollution and corruption. The goal of the study is to investigate the threshold cointegration effect of pollution on corruption using panel data for 62 countries over the period from 1997 to 2004. The results show that the effect of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) on pollution is insignificant in low-corruption regimes. This implies that corruption does not slow down environmental pollution in countries with low corruption. The impact of the CPI on environmental pollution is also insignificant in high-corruption regimes. This result implies that corruption has no adverse impact on environmental pollution in countries with high corruption.Corruption, Pollution, Threshold, Error-Correction Model

Evaluation and analysis of noise levels in Ilorin metropolis, Nigeria

Evaluation and analysis of noise pollution levels have been carried out to determine the level of noise and its sources in Ilorin metropolis. Noise measurements have been done in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and at night to determine noise pollution all over the city. The selected areas of study are commercial centers, road junctions/busy roads, passenger loading parks, and high-density and low-density residential areas. The road junctions had the highest noise pollution levels, followed by commercial centers. The results of this study show that the noise levels in Ilorin metropolis exceeded allowed values at 30 of 42 measurements points. There is a significant difference (P < 0.05) in the noise pollution levels and traffic noise index in all the locations. From the measured noise values, a map of noise pollution was developed for Ilorin. Many solutions proposed for noise abatement in the city are set out

Growth-Trade-Environment Nexus in India

This paper evaluates the environmental impacts of economic growth and trade liberalization in India. The empirical strategy in this paper is to estimate the scale, technique and trade-induced composition effects of trade liberalization on pollution. We collect data across major industrial states of India over the time period 1991-2003 and use panel regression techniques for such estimation. The results establish that the impact of growth and trade liberalization on environmental pollution is not unique across the pollutants. It rather depends upon the specific indicator that is examined. Finally, we conclude that trade promotion in the presence of a dynamic pollution regulatory framework can yield sustainable trade. --Trade and Environment,Pollution regulation index,Air pollution,Government policy

Does Social Capital Have a Role in Environmental Kuznets Curve? Spatial Panel Regression Approach

We advance a case for an inclusion of social capital in the environmental Kuznets curve analysis using highly disaggregated data on water pollution in Louisiana. A social capital index and other variables are used in parametric and spatial panel regression models to explain water pollution dynamics.social capital, principal component analysis, environmental Kuznets curve, spatial regression, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Economic Growth, inequality and environment quality: An empirical analysis applied to developing and transition countries

This article aims at examining the relationship between social inequalities and pollution. On the one hand, it proposes a survey which shows that from a theoretical point of view, a decrease in inequality has an undetermined effect on environment. On the other hand, on the basis of these theoretical considerations, we propose an econometric analysis based on panel data for developing and transition countries during the period 1988-2003. More precisely, we examine the effect of income inequalities on the degree of local pollution (sulphur dioxide emissions and organic water pollution) by integrating Gini index in the formulation of environmental Kuznets curve. Then, two effects may be tested: (i) a direct effect of inequalities on pollution; (ii) an indirect effect by which the degree of inequality influence pollution by his negative impact on political freedoms.pollution; inequality; environmental Kuznets curve; panel data