Anders Daniels

Fireworks pollution and health

This paper discusses the adverse health effects of air and noise pollution caused by fireworks episodes on Oahu, Hawaii. During such episodes the level of suspended particulates can increase by an average of 300 percent above pre‐fireworks levels. The 24‐hour Hawaii air quality standard can be exceeded by 170 percent. Significantly the lung‐penetrating paxticles of < 4.7 μm may increase by 700 percent due to fireworks smoke. Noise levels can reach 117 dBA exceeding all noise codes. An increase of 113 percent in treated respiratory illness during a fireworks episode was statistically significant, but an 8 percent decline in pulmonary function was not.

Simulation of the Environmental Impact of an Airport on the Surrounding Air Quality

It is the purpose of this study to demonstrate the procedure involved in simulating those average and maximum pollutant concentrations at or around an airport which fall under the control of the Clean Air Act. The information is useful, when planning new or expanding existing airports, when estimating the impact of airports on the surrounding air quality, and when assessing the effectiveness of control procedures. Simulation of airport air quality requires the accurate assessment of the temporal and spatial emission patterns. This involves the tabulation of air traffic density by type and engine, make and model of aircraft, and engine mode number; the use of fuel by different aircraft; the pollutant emission rates by engine model and operational mode; the allocation of emissions rates to the respective runways, turn-off points, taxiways, and parking areas, and the time each aircraft spent in the different operational modes. The resulting emission pattern for the Honolulu International Airport reflections scheduled and unscheduled commercial and military jet and piston aircraft and nonaircraft operations. Using this and the appropriate meteorological information average and maximum surface concentrations were calculated and compared with local ambient air quality standards. The calculation of concentrations is based on a newly developed diffusion model incorporating harmonic mean wind speeds for every degree of wind direction as determined by a Parzen maximum likelihood interpolation technique, and the assumption of log-normal concentration distributions. It is shown that for some pollutants the air quality standards are substantially exceeded, and it is concluded that airports may have a considerable adverse impact on their surrounding air quality.

Diffusion and emission of smoke from agricultural burning in Hawaii

Agricultural burning has been common practice for many years in Hawaii. Cane fields are burnt before harvesting and the crowns of pineapple are cut-off during harvest, left in the field to dry and subsequently burned. While this practice has many advantages, it produces air pollution levels which at least one study finds affect public health. In 1974 open burns of cane and pineapple were simulated in a burn tower where samples were burned while monitoring weight loss and smoke density. From these measurements emission values were calculated. However, because questions were raised as to whether the vigorous field fires can be simulated. in a burn tower, a field survey was undertaken and a diffusion model, basically a limited Gaussian line source model, was developed and run using the data collected during the burns. The calculated emission rate for particulates is orders of magnitudes larger than the burn tower rate. This is attributed to dust drawn into the fire. When emission values from a survey of the open burn literature and from the present study were plotted against wind speed, low intensity fires such as grass, straw and pineapple residue fires showed decreased emissions with increasing wind speed while cane fires showed increased emission. This suggests that emission characteristics are different for low and high intensity fires. For low intensity fires increased air flow acts mainly to increase the combustion efficiency producing less particulates. For high intensity fires, such as cane fires, increased air flow results in hotter fires lofting more dust, which is the major pollutant from such fires. Revised emission values are recommended.

Fitting a Circular Distribution to a Histogram

Abstract In meteorology, wind directions are often recorded to the nearest of 16 points of the compass. When studying the diffusion of air pollutants downwind from a source, it is often desirable to have much higher resolution—on the order of 1°. To obtain such high resolution, one is essentially faced with fitting a continuous distribution to a histogram. The basic problem is one of interpolating between observed directions. On a circle, a natural first approach is to use harmonic analysis; however, this can produce negative densities. One solution to this problem is similar to the techniques of spectrum estimation, using a window function to obtain a smooth, non-negative density.