Anil Kumar Dikshit

Estimating premature mortality attributable to PM2.5 exposure and benefit of air pollution control policies in China for 2020

In past decade of rapid industrial development and urbanization, China has witnessed increasingly persistent severe haze and smog episodes, posing serious health hazards to the Chinese population, especially in densely populated cities. Quantification of health impacts attributable to PM2.5 (particulates with aerodynamic diameter≤2.5μm) has important policy implications to tackle air pollution. The Chinese national monitoring network has recently included direct measurements of ground level PM2.5, providing a potentially more reliable source for exposure assessment. This study reports PM2.5-related long-term mortality of year 2015 in 161 cities of nine regions across China using integrated exposure risk (IER) model for PM2.5 exposure-response functions (ERF). It further provides an estimate of the potential health benefits by year 2020 with a realization of the goals of Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) and the three interim targets (ITs) and Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) for PM2.5 by the World Health Organization (WHO). PM2.5-related premature mortality in 161 cities was 652 thousand, about 6.92% of total deaths in China during year 2015. Among all premature deaths, contributions of cerebrovascular disease (stroke), ischemic heart disease (IHD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer (LC) and acute lower respiratory infections (ALRIs) were 51.70, 26.26, 11.77, 9.45 and 0.82%, respectively. The premature mortality in densely populated cities is very high, such as Tianjin (12,533/year), Beijing (18,817/year), Baoding (10,932/year), Shanghai (18,679/year), Chongqing (23,561/year), Chengdu (11,809/year), Harbin (9037/year) and Linyi (9141/year). The potential health benefits will be 4.4, 16.2, 34.5, 63.6 and 81.5% of the total present premature mortality when PM2.5 concentrations in China meet the APPCAP, WHO IT-1, IT-2, IT-3 and AQG respectively, by the year 2020. In the current situation, by the end of year 2030, even if Chines government fulfills its own target to meet national ambient air quality standard of PM2.5 (35μg/m3), total premature mortality attributable to PM2.5 will be 574 thousand across 161 cities. The present methodology will greatly help policy makers and pollution control authorities to further analyze cost and benefits of air pollution management programs in China.

Disability-adjusted life years and economic cost assessment of the health effects related to PM2.5 and PM10 pollution in Mumbai and Delhi, in India from 1991 to 2015

Particulate air pollution is becoming a serious public health concern in urban cities in India due to air pollution-related health effects associated with disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and economic loss. To obtain the quantitative result of health impact of particulate matter (PM) in most populated Mumbai City and most polluted Delhi City in India, an epidemiology-based exposure–response function has been used to calculate the attributable number of mortality and morbidity cases from 1991 to 2015 in a 5-year interval and the subsequent DALYs, and economic cost is estimated of the health damage based on unit values of the health outcomes. Here, we report the attributable number of mortality due to PM10 in Mumbai and Delhi increased to 32,014 and 48,651 in 2015 compared with 19,291 and 19,716 in year 1995. And annual average mortality due to PM2.5 in Mumbai and Delhi was 10,880 and 10,900. Premature cerebrovascular disease (CEV), ischemic heart disease (IHD), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) causes are about 35.3, 33.3, and 22.9% of PM2.5-attributable mortalities. Total DALYs due to PM10 increased from 0.34 million to 0.51 million in Mumbai and 0.34 million to 0.75 million in Delhi from average year 1995 to 2015. Among all health outcomes, mortality and chronic bronchitis shared about 95% of the total DALYs. Due to PM10, the estimated total economic cost at constant price year 2005 US

Air quality mapping using GIS and economic evaluation of health impact for Mumbai City, India

increased from 2680.87 million to 4269.60 million for Mumbai City and 2714.10 million to 6394.74 million for Delhi City, from 1995 to 2015, and the total amount accounting about 1.01% of India’s gross domestic product (GDP). A crucial presumption is that in 2030, PM10 levels would have to decline by 44% (Mumbai) and 67% (Delhi) absolutely to maintain the same health outcomes in year 2015 levels. The results will help policy makers from pollution control board for further cost–benefit analyses of air pollution management programs in Mumbai and Delhi.

A facility location model for municipal solid waste management system under uncertain environment

ABSTRACT Mumbai, a highly populated city in India, has been selected for air quality mapping and assessment of health impact using monitored air quality data. Air quality monitoring networks in Mumbai are operated by National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). A monitoring station represents air quality at a particular location, while we need spatial variation for air quality management. Here, air quality monitored data of NEERI and BMC were spatially interpolated using various inbuilt interpolation techniques of ArcGIS. Inverse distance weighting (IDW), Kriging (spherical and Gaussian), and spline techniques have been applied for spatial interpolation for this study. The interpolated results of air pollutants sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and suspended particulate matter (SPM) were compared with air quality data of MPCB in the same region. Comparison of results showed good agreement for predicted values using IDW and Kriging with observed data. Subsequently, health impact assessment of a ward was carried out based on total population of the ward and air quality monitored data within the ward. Finally, health cost within a ward was estimated on the basis of exposed population. This study helps to estimate the valuation of health damage due to air pollution. Implications: Operating more air quality monitoring stations for measurement of air quality is highly resource intensive in terms of time and cost. The appropriate spatial interpolation techniques can be used to estimate concentration where air quality monitoring stations are not available. Further, health impact assessment for the population of the city and estimation of economic cost of health damage due to ambient air quality can help to make rational control strategies for environmental management. The total health cost for Mumbai city for the year 2012, with a population of 12.4 million, was estimated as USD8000 million.

Screening of bacterial biosorbents for removal of atrazine

In municipal solid waste management system, decision makers have to develop an insight into the processes namely, waste generation, collection, transportation, processing, and disposal methods. Many parameters (e.g., waste generation rate, functioning costs of facilities, transportation cost, and revenues) in this system are associated with uncertainties. Often, these uncertainties of parameters need to be modeled under a situation of data scarcity for generating probability distribution function or membership function for stochastic mathematical programming or fuzzy mathematical programming respectively, with only information of extreme variations. Moreover, if uncertainties are ignored, then the problems like insufficient capacities of waste management facilities or improper utilization of available funds may be raised. To tackle uncertainties of these parameters in a more efficient manner an algorithm, based on interval analysis, has been developed. This algorithm is applied to find optimal solutions for a facility location model, which is formulated to select economically best locations of transfer stations in a hypothetical urban center. Transfer stations are an integral part of contemporary municipal solid waste management systems, and economic siting of transfer stations ensures financial sustainability of this system. The model is written in a mathematical programming language AMPL with KNITRO as a solver. The developed model selects five economically best locations out of ten potential locations with an optimum overall cost of [394,836, 757,440] Rs.1 /day ([5906, 11,331] USD/day) approximately. Further, the requirement of uncertainty modeling is explained based on the results of sensitivity analysis.

Effect of Various Environmental Parameters on Biosorptive Removal of Atrazine from Water Environment

Atrazine is one of the most heavily used herbicide worldwide. Atrazine has been detected in ground and surface waters in many countries beyond permissible limits due to its low vapor pressure, long persistence, and low biodegradability. This study aims to develop a bacterial biomass which can be used as biosorbent to remove the atrazine from waters easily and cost-effectively. Here, fourteen bacterial strains were isolated from soil having the history of atrazine contamination and batch experiments were carried with biosorbents prepared from various bacterial isolates. The biosorbent BS-1 developed from strain C1 was found be the best for the removal of atrazine.

Human health risk assessment due to air pollution in 10 urban cities in Maharashtra, India

Weeds are major threat to crop yield in face of global population growth and increasing food demand. These have significant impact on production of food, fiber and fuel. Atrazine is key component of proactive and reductive management system especially for managing herbicide resistant weeds and glyphosphate resistant weeds. Approximately 32 million kg of atrazine are used each year for crop production in the United States. Recent reports have raised concern about continued use of atrazine and several other herbicides because of their negative impacts on aquatic life and potential endangerment of animal/ human health and environment. Identification of novel fungal species capable of degrading these herbicides provides evidence for the vast diversity in microbial communities that still remains to be explored. Present paper discussed an attempt to biosorb atrazine on an insolated fungal strain and to study the effect of various parameters on biosorption of atrazine.

Effect of pretreatment by coagulation on stabilized landfill leachate during anaerobic treatment

Abstract This study assesses human health risk in 10 cities in Maharashtra, India, in terms of mortality and morbidity due to three critical pollutants (i.e. PM10, SO2, and NO2). Risk of mortality/morbidity due to air pollution (Ri-MAP) model adopted in air quality health impact assessment (AirQ) software is used to evaluate the direct health impacts of various critical air pollutants in various cities in Maharashtra during the period 2004–2013. The result shows that excess number of mortality and morbidity in Nagpur, Thane, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, and Chandrapur is in increasing trend, while cities like Mumbai and Solapur are in decreasing trend, and other cities as Pune, Nashik, and Navi-Mumbai are in a steady-state condition. Cities having highest annual average excess number of total mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and respiratory motility in one million population are Mumbai (1,192, 724, and 121) (high population city), Chandrapur (944, 533, and 98) (low population city), Navi-Mumbai (797, 492, and 84), and Pune (733, 449, and 78) in decreasing order. Cities having highest annual average of hospital admission due to respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease among one million population are in decreasing order: Mumbai (1,519 and 582), Chandrapur (1,173 and 451), Navi-Mumbai (986 and 378), Pune (901 and 348), and Solapur (797 and 320).

IMPACT OF SO 2 EMISSION LIMITS ON PETROLEUM REFINERY OPERATIONS II: MINIMIZING EMISSIONS

Abstract Landfill leachate contains both larger fractions of higher molecular weight organic materials and heavy metals. The study investigated the effect of coagulation as pretreatment during anaerobic treatment process on stabilized landfill leachate. Anaerobic studies were done on the raw stabilized leachate and on the pretreated leachate, where coagulation was used as a pre-treatment process for leachate. Landfill leachate samples were collected from India’s largest and oldest landfill i.e. Deonar landfill, Mumbai. The leachate was characterized by high TS (10,910 mg/l), COD (2,300 mg/l), BOD (238 mg/l), TOC (716 mg/l) and low BOD/COD ratio (0.10). FeCl3 and PACl were used as coagulants for the coagulation process. The highest removal efficiency obtained by FeCl3 and PACl for COD was 53 and 59%, respectively. The highest removals of TOC were 52 and 57% by FeCl3 and PACl, respectively. The optimum pH and dose for FeCl3 was found to be 8 and 7 g/l, respectively. The best pH and dose for PACl was found to be 6 and 10 g/l, respectively. Anaerobic batch reactor treatment was applied as secondary treatment on pre-treated leachate and also on raw leachate. Anaerobic batch experiment was performed for batch time 72 h with solids retention time of 10 days. When anaerobic batch treatment was done on raw leachate, it showed constant 35% TOC and 38% COD removal after 40 h. In the case of anaerobic batch experiment after coagulation, the overall TOC and COD removal was found to be 70 and 72%, respectively.

Environmental impact assessment and its minimization in a refinery for sustainable development

The first part of this article presented a general-purpose linear programming model and applied it to an existing petroleum refinery in India to evaluate the impact of imposed maximum SO2 emission limits on operations and profitability. The present study presents two-step solution methodology designed to minimize SO2 emission rates while preserving refinery profit. The proposed two-step procedure identifies an alternate solution of the LP model leading to an operating plan with maximized profit and minimized SO2 emission rates. The study also shows that the alternative of increasing low-sulfur crude processing for lowering the total SO2 emission rate may be effective only up to a certain proportion of the low-sulfur crude.