Environmental Pollution and Control: A Case Study of Delhi Mega City

The present paper is an attempt to examine the trend in the level of environmental pollution in Delhi and measures taken to control it. The data have been analyzed from various secondary sources of data. The analysis reveals that rapid population growth continues to be a matter of concern as it has manifold effects, one of the most important being environmental pollution. Densely populated and rapidly growing Delhi mega city is often entombed in a pall of pollution from vehicles, sewage and liquid wastes generated by human settlement and uncontrolled pollution from industries. The recent pollution control measures taken by central government reduced the environmental pollution up to some extent.     

影响我国环境污染的人口因素研究——基于省际面板数据的实证分析

文章基于我国大陆地区31个省、市、自治区2003 ～2011年的面板数据,对人口规模、人口老龄化、城镇化等人口结构性因素与以二氧化硫、生活污水、工业废水、工业废气及工业固体废弃物为衡量指标的环境污染之间的数量关系进行实证分析.结果表明,人口规模对环境污染的影响并不是显著的正向作用,随着人口总量的增长并不一定造成环境污染的加剧;而人口老龄化对环境污染指标的影响具有倒U形的特点,在人口老龄化的初期会促进各污染物的排放,而随着老龄化的进一步深化,则会显著抑制排污量;城镇化对环境污染的影响则有明显的滞后性,上一年度的城镇化率指标会造成下一年度的排污量变化,这种影响具有U形的特征,具体来看,在城镇化的初期由于规模效应会使得各污染物的人均排放有所减少,随着城镇化的发展,排污量会相应有所增加,但增加的幅度小于前期减少的程度.     

中国城市化与环境质量研究

文章利用1995～2005年中国省级的工业污染数据对两种不同的观点进行了检验。结果发现,随着中国城市化水平的不断提高,工业污染会经历一个先上升后下降的倒U形路径。研究结果支持了城市化最终有利于城市环境质量改善的观点。城市化过程中工业污染得以集中,治污部门自身存在的递增规模收益使得污染物能在更高的集中水平上得到处理。因此,集中治理污染是提高城市环境质量的一个有效途径。     

雾霾污染对人口迁移的影响效应研究——基于人口普查和1%抽样调查资料的分析

文章将雾霾污染卫星遥感数据与全国人口普查数据相结合,采用网络自相关和空间重力模型等方法,实证揭示了雾霾污染对人口迁移的影响。结果表明,(1)人口迁移存在明显的网络自相关效应,迁出地之间的空间集聚最为明显。(2)雾霾污染对人口迁入和人口迁出均存在显著的负向影响,雾霾污染每提高1%致使人口迁出和人口迁入分别下降0.297%和0.355%;收入水平和教育程度等因素是人口迁移中最显著拉力,高校生数量和气候等因素为人口迁移中最显著推力。(3)稳健性检验和异质性分析表明,雾霾污染对人口迁入和人口迁出均表现为显著的负向影响。基于此,雾霾污染并非当前人口迁移的关键动因,提高收入水平和教育程度仍是地区人才竞争中有力的杠杆,但随着"十四五"时期以人为核心的城镇化不断推进,雾霾污染将发挥更大的制约作用,应尽早关注雾霾污染给人口迁移带来的潜在挑战。     

环境与健康

环境的污染和退化必然会影响人类的健康 ,由环境污染造成的食品污染和人为造成的食品污染以及水污染严重损害人体健康。为了增进健康 ,必须保护环境 ,建立可持续生活模式。     

London congestion charge: the impact on air pollution and school attendance by socioeconomic status

Population and Environment - Air pollution negatively affects individuals’ health and human capital accumulation. For example, students’ school performance is hampered by air pollution...     

人力资本积累下的技术进步对能源消耗型产业经济增长的影响

可持续的经济增长受到技术、资本、能源、环境等诸多要素投入的影响。本文构建并刻画了基于能源与环境约束的能源消耗型产业在考虑人力资本积累(涉及到原始能源的二次开发利用和产业污染物的治理)的技术进步影响下,实现其产业的稳态经济增长路径,并尝试分析了技术进步形成的污染治理和能源回收再利用对产业经济增长的影响。     

Externalities of air pollution: Estimates for heart diseases

This study attempts to establish a quantitative relationship between air pollution and heart diseases. It proposes that in addition to air pollution, population density, sunshine, racial composition, age composition, and income are important variables to explain the variations in the death rates due to heart diseases in the urban areas of the United States. The analysis suggests that a fifty percent decrease in the air pollution would imply a decrease in the mortality rate by about 24–35 percent. Such a reduction in the air pollution level would be accompanied by a social savings of the order of $2140 to $3130 million per year in terms of the heart diseases only. Social savings in terms of all diseases would obviously be of a much higher order.     

Using satellite imagery to measure the relationship between air quality and infant mortality: an empirical study for Mexico

This research uses a unique dataset that provides relatively inexpensive measures of air quality at detailed geography. The analytical focus is the relationship, in Mexico, between Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD, a measure of air quality obtained from satellite imagery) and infant mortality due to respiratory diseases from January, 2001 through December, 2006. The results contribute to existing literature on the relationship between air pollution and health outcomes by examining, for the first time, the relationship between these variables for the entire land area of Mexico, for most of which no ground measures of pollution concentrations exist. Substantive results suggest that changes in AOD have a significant impact on infant mortality due to respiratory diseases in municipalities in the three highest AOD quartiles in the country, providing evidence that air pollution’s adverse effects, although nonlinear, are not only present in large cities, but also in lower pollution settings which lack ground measures of pollution. Methodologically, it is argued that satellite-based imagery can be a valuable source of information for both researchers and policy makers when examining the consequences of pollution and/or the effectiveness of pollution-control mechanisms.     

Air pollution and the respiratory disease mortality in the United States—a quantitative study

This paper establishes a quantitative relationship between respiratory mortality rates and the level of air pollution and other socio-economic variables using a macro-model. With the help of regression analysis it is observed that a hundred per cent increase in the air pollution would imply an increase in the respiratory diseases mortality rate by 51–58%. A reduction of about fifty per cent in the air pollution would imply a social savings of the order of about $1.9–$2.17 billion per year in terms of respiratory diseases alone.     

国际生产分工、环境规治与中国工业污染：--基于联立方程模型GMM估计方法的经验研究

基于环境政策内生模型，建立联立方程模型，应用GMM估算方法，以二氧化硫排放量作为环境指标，就国际分工、环境规治对我国工业污染的影响进行了实证研究。研究结果表明国际生产分工有助于清洁生产技术在我国的推广使用，从而技术效应对于减少二氧化硫的排放量有积极作用。同时，国际生产分工使得我国产业结构陷入低端过度制造业的陷阱，从而促进了我国二氧化硫排放量的增加。我国环境管理机构采取的税收政策和污染治理措施，都有助于我国二氧化硫排放量的减少，由于排污费过低，未能有效增加排污成本，使得污染治理效应高于环境税收效应。因此，促进产业服务业化，提高在国际生产分工地位，加强排污税收力度，是减少我国工业污染的关键。     

The environmental problems in urban communities and the protection of the environment in Korea

Korea's urban environmental problems, specifically air and water pollution, government environmental policies, and the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in protecting the environment are described and discussed. Korea's rapid industrialization and urbanization between 1961 and 1985 led to an increased volume of waste and air pollution. Automobiles increased in number from 29,234 in 1961 to 1,113,430 in 1985. In the same period, the number of factories with at least five employees rose from 15,204 to 44,037. The volume of chemical materials and agricultural chemicals dramatically increased. Household wastes in urban areas increased from 26,831 tons per day in 1978 to 61,072 tons per day in 1985. Industrial waste rose from 13,130 to 33,349 tons per day in 1985. Respiratory diseases are precipitated by exposure to sulphur dioxide, which is produced during cooking and heating with coal briquets; to nitrogen dioxide from automobile exhaust; and to carbon monoxide from coal briquets. Indoor air pollution from particles such as radon, asbestos, cigarette smoke, fungus, and bacteria also impacts on health. Tolerance limits have been reached or surpassed in many cities, particularly in Seoul. Air pollution is worse during the winter. The poor are particularly affected because of the continued use of coal briquets for heating. Industry contributes to water pollution. The volume of industrial waste water quadrupled between 1980 and 1990. In Seoul, however, population size directly contributes to 64.3% of water pollution, and the remaining 35.2% is from factories. Although livestock contributes to only 0.5% of water pollution, livestock drainage contributes to 36.3% of chemical materials in polluted water. Biological oxygen demand has also exceeded tolerance limits. Water reservoirs contain toxic chemicals such as lead, copper, mercury, arsenic, phenol, phosphorus, and nitrogen, which take a longer time to affect health. The Anti-Pollution Law of 1963 and the Environmental Protection Law of 1977 were adopted, but public participation was problematic, and funding for assessment was limited. NGOs have been active in environmental programs since democratization in 1987.     

Population growth, age structure, and environmental impact

We develop and use a simulation model that considers sustainability on several levels by calculating production, consumption, investment, population growth/change, and environmental pollution less environmental quality upgrading investment. Our model allows us to consider population's impact on per capita consumption as well as the social interdependencies among populations, per capita consumption, and technology. Under certain population growth scenarios we find some countries ultimately consume less pollution, and less pollution is consumed on a system-wide basis. We arrive at this apparently counterintutive result because: (1) we explicitly model the decision to invest in environmental quality upgrading; and (2) we consider the impact of population age structure on investment, not only the impact of total population and population growth on total consumption.     

An empirical model to predict arsenic pollution affected life expectancy

A robust, globally implementable and simple empirical model to predict the arsenic pollution affected life expectancy using a stepwise regression was developed. Life expectancy calculated using a life table technique requires crude death rates data that are not available for small administrative units, complex calculations and does not consider socioeconomic parameters. Hence, a model was needed to forecast the impact of arsenic pollution and socioeconomic parameters on life expectancy for locations with limited data availability. A linear multiple regression technique was used to develop an empirical model to predict arsenic pollution affected life expectancy at birth. The model was calibrated using nine arsenic polluted administrative blocks of district Murshidabad, West Bengal, India and tested independently for three other arsenic polluted blocks of the same district. The R ² values for the plot of actual versus predicted life expectancy at birth were 0.98 for calibration, testing and independent validation. The model is complementary to the life table technique and offers a means to assist planning by public health engineers and health policy makers to mitigate arsenic pollution on a community priority basis.     

Household air pollution as a silent killer: women’s status and solid fuel use in developing nations

Household air pollution is a leading cause of death globally, as 4.3 million people die prematurely each year from illness attributable to use of solid fuels (WHO 2016a). Many studies contend that gender inequalities are likely to greatly shape the global distribution of solid fuel use and its negative health consequences. We conduct an analysis of 91 developing nations using structural equation models on the prevalence of female indoor air pollution deaths among women and the ratio of female to male indoor air pollution deaths. The results illustrate that women’s status is a robust predictor of solid fuel use, and that improved women’s status also correlates directly with lower female to male indoor air pollution deaths ratios and indirectly with reduced female death prevalence through lower solid fuel dependence. Women’s status additionally mediates the effects of some other notable predictors, such as economic development. Overall, the results bring attention to a “silent killer” in less-developed nations and illustrate that greater female empowerment is an important avenue in addressing this global pandemic.     

Spatial Sampling Design for a Demographic and Health Survey

The recent advances in global position systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), and remote sensing (RS) can be exploited for spatial sampling design for demographic and health surveys. These technologies are particularly useful when a sampling frame is unavailable and/or location (of household) is important for data collection (e.g., location of residence might greatly impact exposure to ambient air pollution among members of a population). Building on these technologies, this article presents a methodology of spatial sampling adopted for the respiratory health and demographic survey conducted in Delhi and its environs from January through April 2004. The overall goal of the survey was to select households that adequately represented exposure to ambient air pollution. The proposed methodology involved constructing a sampling frame of residential areas and the simulation of weighted random points within residential areas. The simulated locations were navigated with the aid of GPS to identify households at these locations and to acquire residents’ consent to participate in the survey; a total of 1,576 households at the 2,000 simulated locations were found suitable and participated in the survey. The average ambient air pollution at the sample sites was not significantly different from the average air pollution observed in the study area, which demonstrates the robustness of the proposed sampling method.     

Population size and environmental quality

This paper presents a simple general equilibrium analysis of first best allocations in an economy where a consumption good is produced using labor. Production results in pollution, which is a public bad. Pollution abatement can be achieved either by restricting production or by using additional labor. We consider how the first best allocation and Pigouvian tax vary with population size. Consumers are unambiguously worse off when the population is larger, but not necessarily due to increased pollution. In fact, optimal policy on how pollution and labor should vary with population size is very sensitive to preferences and technology. The best response to an increase in population size might be either to increase or to decrease emissions and/or labor, depending on functional forms and parameters. However, given separable preferences and some convexity, the optimal emissions tax increases, and the first best level of per-capita consumption decreases with population size. The paper also considers the extent to which exogenous technical progress can overturn these conclusions. Received August 28, 1996 / Accepted January 27, 1997     

Forest fires,air pollution,and mortality in Southeast Asia

I assess the population health effects in Malaysia of air pollution from a widespread series of fires that occurred in Indonesia between April and November of 1997. I describe how the fires occurred and why the associated air pollution was so widespread and long lasting. The main objective is to uncover any mortality effects and to assess how large and important they were. I also investigate whether the mortality effects were persistent or whether they represented a short-term, mortality-harvesting effect. The results show that the smoke haze from the fires had a deleterious effect on the health of the population in Malaysia.     

Environment and Happiness: New Evidence for Spain

This paper explores the relationship between air pollution, climate and reported subjective well-being (or happiness) in Spanish regions. The results show that, after controlling for most of the socio-economic variables affecting happiness, there are still significant regional differences in subjective well-being. Evidence also suggests that climate and air pollution variables play a significant role in explaining these regional differences in happiness. The analysis also allows us to calculate the monetary value of air quality and climate, deriving the average marginal rate of substitution between income and air quality and climate for the Spanish regions.     

The Environmental Impact of Immigration: An Analysis of the Effects of Immigrant Concentration on Air Pollution Levels

Despite growing interest in the impact of immigration on U.S. society, research has rarely examined the effects of immigration flows on the natural environment. The current study addresses this gap in research using data on 183 Metropolitan Statistical Areas drawn from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to empirically assess the relationships between contemporary immigration and seven measures of air pollution. In doing so, we seek to (1) broaden knowledge about the social consequences of immigration to include its potential effects on the environment, (2) address competing theoretical perspectives about immigration-environment relationships (i.e., population pressure/social disorganization versus ecological footprint/community resource perspectives), and (3) extend knowledge about the predictors and sources of environmental harm within local communities. In contrast to popular opinion and population pressure positions, our research indicates that immigration does not contribute to local air pollution levels across any of the seven pollution measures examined.