Smog: Nature’s Revenge | CSS Essay

Smog is derived from two words i.e. smoke and fog which is also described as the type of
fog having smoke or soot particles in it or a mixture of various gases with dust and water
vapour and makes breathing difficult. It is a yellowish or blackish fog mainly formed by a
mixture of air pollutants like nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides and some other organic
compounds that combine with sunlight to form ozone.

In certain other cities, such as Lahore, smog severity is often aggravated and in 17 years
such an alarming situation raised called it as health emergency. The atmospheric pollution
levels of Los Angeles, Beijing, Lahore, Delhi, Tehran etc. are increased by inversion that
traps the pollution close to the ground, in Lahore due to smog visibility is poor, children are
preferred to remain indoor as it is highly toxic to humans and can cause severe sickness,
even shortened life. Lets see the sources of smog, how it affects our health and how it is
formed; what are the necessary precautions that we can take etc.

Sources of Smog are: emissions from vehicles, construction, open burning, incinerators,
factories, lawnmowers, coal-fired power generation stations, diesel & gasoline vehicles,
solvents, cleaners & oil paints, pesticides and through winds which carries pollutants.

The term “smog” was first used in London during the early 1900’s to describe the
combination of smoke and fog. What we typically call “smog” today is a mixture of
pollutants but is primarily made up of ground-level ozone.
Ozone can be beneficial or harmful depending on its location. The ozone located high
above the Earth in the stratosphere protects human health and the environment, but
ground-level ozone is responsible for the choking, coughing, and stinging eyes
associated with smog.
Smog usually is produced through a complex set of photochemical reactions involving
volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) and nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight
that result in the production of ozone.
Smog-forming pollutants come from many sources, such as automobile exhausts,
power plants, factories, and many consumer products, including paints, hair spray,
charcoal starter fluid, solvents, and even plastic popcorn packaging.
Major smog occurrences often are linked to heavy motor vehicle traffic, high
temperatures, sunshine, and calm winds.
In Punjab, smog severity is often aggravated by stubble burning in neighboring Indian
agricultural areas.
Smog is made up of a combination of air pollutants that can injure health of people
with heart and lung conditions such as emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma and further
harm the environment, and cause property damage.
This mixture of air pollutants may include the following:
Aldehydes

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 Smog: Nature’s Revenge | CSS Essay

Nitrogen oxides, particularly nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide

Peroxyacyl nitrates
Tropospheric ozone
Volatile organic compounds
Photochemical smog is the chemical reaction of sunlight, nitrogen oxides and volatile
organic compounds in the atmosphere, which leaves airborne particles and ground-
level ozone.
On the whole Smog is a combination of two terms and that is Smoke and Fog. In other
words it is the form of fog which has smoke or dirt in it. Its a blackish fog created
mostly by a mixture of impurities in the air which consists of fine elements. It is
heavier and darker because of the chemical fumes in it. It arises mostly because of air
toxic waste can also be defined as a fusion of different gases with dirt and water vapor.
It also refers to misty air that makes inhalation hard.

Countries Affected:

1. Beijing(China)
2. Ahwaz(Iran)
3. Ulan Bator(Magnolia)
4. Lahore(Pakistan)
5. New Delhi (India)
6. Riyadh(Saudi Arabia)
7. Cairo(Egypt),
8. Dhaka(Bangladesh)
9. Moscow(Russia)
10. Mexico City(Mexico)

Causes of Smog:

The atmospheric toxin or gases that produce smog are out in the air when fuel is burnt.
When sun rays and its temperature react with these gases and fine particles in the air, it is
produced. Other causes of smog are intense traffic, high temperature, and sunlight. These
are few of the reasons at the back of rising point of air contamination in atmosphere.

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 Smog: Nature’s Revenge | CSS Essay

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Throughout the winter months when the air stream speeds are low, it assist the smoke and
fog to become idle at a position producing this and rising contamination levels close to the
ground nearer to where people are breathing. It slow down visibility and upset the
surroundings. During conditions of heat inversions if the wind is calm, smog can get trapped
and stay more than a place for days.

Effects of Smog:

Effects of smog are many, let’s discuss few of them. It is dangerous to human being,
animals, plants and the nature as a whole. A lot of people Died due to this who had
bronchial diseases. It is injurious and it is obvious since the components that produce it and
effects that can take place from it. The effect of smog when its heavy is accountable for
declining the UV radiation very much. It can cause some deadly pulmonary diseases such as
lung cancer. Exposure to Ultra Violet radiations plays a role in the scattering of various eye
infections including irritation, burning sensation, watering and redness of eyes are also the
effects of smog.

German think-tank Germanwatch, advocating for the prevention of dangerous climate

change, has ranked Pakistan as the 7th most vulnerable country to climate change, with a
death toll of 523 lives per year, which equates to 10,462 lives lost in 20 years and economic
losses worth 3.8 billion U.S. dollars, which is equivalent to 0.605 percent of the GDP in the
20 year period.

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In 2015 alone, almost 60,000 Pakistanis died from the high level of fine particulate matter
(PM) in the air, making it among the highest death tolls in the world from air pollution
according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). As South Asia’s most urbanised
country, Pakistan contends with increasing challenges such as the increase in motor
vehicles in cities. In the last decade, more than 11 million cars appeared on the roads in
Pakistan’s most populous province, representing a growth of almost 30%, according to a
report from the Punjab Environmental Protection Department (EPD).

Another cause for the current scenario is the polluting practice on agricultural land common
in Pakistan’s Punjab, resulting in plumes of toxic smoke carried across the neighbourhoods
of Lahore.

The WHO sets a standard safe PM 2.5 level (air pollutant) in a 24-hour period at 25 µg/m3,
while the latest readings in Lahore are fluctuating between PM 450 and 500.

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, the smog levels were low to mid-
level. It was not at a lethal level that could lead to deaths – as happened during London’s
Great Smog of 1952 when almost more than 12,000 deaths were reported. The Beijing smog
in 2012 was also dangerous and resulted in large numbers of casualties.

But this danger has now reached the Punjaba rea, especially Lahore in Pakistan and Delhi in
India. Health complications and casualties due to traffic accidents were reported as well.
The casualties in Delhi were on a higher side as the smog described there was between mid
and high levels. The situation in Pakistani Punjab was somewhat different as certain health
impacts were reported but no major casualty took place. Indirect impacts did, however, lead
to a large number of road accidents.

The direct and indirect impacts of the smog have been devastating. One should know the
reasons behind these smoggy clouds so that specific mitigating strategies can be adopted by
the government and our policymakers.

Air and its pollutants have no boundaries and can easily travel with wind turbulence. Air
pollution is complex and has local and transboundary impacts. Pollutants are dispersed
through wind turbulence causing transboundary impacts. Smog is a mixture of different
pollutants, including oxides of nitrogen (NOX), oxides of sulphur (SOX), carbon monoxide
(CO), particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOC) and the ozone. Among all
other pollutants, NOx is the major factor behing the buildup of smog.

While studying the baseline ambient air quality during the Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA) study of the ‘Master Plan of Lahore Division 2035’ in October-November
2015, it was found that CO and PM at all major places of the Lahore division were twice the

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National Environmental Quality Standards, although NOX and SOX were well within limits.
As NOX is the major precursor for smog, the question is: from where did it come,
particularly in the quantity that triggered the reactions that build up smog?

Environmental experts have diverse views about the issue, with some saying that large-scale
burning of agricultural waste stock in Indian Punjab may have been the major reason. This
was also confirmed from Nasa satellite imagery.

Before sowing new crop, farmers often set fire to the fields. According to environmentalist
Noman Ashraf, the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation Limited in India had set up agri-
waste processing facilities and sold the pallets to biomass power plants and to industrial
processing as an alternative to coal.

Over the last 10 years, farmers have continuously asked for more money for agri-waste,
which sometimes became impossible to fund in a fiscally responsible manner. The rates of
agri-waste have almost doubled since 2013. The recent burning spike is because farmers in
Indian Punjab, who had originally been selling agricultural waste – especially of paddy fields
– to biomass power plants, burnt their agri-waste this year after their requested price was
turned down.

This gap created production pressure on coal power plants and resulted in high emissions.
Some experts have said that it is the coal power plants on the Indian side. Almost 132 coal
power plants are operating in India; they are producing 64 percent of total electricity. All
experts in one way or another point to India as having caused the NOx that led to the smog.

What are the scientific reasons behind NOx? Coal contains almost 1.0-3.5 percent of
nitrogen content which is much higher than agriculture waste that has around 0.3-0.7
percent. This means that burning agriculture waste does not emit as much NOx as does the
burning of coal. NOx emissions that are produced during the burning of coal ultimately
enter Punjab and travel towards the Himalayas. They start getting diluted with the pure air
of the Himalayas and most of the NOx sinks in the ice. The NOx that enters Punjab due to
the wind direction is the problem can be and considered a transboundary air pollution issue.

Vehicles are another major source of NOX. Almost 38 percent of the world’s NOx emissions
come from vehicles. This is in comparison to 24 percent of NOx emissions via electricity
production and distribution. Agriculture waste accounts for only 1.4 percent of NOx
emissions.

With very low wind turbulence at the start of October, these NOx emissions from
transboundary coal power plants – in addition to local city vehicles – slowly started to build
up and ultimately reached the level where the reaction takes place. The value of NOx

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measured by the Environment Protection Agency Punjab on Nov 5 eventually cleared the
picture.

The NOx value taken at Mohanwal near Bahria Town was 525.17 ug/m3 against the baseline
value 28 ug/m3, is almost 18 times higher than the baseline value. This amount of NOx is
enough to spark a reaction to produce ground-level ozone and then smog.

As mentioned earlier, NOx mainly acts as the precursor to smog. Therefore, steps should be
taken in order to reduce NOx emissions. The use of personal vehicles should be reduced and
public transport should be promoted. This recommendation is also given in the EIA Lahore
Division Master Plan. Vehicles should also be properly tuned in order to reduce NOx
emissions. The traffic police should implement maintenance of vehicles by checking them
and imposing fines on owners for non-maintenance.

The case of NOx emission from power plants in India should be taken up on international
forums like the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) and the Paris Agreement.
India should be forced to reduce its emissions and credit payment should be made to
Pakistan for the amount of emissions that come from India.

The last but most important step is tree plantation. Massive tree plantation drives should be
carried out in all of Punjab. The ecological study of the Lahore Division Master Plan has
suggested the right kinds of plants that should be planted in the Lahore division.

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