Measuring the oxidative potential of airborne particulate matter (PM) may provide a more health-based exposure measure by integrating various biologically relevant properties of PM into a single predictor of biological activity. The authors aimed to assess the contrast in oxidative potential of PM collected at major urban streets and background locations, the associaton of oxidative potential with other PM characteristics, and the oxidative potential in different PM size fractions.

Tropospheric ozone and black carbon (BC) contribute to both degraded air quality and global warming. We considered ~400 emission control measures to reduce these pollutants by using current technology and experience. We identified 14 measures targeting methane and BC emissions that reduce projected global mean warming ~0.5°C by 2050. This strategy avoids 0.7 to 4.7 million annual premature deaths from outdoor air pollution and increases annual crop yields by 30 to 135 million metric tons due to ozone reductions in 2030 and beyond.

Ambient air pollution is associated with numerous adverse health impacts. Previous assessments of global attributable disease burden have been limited to urban areas or by coarse spatial resolution of concentration estimates. Recent developments in remote sensing, global chemical-transport models, and improvements in coverage of surface measurements facilitate virtually complete spatially resolved global air pollutant concentration estimates.

The air was monitored for two consecutive periods, in the dry and the rainy seasons (2009-2010) at 40 petroleum-filling stations in the Indian capital, Delhi, to assess variations in carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, PM10, PM2.5, benzene, toluene and xylene content. PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations exceeded the national ambient air quality standards at all the monitoring locations with maximum values of 1105 and 625 μg m−3, respectively, in the dry season.

As part of the System of Air quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) project developed for air quality forecasting during the Commonwealth Games (CWG) – 2010, a high resolution Emission Inventory (EI) of PM10 and PM2.5 has been developed for the metropolitan city Delhi for the year 2010. The comprehensive inventory involves detailed activity data and developed for a domain of 70 km × 65 km with a 1.67 km × 1.67 km resolution covering Delhi and surrounding region using Geographical Information System (GIS) technique.

This paper reports the atmospheric concentrations of PM2.5 and PM1 mass, water soluble inorganic components and their seasonal variations measured between the period of July 2009 and June 2010 in Durg city (20°23' to 22°02'N and 80°46' to 81°58'E), India.