Pollution sees rise over the years – US Embassy
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KUWAIT CITY, Dec 22: In recent years, the warnings issued by the US Embassy to its citizens about pollution of Kuwait’s air have increased, reports Al-Qabas daily. The embassy, through its official website, monitors and releases PM 2.5 airborne concentrations around the clock. Before entering into the subject, we need to explain what these particles are, their knowledge, and their sources.
It is microscopic particles, up to 2.5 microns in diameter and 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair at high levels.
These particles form haze, enter the human respiratory tract and are carried to the lungs, causing many chronic diseases with long exposure and are one of the causes of lung cancer.
According to estimates by the World Health Organization, about 7 million people die each year from exposure to fine particles in the polluted air, which penetrate deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system, causing diseases including stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and infections in the respiratory system, including pneumonia.
The causes of external pollution is caused mainly from cars, trucks, buses, construction vehicles and equipment, as well as construction projects and smoke from domestic and industrial chimneys, dust and sand storms. One of the most important sources of these particles are generally the reaction of gases or droplets in the atmosphere from sources, such as power plants, oil and gas production plants, etc., and these interactions do not necessarily occur near their source. They may occur within kilometers away the source of the original emission, where it is transported by the transient wind from one state to another neighboring state.
The internal sources of these particles are simple and multiple, such as tobacco fumes, cooking fumes, frying, burning of candles or oil lamps, as well as any activity that results in flaring and ignition that generate vapors or dust emitted into the air.
The observatory is one of the world’s largest observatories of the World Air Quality Index, a nonprofit project that began in 2007. Its mission is to promote awareness of air pollution for citizens and provide standardized air quality information worldwide. The project has transparent air quality information for more than 80 countries, covering more than 10,000 stations in 1,000 major cities, through aqicn.org and waqi. info.
The observatory is located specifically at the US Embassy in Section 13 of Bayan, the restricted area between King Fahad Bin Abdul Aziz Road (Road 40) and Abdul Aziz Bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud (Road 30). This air quality index is based on PM2.5, PM10, O3, NO2, SO2 and CO, and most of the stations on the map monitor both PM2.5 and PM10, but if we choose Kuwait for the hourly and daily results of the index, we find that the index in Kuwait measured the particulate particles inhaled PM2.5 only, and does not give any results for the remaining pollutants.
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