Transportation and Air Quality

Dr. Srinivasan Palamalai

Abstract

Formal acknowledgement of the considerable contribution of motorised vehicles to air pollution dates to the late 1950s, when the state of California imposed the first regulations on motor vehicle emissions. Since then, air pollution from vehicles and trucks has continued to be a focus of laws as well as a continuing issue of public health study. With recent technical breakthroughs the production of air pollutants from individual automobiles and trucks has fallen considerably. Relative to their emissions of thirty years prior, vehicles today release less than 10 percent as much of many pollutants per mile driven, but since miles travelled have climbed thrice over that period, the advantages of lower emissions have been somewhat negated. Air pollutants from the transportation sector can be broadly divided into three categories: greenhouse gases primarily carbon dioxide, a topic discussed criteria air pollutants 6 major ubiquitous air pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter, as described in Chapter Fourteen; and air toxics a larger number of additional pollutants dispersed into the air by transportation and having known toxic health effects.