Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 10.1
Contribution of motor vehicles to pollution
Proportion from
on-road motor vehicles
Air pollutant
Note
Oxides of
nitrogen (NO
x
)
34%
Precursor to ground-level ozone
(smog), which damages the
respiratory system and injures
plants
Volatile organic
compounds
(VOC)
34%
Precursor to ground-level ozone
(smog), which damages the
respiratory system and injures
plants
Carbon
monoxide (CO)
51%
Contributes to smog production;
poisonous in high concentrations
Particulate
matter (PM
10
)
10%
Does not include dust from paved
and unpaved roads, the major
source of particulate matter
pollution (50% of the total)
Carbon dioxide
(CO
2
)
33% Thought to be a primary
contributor to global warming
Source:
Federal Highway Administration (2002).
cargo ship coming into New York harbor can release in 1 hour as much
pollution as 350,000 2004-model cars. Globally commercial ships release
about 30 percent as much particulate pollution as all the world's cars.
5
Sixteen of these large ships emit as much sulfurous air pollution as all
the cars in the world. There are more than 100,000 of these oceangoing
transports plying the seas today.
On average, 43 percent of PM
10
emissions at America's ports come
from the diesel fuel burned by unregulated oceangoing ships and other
marine vessels. Heavy diesel-burning trucks generate 31 percent of
PM
10
emissions, cargo-handling equipment 24 percent, trains 2 percent,
and cars less than 1 percent. In the Los Angeles area, oceangoing
ships, harbor tugs, and commercial boats such as passenger ferries
emit many times more smog-forming pollutants than all the power
plants in the southern California region combined. Growth forecasts
are that overseas trade will triple by 2020, indicating that car and
truck traffi c will not be the only air quality problem in California as
the century progresses.
A study in 1998 showed that the cancer risk for residents of Long
Beach, to the immediate northeast of the ports of Los Angeles and Long
