By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) - Government planes will be cutting through the smog-filled
skies of eastern Texas daily during the next month in order to
come up with better pollution control methods, the US Department
of Energy (DOE) has announced.
A team of
researchers, including 150 experts from around the nation, will
be studying levels of ozone and other pollutants in the Houston
area, where chemical emissions and hot, heavy air combine to create
one of the country's worst air-quality problems. According to
the DOE, the Texas 2000 Air Quality Study is one of the most comprehensive
air pollution studies ever launched in the US.
In addition
to the research airplanes, 60 ground-based monitoring stations
will collect data on ozone, carbon monoxide, fine particles and
other pollutants. Scientists will study how the chemicals mix
and react in the environment under different weather conditions.
Understanding these variables could lead to better pollution control,
according to Peter Daum, one of the researchers leading the study.
Houston and
southern California have the country's worst air pollution problems,
Daum told Reuters Health. Like other states, he said, Texas has
tried to cut emissions from cars and industrial sources, but the
Houston region has unique weather conditions that exacerbate the
man-made side of the problem. For instance, pollutants carried
away by land winds end up being sent back by the coastal city's
``sea breeze.''
One goal of
the study is to figure out the proportions of each pollutant in
the region's atmosphere. This, according to Daum, will help them
decide which pollution controls need to be tightened.
|
