The Hindu Business Line : A `burial' for air pollutants

THE subject of air pollution has, in the last 40 years, drawn the attention of scientists, administrators, and environmentalists in several nations. The problem concerns not only the health of the people but its contribution to the greenhouse phenomenon with all its deleterious consequences.

Medical findings: The ozone layer is being depleted by the emission of toxic gases from factory chimneys and automobile exhausts Also, studies have shown that air pollution can spread its ill-effects far and wide and a high level of such contamination can trigger heart attacks. . Constant inhalation — unavoidable in cities, and industrial areas — of invisible particles discharged with the flue or exhaust gases, and also from wood stoves, is found to end in long term cardiovascular diseases. Certain types of polluting contents in the emissions can cause acute skin irritation, or allergy in different forms. Diesel exhaust spewed from trucks and buses has been known to arouse strong gut reaction .

Capturing gases: In combating air pollution, technology can lend a hand. One new process involves sequestration of carbon-dioxide, one of the main "greenhouse gases", by pumping it under pressure through pipelines and conveying it to a mile depth below the ground to occupy the capacious reservoirs vacated by oil.

Safely deposited in the labyrinthine complex of the subterranean vaults, the unwanted gas would remain undisturbed, perhaps, for millions of years.The concept has is operational in a North Dakota, US, plant, from where the CO{-2} is sent over 200 miles to its rendezvous with destiny — in the catacombs of a depleted oil field in Saskatchewan, Canada. More perfection of the method to lock up the poisonous emission safely away from human habitations is being attempted through intensive research both in the laboratory and on the field.

Promising projects: It is too early to predict which of the innovations would be suitable for economical operation. However, expectations are running high as any project for the total banishment of harmful air pollutants could prove to be the greatest instrument to serve the cause of environmental cleanliness.

What cannot be ignored is coal, which occurs abundantly in nature, cannot be discarded out of fear of the emission problem. Fortunately, the clouds of confusion seem to be clearing away and, fossil fuels, probably, can be resurrected!

(The author is an Oregon-based freelance writer.)