138
Strategy the decision-maker makes depends on many factors that include the
following:
1. Knowledge and honesty of decision-makers
2. Knowledge and honesty of decision-makers’ advisors
3. Impact of decision on economy and jobs
4. Personal background and source of income of decision-makers
5. Political pressure or pressure from his supervisors
Hamburg, Madrid, Helsinki and Oslo have recently announced their plans to
partly become private car-free cities (Science for Environment Policy 2016;
Nieuwenhuijsen and Khreis 2016). But such strategy will not be adopted in all the
cities and countries for the reason that the economy may come down and stock
market may crash resulting in devaluation of currency. Further, the job losses in car
manufacturing/servicing/selling, as well as oil refineries/distribution, would lead to
social disturbances.
In spite of well-documented information with respect to the ill effect of cigarette
on human health and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control adopted
by the World Health Assembly in 2003, many countries have failed to totally ban
sale and manufacture of cigarettes.
Even though the impact of asbestos is documented, only 65 countries had banned
the use of asbestos as on September 2018 (International ban asbestos secretariat,
2018). Many countries have also banned firecrackers.
Banning/prohibiting/outlawing/restricting air-polluting activity will not be useful to society unless the government ensures sufficient knowledgeable/honest manpower in enforcing agencies.
Examples of policy and law intervention for air pollution depend on types and
magnitude summarized in Table 6.2.
In late December 2019, outbreak of respiratory syndrome a pneumonia related
with the 2019 corona virus (2019-nCoV) started in Wuhan, China (Nanshan et al.
2020) spread to 28 other countries and territories by first week of February 2020
(CDC 2020). Many patients with viral pneumonia were epidemiologically associated with the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, where a numerous non- aquatic
animals were also sold before the outbreak (Roujian et al. 2020).
On January 23, Wuhan city authorities shutdown the city’s public transportation.
Quarantine orders were extended to other 15 cities in China locking down 50 million people in China. The corona virus in Wuhan, China, killed more than 630 and
affected about 31,000 by second week of February 2020 (Business insider 2020).
The lockdown has shut factories besides reducing travel and reducing air pollution. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space
Agency (ESA) pollution monitoring satellites have detected noteworthy reduction
in NO 2 over China.
With the WHO declaring the corona virus outbreak a pandemic, on 11 March
2020, many nations around the world have revised their entry policies. Lockdown
and other administrative control to control COVID-19 resulted in significant reduction in air quality of Indian region (Gautam 2020; Mahato et al. 2020).
6 Air Pollution Control
Strategy the decision-maker makes depends on many factors that include the
following:
1. Knowledge and honesty of decision-makers
2. Knowledge and honesty of decision-makers’ advisors
3. Impact of decision on economy and jobs
4. Personal background and source of income of decision-makers
5. Political pressure or pressure from his supervisors
Hamburg, Madrid, Helsinki and Oslo have recently announced their plans to
partly become private car-free cities (Science for Environment Policy 2016;
Nieuwenhuijsen and Khreis 2016). But such strategy will not be adopted in all the
cities and countries for the reason that the economy may come down and stock
market may crash resulting in devaluation of currency. Further, the job losses in car
manufacturing/servicing/selling, as well as oil refineries/distribution, would lead to
social disturbances.
In spite of well-documented information with respect to the ill effect of cigarette
on human health and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control adopted
by the World Health Assembly in 2003, many countries have failed to totally ban
sale and manufacture of cigarettes.
Even though the impact of asbestos is documented, only 65 countries had banned
the use of asbestos as on September 2018 (International ban asbestos secretariat,
2018). Many countries have also banned firecrackers.
Banning/prohibiting/outlawing/restricting air-polluting activity will not be useful to society unless the government ensures sufficient knowledgeable/honest manpower in enforcing agencies.
Examples of policy and law intervention for air pollution depend on types and
magnitude summarized in Table 6.2.
In late December 2019, outbreak of respiratory syndrome a pneumonia related
with the 2019 corona virus (2019-nCoV) started in Wuhan, China (Nanshan et al.
2020) spread to 28 other countries and territories by first week of February 2020
(CDC 2020). Many patients with viral pneumonia were epidemiologically associated with the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, where a numerous non- aquatic
animals were also sold before the outbreak (Roujian et al. 2020).
On January 23, Wuhan city authorities shutdown the city’s public transportation.
Quarantine orders were extended to other 15 cities in China locking down 50 million people in China. The corona virus in Wuhan, China, killed more than 630 and
affected about 31,000 by second week of February 2020 (Business insider 2020).
The lockdown has shut factories besides reducing travel and reducing air pollution. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space
Agency (ESA) pollution monitoring satellites have detected noteworthy reduction
in NO 2 over China.
With the WHO declaring the corona virus outbreak a pandemic, on 11 March
2020, many nations around the world have revised their entry policies. Lockdown
and other administrative control to control COVID-19 resulted in significant reduction in air quality of Indian region (Gautam 2020; Mahato et al. 2020).
6 Air Pollution Control