Sea salt worsens coastal air pollution

Sea SaltWashington, April 9: A new study has indicated that sea salt worsens coastal air pollution, showing that industrial and shipping pollution is aggravated when it combines with sunshine and salty sea air.

A team of researchers that included University of Calgary chemistry professor Hans Osthoff, carried out the study.

The team reported that the disturbing phenomenon of sea salt combining with air pollution substantially raises the levels of ground-level ozone and other pollutants in coastal areas.

“We found unexpectedly high levels of certain air pollutants where pollution from cities and ships meets salt in the ocean air along the southeast coast of the United States,” said Osthoff.

“It only makes sense that this is a problem everywhere industrial pollution meets the ocean, as is the case in many of the largest cities around the world,” he added.

Osthoff was part of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) team that spent six weeks monitoring air quality in busy shipping areas off the southeastern coast of the United States between Charleston, South Carolina and Houston, Texas, in the summer of 2006.

The researchers found unexpectedly high levels of nitryl chloride (ClNO2), a chemical long suspected to be involved in ground-level ozone production along the coast.

They then determined that the compound is efficiently produced at night by the reaction of the nitrogen oxide N2O5 in polluted air with chloride from sea salt.

With the help of sunlight, the chemical then splits into radicals that accelerate production of ozone and, potentially, fine particulate matter, which are the main components of air pollution.

Their findings also show that up to 30 per cent of the ground-level ozone present in seaside cities such as Houston may be the result of pollution mixing with salt from ocean mist.

According to Osthoff, “It also changes our view of the chemical transformations that occur in ship engine exhaust plumes, and tells us that emissions from marine vessels may be polluting the globe to a greater extent than currently estimated.” (ANI)

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