Analysis of ambient air quality data monitored at Colombo Fort monitoring unit clearly revealed that PM(10) is the dominant air pollutant in the Colombo atmosphere. Further investigation showed that PM(10) has strong associations with three types of respiratory illnesses, especially among children. Among these associations, the disease category which includes bronchitis, emphysema and other chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases showed a prominent association with a correlation coefficient of 0.717 at 99% confidence. In addition, an application of health impact assessment software developed by WHO revealed that nearly 20% of Asthma patients recorded at LRH (the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children) in 2005 could be attributed to exposure to PM(10) in Colombo. It was observed that nearly 60% of the respiratory cases occurred at reasonably lower concentrations (below 80 microgm(-3)) thus, future management plans aiming toward positive health impacts should focus on shifting the entire PM(10) pollution distribution towards lower ends.
Plasma processing of the chloromethane compounds (methylene chloride (CH 2 Cl 2 ), chloroform (CHCl 3 ) and carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 )) diluted in atmospheric air using a gliding arc has been studied. Various injected initial chloromethane concentrations, total gas flow rates and power frequencies were used as the variables to investigate the discharge characteristics. This paper evaluates the phenomenon of chloromethane processing by gliding-arc plasma.
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