Adrian and Shashi

Short Story, Fiction. 

Microsoft Free Clipart

Shashi cooked the evening meal, glancing fondly at Adrian as he fed the dog. Their bedsit was big as a barn and they’d both felt a dog wouldn’t cramp their space. They’d found Tim at the local SPCA.

“I swear Tim’s grown since last night.”

“His food bill certainly has since last month,” Shashi said dryly, energetically stirring the white wine sauce, one amused eye on Tim wolfing down his food. Within seconds it was gone. The dog looked surprised. Adrian laughed. Tim wagged his tail and bent down to give his bowl another professional lick. A few laps of water to wash it all down and he looked at Shashi with beseeching eyes.

“We’ll take you soon as I’m done, action man,” Shashi grinned, expertly measuring out rice and water into the electric cooker – a gift from thoughtful parents to make life easy. Shashi remembered wondering at the time where in the small kitchenette this would fit. Now steaming hot rice, because it was cheap and easy to cook, had become a regular accompaniment to their meals. 

Weeping Willow, NZ

With Tim barking madly at his heels, Adrian walked to the door. Barely managing to contain an animal gone berserk with joy, he leashed Tim and stepped out, letting the dog run ahead as far as the retractable leash would allow.  Putting the final touches to their meal Shashi hurried after them, eager for the walk after slaving over the hot stove.

It was dusk - the best time of day to unwind after a long, hard, punishing schedule. Their exams were looming and if they weren’t attending lectures, they were cramming. Tim forced them to get away from it all for a few minutes everyday. Once back home they would bury their noses in their books again, but with fresher minds.

Trying to keep up with Tim’s energy as he charged off to sniff at trees, lamp posts and grass verges, Shashi smiled. Tim had added a wonderful dimension to their lives. 

“Wonder what’s exciting about sniffing at dog piss,” laughed Adrian.

“You don’t know what stories those smells tell.” 

They approached the bend in the road. This is where university flats ended and the posh suburb of Streamarbour began. A wide grassy bank, majestic willows, birches and pohutakawa lined the little stream where ducks paddled, entertaining families with kids, university students, couples and the old. Shashi and Adrian paused to watch as a proud mama duck and her ducklings swam past single file. “Quark” warned mama duck in guttural tones to one of the ducklings who got waylaid by someone squatting at the edge of the stream, holding out her hand.

Tim seemed to know that hand. Tugging hard at his leash he almost dragged Adrian to reach it and proceeded to smother it all over with a very slobbery tongue. “Oh TIM,” squealed a familiar voice. Adele jumped up hurriedly to face Adrian and Shashi with a smile. “Oops, sorry Adele. Ever since you got him those doggie treats he’s been overwhelmed with gratitude.” 

“You mean, overwhelming,” laughed Adele ruefully, rubbing her wet hand and face. Part of the charm of a university town was that one did run into friends often. After a few minutes of conversation Adele said she had to get some books from the library and that she’d better hurry before it closed.

Adrian and Shashi smiled their goodbyes clutching Tim's collar for he wanted, once again, to demonstrate his fondness for the lady.

“Easy boy,” murmured Shashi, making sure Adele was out of earshot, “she’s married to medicine. You don’t stand a chance.” 

Adrian laughed. “I agree,” he said. “She’ll probably top the class." 

After a good forty-five minutes they led a tired but happy dog back home. Tim promptly flopped in his favourite corner, dozing contentedly within seconds. Adrian poured out some wine - a pinot for Shashi and a cold chardonnay for himself, gifts from Adrian's indulgent parents. 

“You drink red and I, white; I am a tea person and you prefer coffee. However did we get together and manage to stay together for five whole years?” he laughed.

“I know. You like rugby - jinkies, what a blood sport,” Shashi teased, knowing Adrian would rise to the bait as he loved rugby with a passion.

“What about cricket? Half the players are just sitting around waiting.”

“You wouldn’t understand. It is a game of skill.”

“It’s boring. Nothing seems to happen. Rugby is fast - involves all players.”

“A game of kill," said Shashi, slightly riled, "where the unsporting rule by manhandling their opponents.” That was an unfair dig – a reference to a recent incident where a rugby player had picked up his opponent by the legs and smashed his head.

“Those players are disqualified - taken off the field immediately. You know that. Rugby isn’t just violence without rules."

 “Those huge hulks break all your so-called rules and are happy to take the penalty AFter they’ve almost crippled their opponents and made them redundant,” said Shashi. “That’s not sporting.”

Adrian laughed softly. “People break rules in cricket too – all that match fixing and under arm bowling...” 

This was beginning to sound like an argument. How on earth did that happen?

“Well,” said Shashi, flush in the face, eyebrows knitted, “I hate it when that happens.”

 Realising they were dangerously close to a fight over something outside their influence, Adrian quietly got up and dished out the food. Then he motioned for Shashi to join him.

“Damn, it smells good,” said Adrian, sniffing appreciatively.

Shashi, knowing full well Adrian was trying to make up, but still sore about his exposing the underbelly of cricket, couldn’t help feeling a bit gratified. The two ate their meal in silence though both were aware that it was Shashi’s turn to say something to indicate the fight was over. Feeling childish and pretending to take refuge in their theory of savouring each bite, seemed like a better idea.

“Damn, it tastes good too,” he ventured finally, responding to Adrian's truce offering. The two smiled tentatively and Adrian raised his glass in a silent toast. After a sip he added, “Hope I can rustle up something as good tomorrow.” They finished the meal and continued sitting at the table, chatting some more. Then, reluctantly, they got up to clear away their simple meal.

As the two passed each other Adrian silently reached out for Shashi. For a moment the young men hugged, content, energised by each other, and wonderfully happy. These were their last few, critical days at medical college. Both knew a lot depended on their doing well in their exams. There could be no distractions now. “Later,” said Shashi softly with a sigh and a final lingering feel of Adrian’s wonderfully sculpted arms. The moment passed and they reluctantly broke contact. After a while each was lost in his books.

They both had dreams. To make them a reality  they knew they’d have to work hard - perhaps harder than others. There simply were no shortcuts. Eventually, they planned a partnership.  Partners in life and partners in work.

Damn, life was good.

Note for non-Indians – The name, 'Shashi' is common to both genders in India. I used the name as I wanted heterosexual Indians to realise only towards the end that the story was about two men living ordinary lives together. As I suspected, most comments were positive towards same sex couples.

if you liked the story. Thanks.

 
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Blending Cultures II

In Part I described what’s changed for ordinary Indians - some changes happened simply because we made conscious decisions and had more choices. Others were a necessity. The one change we should have the strength to resist is peer pressure or any pressure from others to change.

What was it about the other culture that so fascinated me? Why did my husband and I give up good careers, our home, our family and friends and a good life to move to New Zealand? Yes, it was the clean environment, the disciplined traffic, the (relative) lack of corruption, the ease of getting things done without jumping bureaucratic hoops,  and knowing everyone paid the same, fixed price for veges. It was also the fun of interacting with a different variety of cultures - Asians, Middle Easterners, Afrcans, Europeans, the English - to name a few. And a lot of it was rose spectacles. We've been here for over twenty years so the blinkers have come off. I can honestly say we are settled, familiar with the place and culture, with realistic expectations and reasonable optimism.

How has it changed me? I have learnt to be a bit more independent. To varying degrees so have my counterparts back home. Have I completely capitulated to the west? I don’t think so. I enjoy being Indian way too much. I was born Indian and although I live in another part of the world, I will always think of myself as Indian first. 

Diya by Zeimusu, free clipart

Introducing new elements in a culture should unite or blend the best of both worlds but doesn’t have to change a person completely. The ease with which we absorbed the best of both is something, to my mind, uniquely Indian. (see Mumbai's Psyche). If a person is confident of his or her core values, whatever they may be, no amount of outside pressure will make them give those up. If a person does give up certain traditions (with no outside pressures, overt or otherwise), it is only because they’ve always wanted to anyway.

As for becoming  a boring homogenous race, there is one unpredictable factor in all human beings that will never allow that. It is the variety of human emotions at any given moment. Humans, as such, might have made progress in leaps and bounds where technology is concerned. But we still have the same basic emotions - both positive and negative - that we had right at the very beginning of our existence. Our values are, and always will be, unique to each of us. On a day to day basis, each one of us feels differing emotions at different times. The permutations and combinations of these day to day emotions are numerous and seemingly contradictory. While some of us feel happy, others are sad or angry in similar situations; there’s generosity or envy; wile, guile or innocence; boredom or lively interest; and so on. And this is on any given day. On another day, it might be completely different. Besides, we are the sum total of our experiences and there’s too much out there for us to ever absorb in a single life-time. 

Christmas Carols, free clipart by Gustavorezende

Here’s a completely opposing viewpoint written by an American who travelled through India, witnessing the "erosion" of Indian traditions and culture. I do believe he has underestimated us Indians. Our American doesn’t have faith in Indians being able to resist the “buy-buy-buy” culture. Some folks will never give up on retail therapy whichever culture they belong to. For the rest, feverish consumerism, after a while, does slow down. Besides, there is a new reality in this day and age which forces us to think before we buy - how will buying this product impact our environment?

The American thinks capitalists have no regard for differences in culture. He thinks a market economy leads to unequal distribution of wealth, and therefore, of power. He may be right, I don't know.

What I do know is, given any type of economy, people compete for a piece of the pie – some by fair means and others by foul. I believe that in any system, people with more wealth exploit the ones with less, and people with more power exploit the ones with less. It isn’t the system per se. It is base human nature (read vices) that has created that system. And I can say with conviction that there's an even  sprinkling of every type of human (nature) throughout the world.

As the philosopher, William Pfaff, suggested, “Only if we recognise that base nature as well as what we are capable of by way of our highest ideals will we be able to scale heights as never before.” The exact words are here. 

Our American has also romanticised the clearly demarcated lines between the sexes that exist in India. He’s rued that it is blurring. But to my mind, the less we see people as different simply because they belong to a different sex, the more we simply see them as human beings the same as everyone else, the better relaxed we’ll learn to be with each other. The more lines are demarcated, the more someone determined to enforce those lines will allow, or even commit and justify, crimes against other human beings. (She looked at him - I'll teach her a lesson by pawing her. My lust isn't the issue here. It is the fact that she is besharam for casting her eyes on him and needs a lesson which I will give her. He spoke to her - stone him to death.)

If life is to be preserved as it is, we might as well live in a museum. Life is ever evolving as are cultures. They change with time, circumstances and necessities. It is our core values that we need to make every effort to preserve for they are what make us the person we are.

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Blending Cultures

The other day I passed a bunch of kids returning from school in NZ. They were laughing, kidding one another and generally having a jolly old time. What struck me about the group was that it was totally multicultural and yet, undeniably, each of those kids sounded like New Zealanders or Kiwis. This set me thinking - will the blending of cultures eventually produce one homogenous block of humans who, whether in London, Mumbai, Brazil or China, will lead disgustingly uninteresting and similar lives? Mere shadows of one another?

Well, for starters we already do. Giving in to peer pressure, be it to people who belong to the same community or to different communities, is much the same thing. When someone insists and we capitulate (eagerly) to their demand that we look and sound exactly like them before they accept us, it is a subtle play of dominance-subjugation. It happens, to varying degrees, wherever there is a majority or, wherever there is muscle power. Youngsters are especially vulnerable.  I believe objections to such capitulation are justifiable. Don't give up a part of your cultural identity simply because it might be more circumspect and convenient to do so. Children being especially vulnerable, teach them to appreciate those aspects of your cultural identity that you like, respect and enjoy.

Peer pressure aside and purely because we are human, we pick up things from other humans. It is a natural instinct. It stems from the desire for self preservation, safety and a sense of belonging. It makes us fashion ourselves along the lines of other humans we admire, enjoy or feel safe with, or, would like to call our inner circle. If an aspect of another culture is sometimes more enjoyable to some folks, the communal minded are umbraged. [How can someone like something from the other culture so much that they are willing to give up part of ours?]

When we migrated to NZ, my family and I were following a dream. We wanted to be amongst people of various cultures, especially cultures that we didn’t see much of in our own neighbourhood. We read about them, were fascinated by them and in some ways, identified with them. An objective outsider (or an insider from that other culture) would have rightly said, we had romantic notions of this other culture. When we did settle here we realised it was a mixed bag. Not everything (nor everyone) was as wonderful as we’d imagined. There was much that we thoroughly admired and wanted to absorb from the new culture. But there were things Indian that we realised we preferred and wanted to preserve.

These are some of our initial reactions – that the local kids weren’t able to shine as much as our Indian kids at studies; but they were really good at sports and music (which were much harder to earn a living off, weren't they?); that we enjoyed our culture of home cooked food versus fast food; stay-at-home mums who welcomed kids back home from school, helped them with their studies and generally provide stable home lives. But guess what?

Our perceptions began to change. We slowly began to understand that our kids were brilliant because of rote learning; that experimenting, researching and looking at knowledge from different angles, questioning the written word and drawing our own logical conclusions was brilliant too; that fresh air, the outdoors and enough play time was essential for our kids and not just being bogged down by mountains of homework and mugging what had been taught; that besides being lawyers and doctors there were many fields they could follow; that one could actually link one’s extra-curricular activities and interests to one’s earnings.

Next, our ideas about stay-at-home mums started changing slightly. Of course they started changing in India too. Sheer economics, a desire not to waste qualifications, to be out and about amongst peers, made us stay-at-home mums seek careers. Were we giving up our culture by going off to work? Perhaps, to a degree – but it wasn’t because of pressure from the west. It had not only become a necessity, it was quite desirable too. Mums started working while their kids were away at school. Here in NZ we’d secretly felt sorry for kids who were sent to baby-sitters by their career oriented mothers. Now we were considering the same. What we began to understand and appreciate was that women here had managed to combine both, their professional and family lives, with a tougher set of options than their counterparts in India. In India, we had the best babysitters in the world – grandparents, to nurture and supervise, as also cheap, paid help to do the hard domestic chores of cooking and cleaning. Over in NZ, the extreme anxiety of having to leave kids with relatively unknown people had produced a win-win outcome too - professional baby-sitters.  They underwent training, learnt how to deal with emergencies, their houses were inspected for cleanliness and safety and, there was a strict ratio of the number of children to the number of trained sitters looking after them. And if we found someone who, over the months, proved to be kindly and affectionate with our children, a little more of our anxiety gave way to relief. Another tradition sacrificed? To my mind, just two different but equally good choices made available – one from our traditions and one from theirs.

We appreciated the fact that we could earn a decent wage working part time. So some of us worked part time to be back in time to welcome kids home from school. Whether we did so or stayed longer at work, when we got home, there was no paid help to do our cleaning, washing, cooking, repairing, building, painting and gardening. We – both partners - did most of it ourselves. Or, if we got paid help, we paid a good rate by the hour, which couldn't be less than the minimum wage as set by the NZ government. The paid help drove up to our homes, worked for about two hours each time before driving off until the next week or the following fortnight.

Continued as Part II: Do I think, after we’ve incorporated so many changes that suit our family’s life style and beliefs, that we've completely capitulated to the west?


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Why some gases are Deadly Dangerous-CO

Google Free Image Courtesy http://depletedcranium.com

Also published on GD's website

The last post asked what we'd do if we had to make a choice between the environment and some of our life giving activities. It is a tough choice to make. At a certain point in time will we have to make that choice? Not if we modify our activities to benefit both - us and the environment.

To be able to do that we first need to understand what exactly human activities have been responsible for. To date what we've done is, taken a resource from the earth, used it to make whatever's useful and ended the process there. We haven’t had to think about what by-product we’ve created.

All too often this has been a pollutant that poisons our air, waters and soil and damages our health.

1. This article tells us why certain gases like carbon monoxide are deadly dangerous for our health. It helps us understand why these gases shouldn’t be the end product of our activities.

CARBON MONOXIDE (CO)

How do human activities like burning coal emit carbon monoxide?
Ideally, burning coal should give carbon dioxide and water.
If you have a camp fire in the open air, there will always be enough oxygen to make the fuel burn completely, so you don’t have to worry about carbon monoxide. But, if you share the oxygen you breathe with too many appliances and people – for example, in an enclosed, crowded place, there isn’t enough to go around.
That is when coal or wood burns inefficiently; there is partial oxidation and instead of carbon dioxide or CO2, Carbon monoxide or CO is one of the end products.
CO is also naturally produced in volcanoes and forest fires.

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Who is at risk? 
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Anyone who works or lives in a very small or enclosed space, sharing it with many others, is exposed to harmful levels of carbon monoxide. People who work in factories, blast furnaces, who are in their vehicles in traffic - like drivers and traffic police, fire fighters and people who use coal and wood burners are at risk. In short, everyone in India is exposed to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide.

• When it enters the bloodstream, CO reacts with the haemoglobin in our blood and forms carboxyhaemoglobin. This reduces the ability of haemoglobin to transfer oxygen to various parts of our body.

CO causes

• headaches, fatigue, dizziness, drowsiness, or nausea.

• Exposure to elevated carbon monoxide levels can cause impairment of visual perception, manual dexterity and learning ability

Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning may occur sooner in those most susceptible - young children, elderly people, unborn babies, people with lung or heart disease, people at high altitudes, or those who already have elevated CO blood levels, such as smokers.

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Some other gases that are harmful to humans. Click on each

Carbon Monoxide  

Carbon Dioxide  

Sulphur Dioxide  

Nitrogen Dioxide  

Acid Rain

Particulate Matter  

Ground Level Ozone and Odours


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Why some gases are Deadly Dangerous-SO2

The last post asked what we'd do if we had to make a choice between the environment and some of our life giving activities. It is a tough choice to make. At a certain point in time will we have to make that choice? Not if we modify our activities to benefit both - us and the environment.

To be able to do that we first need to understand what exactly human activities have been responsible for.
To date what we've done is, taken a resource from the earth, used it to make whatever's useful and ended the process there. We haven’t had to think about what by-product we’ve created.

All too often this has been a pollutant that poisons our air, waters and soil and damages our health.

2. This article tells us why certain gases like sulphur dioxide are deadly dangerous for our health. It helps us understand why these gases shouldn’t be the end product of our activities.

SULPHUR DIOXIDE (SO2)

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Sulphur dioxide, a chemical compound with the formula SO2, is a heavy, colourless, non-flammable gas with a pungent, irritating odour. Even though SO2 is very toxic to humans, it is extremely useful. It is used extensively in the preparation of sulphur compounds and solvents, as a disinfectant, a bleach, a refrigerant in the ice industry, for fumigation and as a preservative for beer, wine, dried fruits and meats.

How is it formed through human activity?

Industry: Coal- and oil-fired power plants, steel mills, refineries, pulp and paper mills, and nonferrous smelters are the largest releasers of SO2.
Transportation, Keeping Warm and Cooking: No burning process is ideal. All fossil fuels have contaminants. Since coal, oil and diesel often contain sulphur and nitrogen compounds, their combustion generate sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
Mining: Coal mining itself produces SO2. Coal contains pyrite, a sulphur compound; as water washes through mines, this compound forms a dilute acid, which is then washed into nearby rivers and streams.

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Why Sulphur dioxide is toxic to life 
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If we are exposed to 10ppm (parts per million) SO2 for about an hour, it
• irritates the nose and throat
• sometimes causes a choking sensation
• It also causes nasal discharge, sneezing, cough and increased mucus secretion
• In addition, sulphur compounds in the air contribute to decreased visibility.
• SO2 is also a primary contributor to acid rain, which causes acidification of lakes and streams and can damage trees, crops, historic buildings and statues.
• High concentrations of sulphur dioxide (SO2) affects breathing and may aggravate existing respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Sensitive populations include asthmatics, individuals with bronchitis or emphysema, children and the elderly.

In India, the levels in 5 years to 2014, were up by over 70%. Dangerous levels are 4 to 500 ppm and during Diwali, they go up to over 700 ppm in India

All images from here

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Receive new posts (about one every couple of months) by email

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Some other gases that are harmful to humans. Click on each

Carbon Monoxide  

Carbon Dioxide  

Sulphur Dioxide  

Nitrogen Dioxide  

Acid Rain

Particulate Matter  

Ground Level Ozone and Odours

Why Some Gases Are Deadly Dangerous-CO2

The last post asked what we'd do if we had to make a choice between the environment and some of our life giving activities. It is a tough choice to make. At a certain point in time will we have to make that choice? Not if we modify our activities to benefit both - us and the environment.

To be able to do that we first need to understand what exactly human activities have been responsible for.

To date what we've done is, taken a resource from the earth, used it to make whatever's useful and ended the process there. We haven’t had to think about what by-product we’ve created.

All too often this has been a pollutant that poisons our air, waters and soil and damages our health.

3. This article tells us why certain gases like carbon dioxide are deadly dangerous for our health. It helps us understand why these gases shouldn’t be the end product of our activities.

CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2)


Carbon Dioxide is beneficial to everything living.

It is necessary for plant life and photosynthesis. It is necessary for humans too as without CO2, the Earth would be too cold for life. This is how it heats up our planet. Carbon dioxide is completely transparent to sunlight and lets it pass through and strike the earth's surface. The sun’s light and warmth are partly absorbed by Earth but partly reflected back as infrared energy that radiates back into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is not transparent to infrared energy and it traps the heat on the surface of the planet like a blanket. The other gases that trap this infrared energy and warm our planet are nitrous oxide, water vapour and methane. Together with Carbon dioxide these gases are known as the greenhouse gases.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_green/390180606/

So if carbon dioxide does so much for us, why is it considered bad?

It isn’t carbon dioxide that is bad. It is just the excess carbon dioxide that has been released into our air due to human activity.

For millions of years living vegetation has provided the balance by mopping up the excess CO2 during photosynthesis. But in recent years the cutting down of our forests has drastically reduced vegetation and as a result, there aren’t enough plants to mop up the excess CO2 from our air.

Also, we use a lot of fossil fuels like coal and oil which have been buried deep into the Earth for millions of years. In the last few hundred years our level of dependence on these fossil fuels has increased exponentially. We bring up these fossil fuels from deep inside the Earth and burn them for our factories, as petroleum for our automobiles, as oil or coal to heat up our homes and to cook. The carbon that is trapped inside these fossil fuels reacts with oxygen from the air to produce the heat we need. One of the by-products is carbon dioxide which is released into our air.

The number of people breathing our air has increased a million fold too due to increases in population.

Now the problem is obvious – for the above reasons, too much carbon dioxide is thrown into our atmosphere but not enough carbon dioxide is being removed.

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How excess Carbon Dioxide affects the Earth
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• With more and more infrared energy radiated back from our Earth trapped under the increased level of carbon dioxide, Earth is becoming warmer. This in turn causes changes in climate, currents, melting glaciers and ice caps. If enough ice melts, it could raise the sea level around the planet and low-lying coastal areas would become completely submerged.

• It disrupts our ocean currents which are caused by warm and cold waters meeting and mixing. With glaciers heating up and melting due to excess CO2 in the air, the difference between the cold and warm waters is greatly reduced.

• It increases the acidity of the oceans, which may interfere with the amount of oxygen that ocean life produces (the oceans are a far more important source of oxygen than all the plants on land).

By affecting the Earth, excess carbon dioxide harms everything living.

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How excess CO2 directly affects humans
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• Increased levels of CO2 in the air causes nausea, dizziness, headaches, blurred vision, stiffness and a terrible odour. These reasons alone are worth human beings monitoring their activities to keep the level of CO2 in the atmosphere at the normal of 350 to 450 ppm. Right now it is too much more.

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Some other gases that are harmful to humans. Click on each:

Carbon Monoxide  

Carbon Dioxide  

Sulphur Dioxide  

Nitrogen Dioxide  

Acid Rain

Particulate Matter  

Ground Level Ozone and Odours

Why some gases are Deadly Dangerous-PM

The last post asked what we'd do if we had to make a choice between the environment and some of our life giving activities. It is a tough choice to make. At a certain point in time will we have to make that choice? Not if we modify our activities to benefit both - us and the environment.

To be able to do that we first need to understand what exactly human activities have been responsible for.

To date what we've done is, taken a resource from the earth, used it to make whatever's useful and ended the process there. We haven’t had to think about what by-product we’ve created.

All too often this has been a pollutant that poisons our air, waters and soil and damages our health.

4. This article tells us why particulate matter or PM is deadly dangerous for our health. It helps us understand why it shouldn’t be the end product of our activities.

PARTICULATE MATTER (PM)

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Particulates, alternatively referred to as particulate matter (PM) or fine particles, are tiny particles of solid or liquid suspended in a gas. The variety is huge.

• Sulfates, nitrates, ammonia, sodium chloride, carbon, mineral-dust and water.

• Dust, dirt, soot, smoke and liquid droplets directly emitted by factories, power plants, cars, construction activity, fires and natural windblown dust.

Sources of particulate matter can be man-made or natural. Some particulates occur naturally, originating from volcanoes, dust storms, forest and grassland fires, living vegetation, and sea spray.

Human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, power plants and various industrial processes (déjà vu?) also generate significant amounts of PM. Sulphur compounds react with other compounds in the atmosphere to form particulate matter or PM.

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Why does Particulate Matter affect more people than other pollutants?  
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Particulate Matter penetrates deeply into sensitive parts of the lungs because they are easily inhaled and can cause or worsen respiratory disease, such as emphysema and bronchitis, and can aggravate existing heart disease by penetrating deep inside our arteries, leading to increased hospital admissions and even premature death. The smaller the PM, the greater its ability to penetrate deep inside our bodies.

Besides affecting our health PM can also
• damage materials
• clog stomata openings of plants and interfere with photosynthesis. This can stunt the growth of plants or even kill them.
• contribute to acid rain formation.
• form atmospheric haze that degrades visibility.

Facts and figures about PM that are a cause for concern:

The most concentrated PM pollution tends to be in densely populated metropolitan areas in developing countries. 

The primary cause is the burning of fossil fuels by transportation and industrial sources. 

Photo by Thunderror http://www.flickr.com/photos/thunderror/2463862190/in/photostream

Traffic exhaust is the single most serious preventable cause of heart attack in the general public. 

Children, seniors, and individuals with pre-existing respiratory diseases are most susceptible to these health risks.
 

In developing countries, exposure to pollutants from indoor combustion of solid fuels on open fires or traditional stoves increases the risk of acute lower respiratory infections and associated mortality among young children. 

Indoor air pollution from solid fuel use is also a major risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer among adults.

All images from here

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If you found this information useful, please share on Twitter by clicking Tweety.

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Some other gases that are dangerous to humans. Click on each

Carbon Monoxide  

Carbon Dioxide  

Sulphur Dioxide  

Nitrogen Dioxide  

Acid Rain

Particulate Matter  

Ground Level Ozone and Odours

Why some gases are Deadly Dangerous-O3 and Odours

The last post asked what we'd do if we had to make a choice between the environment and some of our life giving activities. It is a tough choice to make. At a certain point in time will we have to make that choice? Not if we modify our activities to benefit both - us and the environment.

To be able to do that we first need to understand what exactly human activities have been responsible for.
To date what we've done is, taken a resource from the earth, used it to make whatever's useful and ended the process there. We haven’t had to think about what by-product we’ve created.

All too often this has been a pollutant that poisons our air, waters and soil and damages our health.

5.
a. This article tells us why certain gases like ground level ozone are deadly dangerous for our health. It helps us understand why these gases shouldn’t be the end product of our activities.
b. Ground level ozone shouldn't be confused with stratospheric ozone which is a protective layer of ozone.
c. This article also explains how dangerous odours from garbage, sewage, and industrial processes are for human health.

STRATOSPHERIC (or Protective) OZONE

Ozone or O3 is naturally present in the stratosphere – high above the earth. This ozone layer acts like a shield and prevents dangerous parts of UV light from the sun to reach the Earth. This ozone layer is highly desirable. It is the beneficial layer of ozone. Unfortunately, due to human activities, the ozone in our stratosphere is getting depleted.

In New Zealand, they inform us there is a hole in the ozone layer and we are advised daily that “burn time” is so many minutes (this number varies). This means that we should remain in the sun only for that many minutes, say seventeen minutes, and then move into the shade. We are constantly advised to slap on “sun block”, wear hats, thin long sleeves in summer and take precautions so that we aren’t exposed to the dangerous parts of UV light from the sun.

There is a high risk of skin cancer in places whose ozone layer has been depleted by human activity. The harmful UV rays could also give us cataract, impaired immune systems, destroy plants and plankton which is food for marine life and the most effective carbon absorber on planet Earth.

Which Human Activities cause ozone depletion in the Stratosphere?

Ozone-depleting agents are used in coolants, foaming agents, fire extinguishers, solvents, and aerosols. It sometimes takes these ozone-depleting chemicals years to reach the stratosphere. Substances released into the air today will contribute to ozone destruction well into the future. The main culprits are chlorine and bromine compounds.

One chlorine or bromine molecule can destroy 100,000 ozone molecules, so ozone is currently being destroyed much more quickly than nature can replace it.

Ground Level (or Dangerous) Ozone and Smog

Smog Over Delhi from Google Free Images Courtesy: www.johnelkington.com

The ozone that is dangerous to human health is ground level ozone. It is exactly the same chemical formula as stratospheric (or protective) ozone – O3. Yet, it is a major health hazard and a major constituent of photochemical smog.
Previously smog was a combination of just smoke and fog. Today smog is a chemical mixture of various gases and particulate matter (PM) that forms a brownish-yellow haze primarily over urban areas.
Nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons (except methane) react in the presence of heat and sunlight to form ozone. It is a white haze that can be seen over many modern cities, especially the ones with sunny, warm, dry climates and a large number of motor vehicles. Because it travels with the wind, it can affect sparsely populated areas as well. It is close to the Earth in the troposphere and is called tropospheric ozone. This ozone is one component of smog.

It reacts with other components like sulphur dioxide, VOCs etc in various ways to form the brownish yellow haze, the modern day smog, that we see over so many cities with a poorly controlled environment. As the smog levels build, polluted air can be trapped and re-circulated for days so that car exhaust fumes are found in our atmosphere even when we aren’t driving.

Ground level ozone becomes a threat to the functioning of all living things after it reaches 82 ppb (parts per billion).
 
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What are the effects of ground level ozone on our environment and health? 
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Human exposure to ozone can produce shortness of breath and, over time, permanent lung damage. Research shows that ozone may be harmful at levels even lower than the current federal air standard Excessive ground level ozone can cause breathing problems, irritation, congestion, coughing, chest pain and swelling in the lungs. It triggers asthma. Even healthy adults and children get affected.
It affects the immune system. Many of the chemicals that cause ground-level ozone also contribute to other health effects, including cancer, and tissue and organ damage.
High ozone concentrations also cause damage to the leaves of plants, resulting in the loss of agricultural crop yields and forest ecosystems.

Odours such as from garbage, sewage, and industrial processes

Everyone knows the dangers to health and the environment of spitting, rubbish throwing, urinating and defecating on our streets. We all know the dangers of garbage piled high on our streets. What we don’t know is that apart from hygiene issues, it badly affects our olfactory (smell) and other systems.

As a result we have varied reactions like eye irritations and sore throats, coughs, drowsiness, asthma and even depression.

Odours disturb concentration and diminish productivity as our disgust with our environment remains uppermost in our minds.

At the same time, we tend to ignore and not complain about our symptoms of discomfort but productivity in such an environment goes down considerably. Our ability to perform tasks may decrease as our dislike for particular odours increases. Work force populations vary in levels of discomfort from odours because of exposure history and habituation. But whether we may, or may not realize the possible risks of consistent bad odours, they affect human health and well being.

All images from here

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Some other gases that are harmful to humans. Click on each:

Carbon Monoxide  

Carbon Dioxide  

Sulphur Dioxide  

Nitrogen Dioxide  

Acid Rain

Particulate Matter  

Ground Level Ozone and Odours


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Why Some Gases Are Deadly Dangerous-NO2

The last post asked what we'd do if we had to make a choice between the environment and some of our life giving activities. It is a tough choice to make. At a certain point in time will we have to make that choice? Not if we modify our activities to benefit both - us and the environment.

To be able to do that we first need to understand what exactly human activities have been responsible for.

To date what we've done is, taken a resource from the earth, used it to make whatever's useful and ended the process there. We haven’t had to think about what by-product we’ve created.

All too often this has been a pollutant that poisons our air, waters and soil and damages our health.

6. This article tells us why certain gases like nitrogen dioxide are deadly dangerous for our health. It helps us understand why these gases shouldn’t be the end product of our activities.

NITROGEN DIOXIDE (NO2)

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a brownish, highly reactive gas that is present in all urban atmospheres. It is one of the several nitrogen oxides - NOx - but one of the most prominent air pollutants. This reddish-brown toxic gas has a characteristic sharp, biting odor and is like a brown haze hanging over our cities.

Photo by Thunderror http://www.flickr.com/photos/thunderror/2463862190/in/photostream

Nitrogen oxides form when fuels are burnt at high temperatures. The major emissions sources are the engines of vehicles and ships (transportation) and stationary combustion sources such as heating, power generation and industrial boilers (Industry, Keeping Warm and Cooking).
Nitrogen and oxygen in the air react with each other under these high temperatures to form oxides of nitrogen (NOx).

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Why nitrogen dioxide is toxic to life 
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Prolonged exposure to nitrogen dioxide can irritate the lungs and lower a person's resistance to respiratory infections such as influenza. Symptoms of bronchitis in asthmatic children increase with long-term exposure to NO2. Reduced lung function growth is also linked to NO2
The brownish gas reacts with moisture in the air to form nitric acid, which can corrode buildings and monuments, and toxic organic nitrates, which contribute to acid rain and the acidification of lakes, rivers, and streams. Nitrogen dioxide also plays a major role in producing particulate matter (PM) and ground-level ozone or smog.

All images from here

NEVER MISS A POST. 

Receive new posts (about one every couple of months) by email
ENTER YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN THE BOX AND PRESS, 'SUBMIT'

Some other gases that are harmful to humans. Click on each:

Carbon Monoxide  

Carbon Dioxide  

Sulphur Dioxide  

Nitrogen Dioxide  

Acid Rain

Particulate Matter  

Ground Level Ozone and Odours