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The Asian Brown Cloud Free full text available from Letter to www.ijoem.com Editor TThehe AAsiansian bbrownrown ccloudloud Dear Sir, The INDOEX has revealed that this Harshal T. Pandve The most visible impact of air pollution is the haze, a layer of haze is transported far beyond the Department of pollutants and particles from biomass burning and industrial source region, particularly during Community Medicine, Dr. D. Y. Patil Medical emissions. This cloud of pollution at times has a brownish December to April. The INDOEX College, Pimpri, color (e.g., the Denver Brown Cloud) and this brown cloud findings pertain mainly to the period Pune - 411 018, India phenomenon is a common feature of industrial and rural from December to April, referred to regions around the world. Due to long-range transport, in this report as the dry season. This For correspondence: the mostly urban (fossil fuel related) or rural (biomass season is the ‘winter monsoon’ or Dr. Harshal T. Pandve, burning related) phenomenon is transformed into a regional the ‘north east monsoon.’ This UNEP Department of haze (or cloud) that can span an entire continent. It is now report is the first comprehensive study Community Medicine, becoming clear that the brown cloud can have huge impacts of the South Asian haze and its impact Dr. D. Y Patil Medical on agriculture, health, climate and the water budget of the on climate. It is largely based on the College, Pimpri, Pune - 411 018, India. planet.[1] The haze consists of a combination of water droplets studies of the INDOEX science team E-mail: and minute particles. The water droplets in a haze are less of over 200 scientists from Europe, dr_harshalpandve@ than 0.001 mm in radius. There are two possible sources for India and USA. It provides a summary yahoo.co.in the particles in a haze. They are either generated naturally of the large brownish haze layer and its (e.g., sea salt, dust) or man made (e.g., sulfate or soot). From an impact on the radiative heating of the aircraft, the haze appears brown when the fraction of soot or atmosphere and the surface for South dust is large. The Asian Brown Cloud is a layer of air pollution Asia and the adjacent Indian Ocean that covers parts of the northern Indian Ocean, India and during the INDOEX campaign. It also Pakistan, and parts of South Asia, Southeast Asia and China.[2,3] discusses preliminary findings with This pollution layer was observed during the Indian Ocean respect to the impact of this haze on Experiment (INODEX) intensive field observation in 1999. regional temperatures, precipitation, Subsequently, the United Nations Environment Programme agriculture and health.[7] (UNEP) has been supporting a project called ABC.[4] The potent haze lying over the entire Indian subcontinent - from Haze can produce an impact on the Sri Lanka to Afghanistan - has led to some erratic weather, agriculture productivity in a variety of sparking floods in Bangladesh, Nepal and northeastern India direct and indirect ways. The direct but drought in Pakistan and northwestern India.[5] effects are: • Reduction of the total solar radiation The Asian Brown Cloud is rapidly melting Himalayan glaciers (sum of direct and diffused) in the and could precipitate an environmental disaster that could photosynthetically active part of affect billions of people. The effects have been linked to the the spectrum (0.4-0.7 µ) reduces retreat, over the last half a century, of glaciers in the Himalayas photosynthesis, which in turn leads that supply water to major rivers including the Yangtze, the to a reduction in productivity. Ganges and the Indus. These rivers in turn comprise the • Settling of aerosol particles (e.g., fly chief water supply for billions of people in China, India and ash, black carbon and dust) on the other South Asian countries. The consequences for China, plants can shield the leaves from India and other countries whose rivers flow from this source solar radiation. are incalculable, with the melting already being blamed for • In addition, aerosol deposition can downstream flooding in late summer. Chiefly, domestic wood increase acidity and cause plant and dung fires plus smoke cause the cloud from the burning of damage. forests and fields for agriculture. In addition, vehicle exhausts, power plants and factory chimneys add to the mix. However, The indirect effects are: the analysis of the pollution-filled clouds also offers hope • Changes in surface temperature that the region may be able to arrest the alarming retreat of can directly impact the growing such glaciers and ensure the security of water supplies by season. In the tropics, a surface reducing pollution, for instance by cutting the dependence cooling (such as expected from on wood-burning stoves.[6] aerosols) can extend the growing 93 Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine - August 2008 - Volume 12 - Issue 2 Letter to Editor season (while a greenhouse warming can shrink it). statement in the UNEP news release that the ‘vast blanket • Changes in rainfall or surface evaporation can have a large of pollution across South Asia is damaging agriculture.’[2] impact.[7] Scientists in India are claiming that the Asian Brown cloud is not something specific to Asia and does not have a knock-on There is now a growing body of literature linking air pollution effect on pollution-related mortality. The environment ministry with short-and long-term effects on human health. Populations says that the report’s drastic conclusions about disruption of at risk from inhaled particles are those most susceptible to weather patterns or massive monsoons, floods and draughts pulmonary and heart diseases, infants and elderly people. caused by the cloud were ‘unfounded’ as the report dealt only A 1997 joint study of the World Health Organisation (WHO), with the winter season over South Asia.[8] the World Resources Institute and the US Environmental Protection Agency estimated that nearly 700 000 deaths According to Ramanathan et al., the South Asian brown haze worldwide are related to air pollution and that this number covers most of the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and the South can escalate to 8 million deaths by 2020 (Working Group, 1997). Asian region. It occurs every year and extends from about Occurrences of respiratory diseases in South Asia resulting November to April and possibly longer. The black carbon and from air pollution, both indoors and outdoors, are estimated to other species in the haze reduce the average radiative heating be quite substantial. In each of the 23 cities with a population of the ocean by as much as 10% and enhance the atmospheric of over a million in India, air pollution levels exceed the WHO solar radiative heating by 50-100%. These findings are in standards. It has been estimated that in India alone about variance with Srinivasan and Gadgil’s perceptions that the 500 000 premature deaths are caused by indoor pollution in haze occurs only during January to March and that the aerosol case of mothers and their children who are under 5 years of forcing used by UNEP was unrealistically large because it used age. Serious respiratory disease - related problems have been 1999 values and ignored the infrared (IR) effects of aerosols. The identified for both indoor and outdoor pollution in Calcutta, INDOEX and the UNEP did not rely solely on the 1999 values Delhi, Lucknow, Bombay, Ahmedabad and several countries but used data from 1996 to 1999, and also accounted for the in East Asia, including China, Thailand and Korea. There is compensating IR effects. The long duration of the haze, its black still inadequate knowledge about the relative effectiveness of carbon content, the large perturbation to the radiative energy submicrometer particles compared with larger particles or budget of the region and its simulated impact on the rainfall the specific roles of black carbon and organic carbon. Such distribution, if proved correct, have significant implications studies need to be performed in the future.[7] to the regional water budget, agriculture and health. The link between anthropogenic aerosols and reduction of monsoonal According to Srinivasan and Gadgil, The wide publicity given rainfall in South Asia has also been established using over 15 to the release of a UNEP report on the so-called Asian Brown model studies preceding the UNEP report. The press release, Cloud and its multifarious impacts on health, agriculture while its direct quotes of the report are accurate, should have and climate, on both regional and global scales, has led to given more emphasis to the caveats in the report.[9] considerable concern. The UNEP news release (and hence the media reports based on it) is a blend of observations To conclude, it is clear that the UNEP news release about the and scientifically sound deductions on the one hand and Asian Brown Cloud has created awareness about pollution. sensational statements with little scientific basis on the other. This should give an impetus to the ongoing program of The UNEP report is based on the findings of an international reduction of harmful emissions in our cities. People living program called the INDOEX. The term Asian Brown Cloud in Asia must be concerned about this haze because it has was coined by leaders of the INDOEX to describe the brown immediate and long-term impacts on their health.[2] The haze occurring during the period of January to March over the general population is always unaware about the recent South Asian region and the tropical Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea environmental issues as a result of which the pollution is and Bay of Bengal. It is important to note that the haze is not a rising on a daily basis.
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