Hazy road to Mecca
Severe air pollution spikes during yearly pilgrimage, UCI and others find
Severe air pollution spikes during yearly pilgrimage, UCI and others find
Dangerously high levels of air pollutants are being released in Mecca during the hajj, the annual holy pilgrimage in which millions of Muslims on foot and in vehicles converge on the Saudi Arabian city, according to findings reported today at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
Levels of contaminants higher than in some of the world’s most polluted cities have been found downwind of Canada’s largest oil, gas and tar sands processing zone, in a rural area where men suffer elevated rates of cancers linked to such chemicals.
Led by Donald Blake, UCI scientists have been on a decades-long global quest to measure atmospheric pollution
UCI researchers find that methane decline was probably linked to increased natural gas capture and use.