US blackout dramatically decreased pollution levels: Study
London May 31, 2004 4:19:59 PM IST
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A new study has revealed that the most famous blackout in history, which left 50 million North Americans without power in August last year, had an unexpected benefit-it made the air cleaner.
According to Newscientist, the researchers flew an aircraft over the middle of the blackout zone 24 hours after the power had gone down because of the malfunctioning of power plants in south-east Canada and the north-east and mid-west US.
It was found that while there was no significant difference in levels of pollutants associated solely with traffic, other pollutants linked with power stations had fallen drastically as compared to previous years pollution levels on the same day.
The study which was presented at the spring meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Montreal, Canada, also recorded that Sulphur dioxide levels decreased by 90 per cent, there was around half the amount of ozone and visibility increased by 40 kilometers.
"This was a unique opportunity to explore what would happen to air quality if power station emissions were reduced," the report quoted meteorologist Russell Dickerson who led the research, as saying. (ANI)
