Your Dirty Windows Too May Destroy The Environment, Study

Surprisingly, dirty windows are not helping air pollution. Scientists discover that the sun increases air pollution, even as smog levels rise, according to clapway.

Dr. James Donaldson, a University of Toronto chemistry professor and lead author of the study, said that when the sunlight hits the dust and grime on building surfaces, statues or dirty windows, it aggravates nitrogen gases, creating smog.

 "The current understanding of urban air pollution does not include the recycling of nitrogen oxides and potentially other compounds from building surfaces," Donaldson states. "But based on our field studies in a real-world environment, this is happening."

On Monday, the research team validated their tests, for which they beamed artificial sunlight onto grime samples, to find out what the grime's effect on chemical output could be.

Nitrates in urban filthy areas are inactive and are being removed fast. "The lifetime of the nitrates is very, very short," Dr. Donaldson stated at the conference for American Chemical Society.

Scientists are also trying to determine how much grime on windows contributes to air pollution. "It may be quite a significant, and unaccounted for, contributor to air pollution in cities," Dr. James Donaldson said. He also felt that his experiments could be completed after an understanding of the air pollution. "If our suspicions are correct, it means that the current understanding of urban air pollution is missing a big chunk of information."

Dr. Donaldson also said that his team was continuing to work in Shangai in order to check out the impact of pollution. His team is probing into the influence of different pollution levels all over the world, in 'really grubby' and 'really clean' places.

The weather and climate changes indicate that "there could be very different sorts of chemistry happening in dry climates."

Nitrogen oxides are released from car exhausts, commercial manufacturing, electric utilities and use of synthetic fertilizers, according to northerncalifornian.

About 5% of US greenhouse gas emissions are from human activities. When nitrogen oxides react with other compounds called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), they result in ozones at the ground level, which creates smog.