In Sri Lanka, schools were forced to close on Friday last week owing to high levels of pollution pulled in from India via Cyclone Mandous. The cyclone was situated in the Bay of Bengal, with winds blowing anti-clockwise around the central low pressure, sweeping the polluted air from India across the Palk strait into Sri Lanka. Subsequently, this merged with Sri Lanka’s local air pollution, leading to unhealthy pollutant concentrations that created a haze across parts of the country, including the capital, Colombo.
Most people are aware of air pollutants, such as carbon dioxide and methane, and the impacts they have in contributing to global warming. However, other air pollutants pose a more immediate threat to human health. Particulate matter refers to tiny particles or droplets in the air, and is split into two categories depending on diameter; up to 2.5 microns (0.0025mm, PM2.5) or up to 10 microns (0.01mm, PM10).
PM2.5 and PM10 are produced in multiple ways, including domestic combustion, road transport and industrial processes.
These particles are fine enough to be inhaled into the lungs, resulting in an assortment of consequences to human health in high concentrations – most commonly lung disease. These unhealthy concentrations are likely to last until the end of next week, when the particulates are deposited on the ground or in the ocean.
• Like the UK, Germany has been battling low temperatures and wintry weather this past week. While much of Germany has received snow, southern parts of the country were issued with a warning for freezing rain on Wednesday by the German Weather Service. These rare events can be dangerous owing to super-cooled rain coming into contact with the sub-zero surfaces, quickly forming ice. This particular event caused black ice to form, and created a lot of disruption to the region, with traffic temporarily stopped, flights cancelled at Munich airport, and multiple trains held at their stations – or some even stranded on their route.
