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Air Pollution in the Southern Part of Iraq and Its Health Risks

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Aerosol Optical Depth and Precipitation

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Abstract

This chapter covers a comprehensive review of air pollution in the southern part of Iraq. Pollutants released into the atmosphere of various places within the geographic borders of this region included gaseous pollutants of CO, CO2, NOx, SOx, O3, suspended particles, hydrocarbons (mainly polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), and heavy metals. This review showed that the main sources of these pollutants were oil industries, fossil fuel combustion, energy production, dust storms, transportation, industry, and public generators. Data from some studies indicated that these pollutants exceeded the national and international standard criteria. There was an increase in gaseous pollutants such as CO, NOx, SOx, and O3 as a result of the intense use of fossil fuel combustion, industry, transportation, and electrical power generation. The increase of suspended particles in the air was mainly from burning fossil fuels, transportation modes, power generation, industrial activities such as brick manufacturing, and dust suspension by wind and dust storms. High concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were recorded as a result of oil production and refining in addition to power generation and the bricks industry. An increase in the heavy metals concentration such as Pb, Cr, Cu, Cd, Ni, Co, and Hg may have resulted from industrial activities such as the manufacture of bricks; oil industries; combustion of fossil fuels, power generation, traffic, and tires; and brakes wear. Some studies have indicated that the increase in the prevalence of many diseases, such as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, together with cancer cases in this region of Iraq, was due to pollutant increase in the atmosphere.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Al-Manara College for Medical Sciences, Maysan, Iraq

    Nader A. Salman

  2. Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Basrah, Basra, Iraq

    Maha K. Al-Mishrey

  3. College of Marine Sciences, University of Basrah, Basra, Iraq

    Hamid T. Al-Saad

  4. ETAL, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Ahmed Rushdi

Authors
  1. Nader A. Salman
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  2. Maha K. Al-Mishrey
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  3. Hamid T. Al-Saad
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  4. Ahmed Rushdi
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Civil Engineering, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

    Sneha Gautam

  2. Division of Civil Engineering, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

    Roshini Praveen Kumar

  3. Division of Civil Engineering, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

    Cyril Samuel

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Salman, N.A., Al-Mishrey, M.K., Al-Saad, H.T., Rushdi, A. (2024). Air Pollution in the Southern Part of Iraq and Its Health Risks. In: Gautam, S., Kumar, R.P., Samuel, C. (eds) Aerosol Optical Depth and Precipitation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55836-8_6

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