Preface

Today, the issue of environmental emissions is more important than ever before. Global emissions produced by humans and industries are increasing both linearly and exponentially due to the daily production, fabrication, and use of goods and commodities.

More and more goods are produced in semi-automated or fully automated production, and the types and quantities of fabricated items are expanding. However, these items have shorter lifespans than those fabricated 40 or 50 years ago. Nowadays it is common to replace appliances, electronics, and gadgets with newer models every few years. As such, factories are progressively producing more goods and thus producing more waste and emissions.

Although the global population is aging and the number of families and family members in households are decreasing, overall the population is still increasing, especially in cities. More people equals more stuff, and humans' demand for commodities is having negative results on the environment. Global natural resources and energy are being depleted. Growing numbers of people are driving or taking public transport daily and thus traffic is increasing, as is the number of vehicles. Over the last 30 years, transportation and logistics services have grown at rapid rates.

Today, almost every single item we bring into our homes is manufactured somewhere else and transported to us using trucks, ships, airplanes, trains, cars, and so on. Apart from foodstuffs, many of these items will end up in the trash or, in the best-case scenario, recycled. Although recycling is the better option, this too involves transporting materials, which results in the production of waste and emissions. Air pollution with particulates, soot, carbon, aerosols, heavy metals, and so on is causing adverse effects on human health as well as the environment.

This book, Environmental Emissions, presents new research and findings related to environmental emissions, pollution, and future sustainability. The first section deals with health effects, the second section discusses emission monitoring and mitigation, and the third section covers emission composition and measurement. Chapters are written by researchers, scientists, and engineers in environmental science, combustion, industrial pollution, health, emission monitoring, emission mitigation, and air quality measurements.

I would like to thank all of the authors for their rigorous preparation of the individual book chapters, and I hope the readers will find this volume a useful and interesting resource.

**II**

**Chapter 7 123**

**Chapter 8 141**

Qualitative Characterisation of Trace Elements in Diesel Particulate Matter from In-Use Diesel Engine Passenger Vehicles by Means of Laser-Induced

The Use of Synchronous Fluorescence Technique in Environmental Investigations of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Airborne

Particulate Matter from an Industrial Region in Poland

*by Richard Viskup, Christoph Wolf and Werner Baumgartner*

*by Aniela Matuszewska and Maria Czaja*

Breakdown Spectroscopy

**1**

Section 1

Health Effects of

Environmental Emissions

Section 1
