Air pollution is a problem faced by nations all over the world. The particulate matter level in several nations is near hazardous levels.

Factories and Industries continue to be some of the greatest contributors towards air pollution. Industrial pollution has adversely affected the biodiversity damaging the ecosystem.

There are two basic measures factories can take:

• Pollution prevention

• Pollution control.

Pollution prevention includes changing the factory?s means of operations so that it creates little or none of that particular pollutant.

or example, a mercury plating factory can prevent mercury pollution by switching to a different plating process that uses an element other than mercury. That process will use other metals, the ones that are less toxic to human health as well as environment.

Factories that switch to natural gas fuel from heavily polluting fuels like coal can drastically reduce emissions of particulate, greenhouse gas, and other contaminants including mercury and sulphur.

Use of more efficient cleaner technologies is also a growing trend for cleaner production, and at the same time minimizing emission and waste at their source rather than to treat them at the end of the production chain after they are generated.

The second major option is pollution control.

This generally involves equipment being installed, usually at the end of pipe to capture pollutants before they are released into air or water. Baghouse, is one example, where dust in the air is filtered before being released to the outdoors. The filters catch most of the dust, which can then be reused, recycled or disposed.

It has been estimated that about 40 million tonnes of fly ash is generated per annum from thermal power plants and contribute to particulate matter loading to environment. Fly ash possesses active and finely divided silica, alumina and calcium oxide, which provide it with cement like qualities. The fly ash emitted by thermal power plants can be used for manufacturing bricks and cement production.

Now what can we do,

If you live near a rogue factory, document problems with photos and send emails to factory authorities. Keep any response you get, and contact your local authorities to see what can be done. In the meantime, find out what laws are in effect, whether they're being complied with, and how they can be strengthened.

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