published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

published_or_final_version / abstract / Mechanical Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

This dissertation consists of three chapters on questions in Environmental Economics, addressing policy and health issues in indoor and outdoor environments. In the first chapter, I explores price and quantity policy solutions to externalities that arise from private decisions made over time, focusing on resource extraction as a specific example. In the U.S., mining causes more pollution than any other single industry. I show how tax policy can optimally address a flow externality associated with resource extraction when the policymaker faces asymmetric information in the short run. Chapter 2 investigates whether ordinary exposure to a common indoor air pollutant—Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂)—affects respiratory health. About 40 percent of occupied homes in the U.S. use gas stoves for cooking, which produce NO₂ as a byproduct of combustion (US Census, 2006), and peak concentrations in homes may reach above 900 ppb when a gas stove is used for cooking (Dennekamp et al., 2001). Permanent or fatal lung damage occurs at NO₂ concentrations greater than 1000 ppb (Samet and Utell, 1990). Previous studies find mixed evidence of negative effects from indoor NO₂ (Basu and Samet, 1999), but exposure may be endogenous in these analyses. I address this problem by developing a physical model of indoor NO₂ concentrations that depends on ventilation decisions and housing characteristics and estimate it using data from the third wave of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In every model I consider, I find no significant effects of gas stoves on respiratory outcomes. In the final chapter, I combine data on state and local tobacco control ordinances from Americans for Non-smokers Rights Tobacco US Tobacco Control Laws Database with a sample of 35 million births in the U.S. to examine the impact of smoking bans on birth weight and related outcomes. Using difference-in-difference techniques, I identify the effects of state bans net of local bans, as well as the effects of local bans net of state bans. The results suggest less restrictive bans do more to improve birth outcomes than “100% smokefree” bans do, particularly in urban settings. / text

The potential of a condensate method for sampling atmospheric trace gases is investigated. A theoretical approach to the collection of condensate by a cooled surface is presented, followed by an experimental procedure and verification of the method. Heat and mass transfer problems are solved to give distributions of temperature, velocity and mass concentration. From these distributions, collection rates for water vapor, trace gases, and particulates are derived. It is shown that the collection of particulates is negligible in most cases when compared to the collection of gases in the condensate; highly soluble gases are sampled with the greatest efficiency. Experimentally, a plate, cooled to below the ambient dew point temperature, collected condensate which was subsequently analyzed for various components. Atmospheric concentrations were determined from the corresponding species in the condensate. Several trace gases have been detected by the condensate method. Concentrations of two of these, ammonia and nitric acid, are compared with filter methods, with reasonably good agreement. Comparison is also made with concentrations of ammonia, formaldehyde, nitric acid and nitrous acid found by others under similar conditions. Typical daily variations of trace components in more remote areas surrounding Tucson, Arizona, are presented in an attempt to estimate background Southwest U.S.A. levels; these are as follows: 1.0 ppb for ammonia, 0.5 ppb for formaldehyde, 0.1 ppb for nitrous acid, 0.4 ppb for nitric acid, 1.1 ppb for formic acid, 0.9 ppb for acetic acid, 0.3 ppb for sulfur dioxide, 0.3 ppb for hydrochloric acid and 1 ppb for hydrogen peroxide. The diurnal variation of these gases and relationship between them is discussed. Possible sources of error in the condensate method of sampling are considered. The collection rate of water vapor is measured and compared to that theoretically predicted; explanations are presented for the discrepancy between the two. The sensitivity to errors in the measurement of the collection temperature and dew point temperature is determined.