Urban air pollution increases because of electric lights

Artificial light in cities at night hinders the formation of air cleaners.

Los Angeles City at night. (Photo: flickr.com).

Scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration use airplanes to measure the intensity of city light on Los Angeles, California state airspace last summer, Discovery reported. They found that artificial light in the Los Angeles area is 10,000 times weaker than sunlight, but it restricts the speed of cleaning the air at night.

According to the team, light interferes with the process of forming a kind of nitrous oxide molecule called nitrate root. This root is made up of reactions between nitrogen dioxide (NO ₂₎ and ozone (O ₃ ). It binds to air pollutants, but decomposes quickly when exposed to light.

'The original nitrate does not exist during the day. It appears at night, interacting with pollutants and cleaning the air ', Stark explained.

In addition to reducing the rate of air purification, electric light also increases the number of polluting molecules.

Anne Douglass, a NASA scientist, said that the most disturbing human pollutants are micro particles and ground ozone. They are made up of other chemicals. Reaction creates them in need of light to occur.

Scientists have identified that changing the type of light may not improve the situation, unless cities use red light, which does not affect the formation of nitrate radicals.