Case in point: a recent invention by scientists at the University of Copenhagen, who created a new kind of fluorescent bulbs that turns indoor pollution into dust, which makes it easier to remove from the air. “Cities and states, struggling to meet ever-stricter government air pollution limits, may want to consider the unexpected effects of nighttime lighting of streets, sports stadiums, and other sources of bright light,” one of the researchers said.īut, while light can clearly cause pollution, innovative solutions are using light to help reduce it, too. The Super Bowl is actually an extreme case of what’s becoming a common, little-known problem: light has an unexpected effect on pollution, and cities need to consider this in order to improve their air quality. Even though the sun is about 10,000 times brighter than these lights, they still manage to have a significant effect on our environment. However, bright stadium and city streetlights are interfering with this process, because they produce enough light to suppress Nitrate Radical and slow down its cleansing of air pollution by up to 7%. Nitrate Radical is only effective at night, because it’s destroyed by the light of the sun during the day. For example, an oxidant called Nitrate Radical (NO3++) helps cleans the air of common pollutants like nitrogen oxide. Not only that, but bright lights interfere with chemical reactions that help keep our air clean, too. The study found that stadium lights increase daytime levels of ozone by as much as 5%, which is one of the most common pollutants and has significant negative effects on our health. They ended up making the most important finding of their study: bright light from sports stadiums – just like the one they flew over – may actually cause a significant boost in air pollution. They saw a brightly lit sports stadium in the distance, and, even though it was the middle of the night, one of the crew suggested turning the detector on to see what they they might learn.
As part of an effort to understand all of the factors that affect air pollution and climate change, the team was using a detector to measure the intensity of sunlight. It’s not just traffic that causes air pollution, either.Ī few years ago, a team of environmental scientists were flying over Southern California and Mexico when they made an unexpected discovery.
The other type of air pollution: stadium lights The Super Bowl promises to take these numbers even further, especially considering that thousands of people will be flying into the city as well. It’s estimated that at MetLife stadium in New Jersey, football fans drive over 1.4m miles and emit over 1.2 million pounds of CO2 just to go to a single game. Over 70,000 people will descend upon NRG Stadium in Houston, and the emissions from their cars will turn the stadium – and its surrounding area – into a pollution hotspot.
#SUPER BOWL 2017 DISCOVERY GREEN DRIVER#
Hosting events like the Super Bowl is a massive economic driver for cities across America, but they also have surprising effects on our air quality as well. This Sunday, millions of people will kick back and enjoy watching Super Bowl LI, held in Houston, Texas.
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