Why Is Air Pollution So Harmful? DNA May Hold the Answer

The threat of air pollution grabs our attention when we see it — for example, the tendrils of smoke of Australian brush fires, now visible from space, or the poisonous soup of smog that descends on cities like New Delhi in the winter.

A fire burned in Bargo, Australia, about 90
miles southwest of Sydney in December.

But polluted air also harms billions of people on a continuing basis. Outdoors, we breathe in toxins delivered by car traffic, coal-fired plants and oil refineries. Indoor fires for heat and cooking taint the air for billions of people in poor countries. Over a billion people add toxins to their lungs by smoking cigarettes — and more recently, by vaping. 

Ninety-two percent of the world’s people live in places where fine particulate matter — the very small particles most dangerous to human tissues — exceeds the World Health Organization’s guideline for healthy air. Air pollution and tobacco together are responsible for up to 20 million premature deaths each year.

Airborne toxins damage us in a staggering number of ways. Along with well-established links to lung cancer and heart disease, researchers are now finding new connections to disorders such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

Read the story from The New York Times by Carl Zimmer - “Why Is Air Pollution So Harmful? DNA May Hold the Answer.”

The air pollution in NSW is a public health emergency

Smoke from bushfires has produced air pollution of up to 11 times the base ‘hazardous’ level in parts of Sydney and New South Wales. High levels of air pollution are expected to continue.

There is no safe level of air pollution. The higher the level of pollution, the more hazardous the risks to health. Bushfire smoke is particularly hazardous because of the high levels of tiny particles (PM2.5).

Babies, young children and those who are elderly or already experience chronic respiratory or cardiovascular disease are at higher risk, as are the socially and economically marginalised who may not have access to air conditioning or air purifiers.

Air pollution is linked to diseases throughout life: including premature births, low birth weight babies, impaired lung development in children, asthma, heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer.

The levels of air pollution in NSW in recent weeks, and in the immediate future, remain hazardous to people’s health.

Read the story from the Climate and Health Alliance - “The air pollution in NSW is a public health emergency.”

Air pollution, explained

Air pollution is a mix of particles and gases that can reach harmful concentrations both outside and indoors. Its effects can range from higher disease risks to rising temperatures. Soot, smoke, mold, pollen, methane, and carbon dioxide are a just few examples of common pollutants.

In the U.S., one measure of outdoor air pollution is the Air Quality Index, or AQI which rates air conditions across the country based on concentrations of five major pollutants: ground-level ozone, particle pollution (or particulate matter), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Some of those also contribute to indoor air pollution, along with radon, cigarette smoke, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), formaldehyde, asbestos, and other substances.

Read the story from National Geographic - “Air pollution, explained.”

E.P.A. Plans to Get Thousands of Deaths Off the Books by Changing Its Math

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency plans to change the way it calculates the health risks of air pollution, a shift that would make it easier to roll back a key climate change rule because it would result in far fewer predicted deaths from pollution, according to five people with knowledge of the agency’s plans.

The Hunter power plant in Castle Dale, Utah, which
burns an estimated 4.5 million tons of coal a year.

The E.P.A. had originally forecast that eliminating the Obama-era rule, the Clean Power Plan, and replacing it with a new measure would have resulted in an additional 1,400 premature deaths per year. The new analytical model would significantly reduce that number and would most likely be used by the Trump administration to defend further rollbacks of air pollution rules if it is formally adopted.

The proposed shift is the latest example of the Trump administration downgrading the estimates of environmental harm from pollution in regulations. In this case, the proposed methodology would assume there is little or no health benefit to making the air any cleaner than what the law requires. Many experts said that approach was not scientifically sound and that, in the real world, there are no safe levels of the fine particulate pollution associated with the burning of fossil fuels.

Read the story from The New York Times by Lisa Friedman - “E.P.A. Plans to Get Thousands of Deaths Off the Books by Changing Its Math.”

Germany Is Planning Free Public Transit to Fight Air Pollution

Germany is a global leader in wind and solar power, but air pollution throughout the country has gotten so bad that the European Union just threatened the country with massive fines if the life-threatening situation wasn’t rapidly addressed, according to the Independent.

Germany wants to help clean up the atmosphere through free public transport.

Rather than fight the decree, the German government announced earlier this week a bold new plan to clean up the atmosphere: free public transit.

In a letter to the European Commission, government ministers laid out their plan.

Read the story from Global Citizen by Joe McCarthy - “Germany Is Planning Free Public Transit to Fight Air Pollution.”

Electric cars would save lives and cut costs, but Australians 'risk being left behind’

Deaths from air pollution would be prevented and the Morrison government would meet its pledge to make electricity more reliable and affordable if more Australians drove electric cars, but a lack of political will is holding back the benefits.

It is widely acknowledged that electric vehicles improve
 air quality, help address climate change, boost public
 health and are cheaper to run than conventional vehicles.

That is the widespread view expressed to a Senate probe into electric vehicles in Australia. Electric car maker Tesla, headed by controversial entrepreneur Elon Musk, is among those who assert that "government leadership" is the main barrier to increasing electric vehicle uptake in Australia, while the government’s own infrastructure adviser warned that Australians "risk being left behind" in the global transition.

Read the story from The Age by Nicole Hasham - “Electric cars would save lives and cut costs, but Australians 'risk being left behind’.”

How is climate change affecting Mexico?

As Mexico City’s chief resiliency officer, Arnoldo Kramer, said to The New York Times, “Climate change has become the biggest long-term threat to this city’s future. And that’s because it is linked to water, health, air pollution, traffic disruption from floods, housing vulnerability to landslides — which means we can’t begin to address any of the city’s real problems without facing the climate issue.”

Climate change is threatening to push a
crowded capital toward a breaking point.

And we’d argue the same is true for the rest of the nation – and the world. Climate change touches every aspect of our lives.

Here are three leading ways climate change is already hitting Mexico and its people. Plus, as a bonus, two ways you can take action today to help solve the climate crisis.

Read the Climate Reality Project story - “How is climate change affecting Mexico?”

China’s latest energy megaproject shows that coal really is on the way out

China has some of the worst air pollution in the world. In several cities, thick layers of smog are common, resulting in thousands of deaths every year.

The floating solar power station in Anhui province, China. 

According to a 2016 study, the top contributor of air pollution-related deaths in China is the burning of coal. The team of Chinese and American researchers behind the study said that pollution from coal caused 366,000 premature deaths in 2013.

To improve the country's air quality, the Chinese government vows to spend at least $360 billion on clean energy projects and create 13 million new renewable energy jobs by 2020. China is already one of the world's biggest investor in alternative energy sources like solar, wind, and hydropower.

Read the Business Insider story by Leanna Garfield - “China’s latest energy megaproject shows that coal really is on the way out.”

German cities to trial free public transport to cut pollution

“Car nation” Germany has surprised neighbours with a radical proposal to reduce road traffic by making public transport free, as Berlin scrambles to meet EU air pollution targets and avoid big fines.

Public transport is hugely popular in Germany, with 10.3
  billion journeys being made in 2017. A plan to trial free
public transport is part of an effort to reduce road traffic.

The move comes just over two years after Volkswagen’s devastating “dieselgate” emissions cheating scandal unleashed a wave of anger at the auto industry, a keystone of German prosperity.

“We are considering public transport free of charge in order to reduce the number of private cars,” three ministers including the environment minister, Barbara Hendricks, wrote to EU environment commissioner Karmenu Vella in the letter seen by AFP Tuesday.

Read the story by Philip Oltermann, and agencies, on The Guardian - “German cities to trial free public transport to cut pollution.”

Polluted Air May Pollute Our Morality

Exposure to air pollution, even imagining exposure to air pollution, may lead to unethical behavior, according to findings published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. A combination of archival and experimental studies indicates that exposure to air pollution, either physically or mentally, is linked with unethical behavior such as crime and cheating. The experimental findings suggest that this association may be due, at least in part, to increased anxiety.

We pollute our atmosphere and with that our morality.

“This research reveals that air pollution may have potential ethical costs that go beyond its well-known toll on health and the environment,” says behavioral scientist Jackson G. Lu of Columbia Business School, the first author of the research. “This is important because air pollution is a serious global issue that affects billions of people—even in the United States, about 142 million people still reside in counties with dangerously polluted air.”

Previous studies have indicated that exposure to air pollution elevates individuals’ feelings of anxiety. Anxiety is known to correlate with a range of unethical behaviors. Lu and colleagues hypothesized that pollution may ultimately increase criminal activity and unethical behavior by increasing anxiety.

Read the Science and Technology Research News story - “Polluted Air May Pollute Our Morality.”

Ease of living without a clean environment is meaningless

In the last few months, the environmental status of the country has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Delhi’s air pollution became an international incident when Sri Lankan cricketers wore face masks during the third Test against India at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium. Some of the players vomited on the ground due to noxious smog.

 A national action plan to combat air pollution backed with
significant budgetary allocation would have been appropriate. 

At the World Economic Forum meet in Davos, Switzerland, where Prime Minister Modi gave the opening address, a report on the environmental performance index of countries published by the Yale and Columbia Universities, ranked India as 177th out of the 180 countries. Only Burundi, Bangladesh and Congo were found worse than India.

Lastly, the Economic Survey 2018 found that climate change is now hurting Indian agriculture and farmers considerably. The survey found that the effect of extreme temperature shocks on productivity in un-irrigated areas, which account for more than half of our agricultural land, is significant. An extreme temperature shock in unirrigated areas reduces yields by 7 per cent for Kharif and 7.6 per cent for Rabi. Similarly, extreme rainfall shocks lead to 14.7 per cent and 8.6 per cent reduction in yield for Kharif and Rabi, respectively. These losses could rise significantly in the coming years as the warming level reaches 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next 10 years.

With the country in the throes of an impending crisis, one was hoping that the Finance Ministry Arun Jaitley would give due recognition to the environmental challenges in his last full budget before the general elections next year. Alas, it was a damp squib.

Read the Down to Earth story by Chandra Bhushan - “Ease of living without a clean environment is meaningless.”

Traffic fumes in city streets 'largely wipe out exercise benefits for over-60s’

The over-60s should stick to green spaces and parks when they go for a walk and avoid the city streets, according to a groundbreaking study that says air pollution from traffic fumes largely wipes out the health benefit from the exercise.

As well as the over-60s, those with lung and heart problems should
 steer clear of areas with heavy traffic, the study says.

Walking is often recommended for older people, but the study from Imperial College London and Duke University in the USA suggests that the over-60s and those with lung and heart problems should steer clear of urban areas with heavy traffic. The negative effect may well be the same in younger people, say the authors, and it reinforces the urgency of reducing emissions in city streets.

The research compared walking for two hours in Oxford Street with strolling in Hyde Park, which registers some air pollution but far less than in the heart of the capital city’s shopping district.

Read Sarah Boseley’ story on The Guardian - “Traffic fumes in city streets 'largely wipe out exercise benefits for over-60s’.”

White supremacy produces disproportionate environmental pollution

Environmental racism describes the idea that non-white people are disproportionately exposed to toxic waste, agricultural chemicals, air pollution and drinking water contamination. Environmental racism is well-documented. Most of the time, though, instances of environmental racism are described as reckless individual acts of pollution or poisoning, instead of symptoms of a structural problem directly linked to white supremacy.

Jibril Kyser discusses
environmental racism.

White supremacy, unlike the term “white privilege,” destabilizes the innocence of whiteness. It reminds us of the violent domination of Black and brown bodies through genocide and enslavement, which were both necessary in granting today’s white people their unearned rights, privileges and resources. White supremacy is much deeper than the Ku Klux Klan, Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan and Rudyard Kipling’s musings in “The White Man’s Burden.” It is embedded in the consciousness of a large majority of the world’s population, influences the beauty standards and even informs whose lives matter. Most importantly though, white supremacy facilitates the premature death of Black and brown bodies by devaluing their existence.

Read Jibril Kyser’s story in The Daily Californian - “White supremacy produces disproportionate environmental pollution."

Beijing’s 67,000 taxis to go electric.

Beijing's nearly 70,000 taxis
will soon be electric. 

Plans have been announced to replace Beijing’s 67,000 petrol powered taxis with electric vehicles (EVs), in a bid to combat the capital’s crippling air pollution.

Under the move, Beijing’s nearly 70,000 petrol powered taxi fleet will gradually be replaced with EVs, and any new taxis on the road will be electric.

The electric transition is estimated to cost taxi operators around 9 billion yuan ($1.3 billion).

A conventional car costs approximately $10,000, while an electric car costs double that figure at $20,000.

Read the ClimateAction story - “Beijing’s 67,000 taxis to go electric.”

Australia needs stricter rules to curb air pollution, but there’s a lot we could all do now

We can all play a part in easing
air pollution problems.

Have you ever left your car running as you wait for a passenger to return from a quick errand? It’s called idling, and while it may feel easier than switching it off and on again, it wastes money and fuel, and dumps pollutants into the air. Vehicle emissions are a very significant contributor to air pollution, which causes health problems.

Few of us would leave the tap running or the fridge door open, and many are diligent about turning off lights. But when it comes to air pollution, many people are wasteful and unaware.

We need major public health campaigns to change people’s beliefs about what they can do to reduce air pollution, similar to the campaigns and enforcement that made our public spaces smoke-free and our schools and beaches sun smart. Australia also needs stronger policy aimed at curbing air pollution.

The Australian government’s fuel efficiency standards and noxious vehicle emission standards review, under way now, offers a chance to do that – but what’s been proposed so far doesn’t go anywhere near far enough.

Read the thoughts of a Senior Lecturer for Climate System Science at the University of Melbourne, Robyn Schofield, and a Professor of Urban Transport and Public Health, also from the University of Melbourne, Mark Stevenson -  “Australia needs stricter rules to curb air pollution, but there’s a lot we could all do now.”

Killer haze from forest fires brings on 100,000 premature deaths

Indonesians were the worst affected with an
estimated 91,600 excess deaths, the report found.

Killer haze from forest fires that raged across Indonesia last year may have caused more than 100,000 premature deaths in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, according to a new report that suggests a drastically higher death toll than Indonesian government figures.

Harvard and Columbia University researchers used air pollution readings to calculate exposure to the deadly smoke.

"We estimate that haze in 2015 resulted in 100,300 excess deaths across Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore," says the report, which was published in Environmental Research Letters journal on September 19.

It says this is more than double the estimated number of deaths as a result of haze in 2006, with much of the increase due to fires in Indonesia's South Sumatra province.

Read Jewel Topfield’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Toxic haze from Indonesian forest fires may have caused 100,000 deaths: report.”

Air pollition damages both human health and the environment

Air pollution biggest contributor
 to stroke - worldwide study shows.

Air pollution has for the first time become one of the top contributors to stroke worldwide, according to the most detailed study of global risk factors for stroke ever conducted.

The research published in The Lancet Neurology journal found unclean air now causes more stroke-related death and disability than smoking. Globally, it was responsible for nearly 30 per cent of years of healthy life lost to a stroke in 2013, compared with 23 per cent for tobacco smoke.

"It's quite striking when you look at the map showing contribution of air pollution across the globe," said the study's lead author Valery Feigin, from Auckland University of Technology.

"The most significant contribution is in China and India, then it goes further to the west, like a belt.

Read Inga Ting’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Air pollution now a leading risk factor for stroke, global research finds.”

Coal mining, transport and burning brings pollution problem to Hunter Valley

The recent studies of air pollution in the Hunter finally show us the constituents of pollution and points to the likely sources. We agree with the editorial comment (Newcastle Herald, April 30) that it is extraordinary that the EPA seems to have leapt to the defence of the coal industry, because a close look at the results shows that coal mining, transport and burning is a major contributor to pollution.

Air pollution is a complex mixture of components. The largest fraction shown from the Particle Characterisation Study in Newcastle was sea salt which is probably innocuous, however this is true wherever air pollution has been studied. The large health studies from Europe and North America showing air pollution to cause lung cancer and heart disease also included a salt fraction, so this is not an argument to ignore the high levels of fine particle pollution recorded here.

Read the Newcastle Herald story - “We need a regional air quality plan for the Hunter.”

Air pollution troubles billions around the world

Outdoor air pollution has grown 8% globally in the past five years, with billions of people around the world now exposed to dangerous air, according to new data from more than 3,000 cities compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Air pollution troubles people
 all around the world.

While all regions are affected, fast-growing cities in the Middle East, south-east Asia and the western Pacific are the most impacted with many showing pollution levels at five to 10 times above WHO recommended levels.

According to the new WHO database, levels of ultra-fine particles of less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5s) are highest in India, which has 16 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities.

China, which has been plagued by air pollution, has improved its air quality since 2011 and now has only five cities in the top 30. Nine other countries, including Pakistan and Iran, have one city each in the worst 30.

Read The Guardian story - “Air pollution rising at an 'alarming rate' in world's cities.”

Energy conversation 'heats up'

Humanity is a voracious user of energy and as conventional sources worsen climate change the conversation about what we do now is really heating up.

NASA scientist Dr James Hansen, who in the early 80s warned the U.S. Congress of the difficulties arising from climate change, is an advocate of nuclear energy arguing that is will both help address climate change and air pollution.

Stanford University’s Professor Mark Jacobson has responded to a recent article from Dr Hansen arguing that nuclear energy is not needed to resolve the world’s climate crisis.

Read the EcoWatch story - “Mark Jacobson to James Hansen: Nukes Are Not Needed to Solve World’s Climate Crisis.”