Researchers from UC Davis have found a closer link between bronchitis in infants and some gases and particles in air pollution, findings that bolster efforts in the Sacramento region to control emissions from vehicles and wood-burning stoves.
In one of the first studies to look at air pollution and infants, researchers said last week they found young lungs more vulnerable to little-studied components in air pollution called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. Such contaminants get into the air from coal burning, vehicle exhaust, wood-burning stoves and tobacco smoke, and from grilling food.
"Our work suggests that regulators consider efforts to curb PAHs as well," lead researcher Irva Hertz-Picciotto said in a statement.
More from the Sacramento Bee at http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/445116.html
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Global warming: it's not just the heat -- it's the humidity!
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON - With global warming, the world isn‘t just getting hotter — it‘s getting stickier, due to humidity. And people are to blame, according to a study based on computer models published Thursday.
"This humidity change is an important contribution to heat stress in humans as a result of global warming," said Nathan Gillett of the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, a co-author of the study.
Humidity increased over most of the globe, including the eastern United States, said study co-author Katharine Willett, a climate researcher at Yale University. However, a few regions, including the U.S. West, South Africa and parts of Australia were drier.
To show that this is man-made, Gillett ran computer models to simulate past climate conditions and studied what would happen to humidity if there were no man-made greenhouse gases. It didn‘t match reality.
Gillett‘s study followed another last month that used the same technique to show that moisture above the world‘s oceans increased and that it bore the "fingerprint" of being caused by man-made global warming.
"This story does now fit together; there are now no loose ends," said Ben Santer, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Lab and author of the September study on moisture above the oceans. "The message is pretty compelling that natural causes alone just can‘t cut it."
It will only feel worse in the future, Gillett said.
WASHINGTON - With global warming, the world isn‘t just getting hotter — it‘s getting stickier, due to humidity. And people are to blame, according to a study based on computer models published Thursday.
"This humidity change is an important contribution to heat stress in humans as a result of global warming," said Nathan Gillett of the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, a co-author of the study.
Humidity increased over most of the globe, including the eastern United States, said study co-author Katharine Willett, a climate researcher at Yale University. However, a few regions, including the U.S. West, South Africa and parts of Australia were drier.
To show that this is man-made, Gillett ran computer models to simulate past climate conditions and studied what would happen to humidity if there were no man-made greenhouse gases. It didn‘t match reality.
Gillett‘s study followed another last month that used the same technique to show that moisture above the world‘s oceans increased and that it bore the "fingerprint" of being caused by man-made global warming.
"This story does now fit together; there are now no loose ends," said Ben Santer, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Lab and author of the September study on moisture above the oceans. "The message is pretty compelling that natural causes alone just can‘t cut it."
It will only feel worse in the future, Gillett said.
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