Clean Air Science Corner

Bikers Beware of Dirty Air!

2011-07-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

A very interesting piece from Environmental Health News:

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/exhaust-ing-ride-for-cyclists

Exhaust-ing ride for cyclists: Air pollutants trigger heart risk

In big cities around the world, cyclists breathe an array of pollutants from exhaust-spewing cars. A new study has now found a link between cycling on high traffic roads and heart risks. Even healthy cyclists had harmful changes in their heart rates. Experts say cyclists should stick to their two-wheels, however, pointing to simple solutions to reduce exposure.

Unrelenting traffic leaves a wake of gritty exhaust for cyclists to breathe.

By Brett Israel

Environmental Health News

July 6, 2011

NEW YORK – Even by this city's standards, the Garment District is an imposing place to ride a bike.

A never-ending parade of delivery trucks rumbles along 8th Avenue between 34th and 42nd streets, leaving a wake of gritty exhaust for cyclists to feel, smell and breathe.

After riding in the Garment District, Robert "Rocket" Ruiz, a 13-year veteran of the bike messenger business, would often look into the bathroom mirror and see his face covered in grime.

"I remember having to wash my face three or four times a day," said Ruiz, now the head dispatcher for Quik Trak Messenger Service. "There's nothing but tar and smoke on your face." Ruiz, a star on the Travel Channel's bike messenger show "Triple Rush," said he once had to miss a day of work to see a doctor because of exhaust burning his eyes.

Pedaling behind pollutant-spewing cars and trucks may not seem as scary as being hit by one, but scientists say it can pose invisible dangers.

Now, for the first time, cycling in heavy traffic has been linked to a heart health risk, Canadian researchers reported last month. A new study found cyclists in Ottawa, Ontario, had heart irregularities in the hours after their exposure to a variety of air pollutants on busy roads.

Pedaling behind pollutant-spewing cars and trucks may not seem as scary as being hit by one, but scientists say it can pose invisible dangers."Our findings suggest that short-term exposure to traffic may have a significant impact on cardiac autonomic function in healthy adults," the scientists from Health Canada, Environment Canada and the University of Ottawa wrote in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

The study does not suggest that bikers would be better off driving, experts say. Rather, the findings intensify the scrutiny on cyclists' pollution exposure, and point to simple solutions for a cleaner ride, such as avoiding busy roads like 8th Avenue whenever possible.

"It's something that actually concerns a lot of people that do cycle," said Michael Brauer, a cyclist and atmospheric scientist at the University of British Columbia who was not involved in the new study. "People want to understand their risk. They're just thinking all the time, 'Is this good for me? Is this bad for me? I'm doing my part, but there's this car that's throwing this exhaust in my face.' "

For the study, 42 healthy, non-smoking cyclists wore heart monitors before, during and after cycling for one hour on high- and low-traffic roads between May and September last year. Instruments on the bikes' panniers measured exposure to air pollution.

Study results point to simple solutions for a cleaner ride, such as avoiding busy roads whenever possible.

Short-term exposure to heavy traffic significantly decreased heart rate variability in the cyclists for up to three hours after they finished cycling. Experts say reduced heart rate variability is associated with a higher risk of heart attacks.

"A very healthy person is like a Ferrari," said Arden Pope, an expert in the health effects of air pollution and professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. "Step on the gas and it really goes fast. Step on the brakes and it really slows down. The human heart, you want it to be like that too."

But with lower heart rate variability, the heart is behaving more like a minivan than a Ferrari, Pope said, meaning that it is less able to respond to stress.

Researchers are not sure how air pollution alters heart rate variability, Pope said. One idea is that particles in the lungs cause inflammation, which throws off the body's ability to carry out its automatic functions.

No respiratory effects were found in the cyclists. The researchers did not find any significant changes in their lung function, probably because all the cyclists were healthy, and most had no asthma or other respiratory problems.

Around the world, researchers have found that whenever fine particles increase in the air, deaths and hospitalizations from asthma, heart attacks and other cardiopulmonary problems increase, too.

Hours to weeks of exposure to particles that are smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, which peak during rush hours, can trigger cardiovascular effects, according to the American Heart Association.

Researchers are not sure how air pollution alters heart rate variability. One idea is that particles in the lungs cause inflammation, which throws off the body's ability to carry out its automatic functions.For the Canadian cyclists, when their exposure to certain pollutants, including ultrafine particles, nitrogen dioxide or ozone, increased, their heart rate variability decreased, according to the study.

Sheer proximity to tailpipes is one reason why cyclists have a high exposure to the tiny particle pollutants, which are emitted by vehicles along with thousands of other chemicals. Diesel buses and trucks are among the worst offenders.

"The closer you are to the source of the fresh exhaust, the worse it is," said Patrick Ryan, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of Cincinnati, who studies the health effects of traffic-related pollution.

Near the tailpipe, these particles are small enough to lodge deep in the lungs, triggering heart attacks and hospitalizations from lung diseases such as asthma. Tiny particles can also cross the blood-brain barrier, potentially harming the nervous system. Farther away from the tailpipe, these particles clump together, growing too large to lodge deeply, Ryan said.

That's why even a small separation from cars, created by physical barriers to traffic – something that's missing for most of 8th Avenue – is important for cyclists.

Two white stripes of paint, with a few feet of cycling space between them, is all that is reserved for bikers on this crowded street. Trucks commonly idle on the bike lane. Heavy traffic creates a wind tunnel that traps pollution on the road, according to a study by the California Air Resources Board.

A 2010 study of cyclists in the Netherlands showed that hard-pedaling, deep-breathing cyclists on busy roads inhale more of this dirty air. In many cases, they also spend more time exposed to it compared to someone driving the same distance.

"Those things add up and they give cyclists that cycle in traffic a high exposure," Brauer said.

But whether that exposure ups a cyclist's risk for heart or breathing problems has been less well established. One small study of Netherlands cyclists found a weak link between exposure to ultrafine particles and soot and airway inflammation.

The new study of Canadian cyclists does not mean that people should lock up their bikes and hop back into the driver's seat, said Brauer. Another study has shown that drivers have higher respiratory problems than cyclists because of their higher exposure to volatile organic chemicals in vehicle exhaust.

"In stop-and-go traffic, [drivers] have more exposure than a cyclist who stays 15 feet or more from the tailpipes," said Rebecca Serna, executive director of the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign, a cycling advocacy group.

The health benefits of cycling far outweigh the risks from air pollution and traffic collisions relative to car driving, according to one estimate by researchers in the Netherlands, where cycling is king. Taking cars off the road also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and traffic accidents.

"In general, you're better off cycling than not," Brauer said. "The physical activity benefits outweigh negative impacts. But you'd like there to be no impacts."

Exposure to dirty air adds to the perception problem that cycling is unsafe, said C.H. Christine Bae, an urban planner at the University of Washington in Seattle, who specializes in how bike facilities affect air pollution exposure.

The Canadian study authors have a simple solution. Avoid busy streets.

"In general, you're better off cycling than not. The physical activity benefits outweigh negative impacts. But you'd like there to be no impacts." – Michael Brauer, cyclist and atmospheric scientist, University of British Columbia"When possible it may be prudent to select cycling routes that reduce exposure to traffic and/or to avoid cycling outdoors or exercise indoors on days with elevated air pollution levels," the research team wrote.

Others agree.

"Our recommendations to cyclists would be to avoid busy as streets as much as possible," said Dimitri Stanich, aspokesman for California's Air Resources Board.

Of course, cyclists might want to avoid busy streets for a number of reasons – fewer distracted drivers being one. But the busiest streets also have the dirtiest air, with ultrafine particle and soot exposure highest on busy roads, according to a recent study.

Bike routes should aim to minimize time spent on these high-traffic roads, the Canadian researchers wrote. This would reduce exposures of riders who may be more susceptible to the immediate health risks of traffic-related air pollution, such as the elderly, children, and pregnant mothers.

A study of bike lanes in Portland, Ore., showed that lanes separated by planters, not just by white paint, actually decreased cyclists' air pollution exposure. A Belgian study of traffic pollution found that cycling as little as several feet off the road gave measurable differences in exposure.

Getting cyclists out from behind the cars helps, too. In Portland, when traffic stops at a red light, cyclists have a designated area at the front of the line of cars, called a bicycle box, which helps them navigate turns and flee the tailpipe fumes.

Solutions like this bicycle box in Portland help cyclists flee tailpipe fumes.

"Little things like that can help a lot to reduce exposure to cyclists," Bae said.

If a little is good, more is better. Brauer says the preliminary results of his lab's work suggest that bike lanes are best when built one block from a major traffic artery. Despite the emerging research, Bae said that she does not know of any cities that consider cyclists' pollution exposure when designing bike lanes.

Including Vancouver, where Brauer cycles, many of the cities that built bike lanes one block away from a major road thought about cost, not pollution.

"Most were done by accident, because they were cheaper," Brauer said. "But they actually give you an air pollution benefit."

Uncontrolled asthma linked to air pollution exposure

2011-06-21T05:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/229016.php

Article Date: 20 Jun 2011 - 16:00 PDT

People with asthma exposed to higher levels of ozone and particulate matter are much more likely to have poorer asthma control, researchers reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Long-term ozone exposure raises an asthma patient's likelihood to have uncontrolled asthma by 69%, while long-term exposure to particulate matter raises the risk by 35%, the authors added.

Even after taking into account known risk factors linked to poorly controlled asthma, such as obesity, inhaled corticosteroid use, and smoking, the findings still held true.

The researchers explained that prior studies had established a link between air pollution and worsening respiratory symptoms, more hospitalizations and increased use of prescription drugs. However, none had examined what the impact of long-term air pollution might be on asthma control.

The investigators gathered data from the follow-up to the Epidemiological study on the Genetics and Environment of Asthma (EGEA), involving 501 adult participants in five French cities, all with active asthma. They had filled in a questionnaire on respiratory health between 2003 and 2007.

Using data from the Institut Francais de l'Environnement (French Institute of the Environment), they calculated levels of O3 (ozone), NO2 (nitrous oxide) and PM10 (particulate matter) that each participant had been exposed to where they lived.

They measured asthma control according to data gathered on symptoms, asthma attacks, and lung function or FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in 1 second).

Data on pollutant levels were available for 481 patients. 44% of them had well-controlled asthma, 29% had partially controlled asthma, but 27% had poorly controlled asthma.

Calculated average levels of pollutants during the study period were:
Nitrous oxide - were 32 ug/m3
Ozone - 46 ug/m3
Particulate matter - 21 ug/m3
Both ozone and particulate matter levels were strongly linked to poorer asthma control. Long-term ozone exposure increased poor asthma control risk by 69%, and by 35% for particulate matter long-term exposure.

Females and older individuals of both sexes were more likely to experience poorly controlled asthma.

The authors concluded:

"Our results indicate that both ambient O3 and PM10 concentrations jeopardise asthma control in adults. The results are robust."

Source: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

Study: traffic pollution linked to brain damage

2011-05-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

A new study from the University of Southern California on the physical effect of road pollution showed significant brain damage.

Researchers exposed mice to traffic pollution for five hours a day, three days a week, for 10 weeks. They eventually found out the test subjects’ brains showed signs of inflammation similar to premature ageing and Alzheimer’s disease.
Moreover, the neurons involved in learning and memory loss showed significant damage, and the brain neurons of developing mice did not grow as well as those not subjected to traffic particles.

The study’s senior author, Dr Caleb Finch, said these air contaminants – about 1,000th the width of a human hair – were too small to be captured by vehicle filtration systems. Humans are just as likely to inhale them, which raises the possibility of long-term brain health consequences.

Switching to electric cars would be an easy solution, although Dr Finch cautions that ''electrical generation still depends upon other combustion processes – coal – that in a larger environment contribute nanoparticles anyway''.

Research update: smog poses health risk below current national standard

2011-03-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working with colleagues from the Environmental Protection Agency found that breathing a level of ozone at 0.06 parts per million (ppm), which is below the current U.S. standard of 0.075 ppm, can decrease lung function in healthy young adults. Lung function is a measure of how well a person is breathing.

Moreover, this study for the first time also shows that a level of ozone below the current safety standard causes people’s airways to become inflamed. This can trigger respiratory attacks in susceptible people, including asthmatics. Increased inflammation also increases response to things to which one is allergic.

What might this study mean to parents whose children are younger than the study participants?

“Even though this study was done in healthy adults ages 19 to 35, the findings clearly have public health implications for asthmatics and others with lung disease of all ages,” said co-author David B. Peden, MD, MS, director of the UNC Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology. He is also professor of pediatrics and medicine, and chief of the Division of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, Rheumatology and Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics.

To minimize the effect of ozone, Peden said, one should be alert to forecasts of increased ozone exposure in newspapers and on local weather forecasts. This usually occurs in the summer. “If at all possible, people with asthma should not be heavily exercising outdoors in afternoons on days that ozone will be increased,” he advises. “Also, using controlled asthma medications, which are important for asthma control in general, may be especially helpful at times when ozone will be elevated.”

According to the EPA, variations in weather conditions play an important role in determining ozone levels. Ozone is more readily formed on warm, sunny days when the air is stagnant. Conversely, ozone production is more limited when it is cloudy, cool, rainy, and windy (see: http://www.epa.gov … s/ozone.html).

Peden and co-authors point out that more than 100 million people in the US now live in counties that do not meet the current ozone standard “and [the] public health consequences are enormous.”

More information: A report of the research appears online in the January issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Air pollution worse than cocaine for triggering heart attacks

2011-02-24T06:05:00.000-08:00

Air pollution worse than cocaine for triggering heart attacks, says studyResearch into 'final straw' risk factors says traffic fumes greater population-wide threat than drug because of numbers exposed

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 February 2011 18.37

Air pollution is a bigger trigger of heart attacks in the population than physical exertion, alcohol and taking cocaine, a study has shown. On an individual basis, cocaine raises the risk of a heart attack 23 times, says a study published in the Lancet.

But far more people are exposed to traffic fumes and factory emissions than cocaine so air quality is a far more important population-wide threat.

Scientists looked at "final straw" risk factors for triggering heart attacks, rather than underlying causes of heart disease. The highest risk factor was traffic exposure (7.4%), followed by physical exertion (6.2%) and alcohol (5%), coffee (5%), and higher levels of small air pollutant particles known as PM10s (4.8%).

Other risk factors included negative emotions, with a PAF of 3.9%, anger (3.1%), eating a heavy meal (2.7%), positive emotions (2.4%) and sexual activity (2.2%).

Air pollution triggers 5-7% of heart attacks in the population, they say. Cocaine accounts for just 0.9% of all heart attacks.

Why babies exposed to smog may have life-long breathing problems

2011-02-02T12:41:00.000-08:00

While we are witnessing the daily attacks by key members of the new Congress on health and environmental safeguards, I thought it might be worthwhile to remind folks one of the reasons why we try to clean up dirty air.

New research, published in the American Journal of Physiology, tries to answer the question of why babies exposed to high levels of smog often end up with a life-long susceptibility to respiratory disease.

The researchers discovered that exposure to ozone, or smog, can cause changes in the inside of the nose – changes that can impair normal functions that ward off disease.

The abstract is here: http://ajplung.physiology.org/content/300/2/L242.abstract?ct=ct

Now, before anyone says “Now wait a minute, Frank, these were tests done with infant monkeys,” I will note that, not being residents of ancient Sparta, we do not expose human infants to things like pollution that could hurt them. As my friend, American Lung Association consultant Debbie Shprentz, reminds me, “Animal studies presage human health impacts.”

Why are studies like this relevant?

As you may recall, the Obama administration got cold feet after the elections and postponed a critical EPA decision about how tough national smog standards should be. A final decision is due in late July, and this issue has become one of the flashpoints for attacks by industry and EPA critics (mostly Republican) in the Congress.

EPA has bucked the issue to its science advisory panel. I believe one of the authors of this new study, Edward Postlethwait, of the University of Alabama was part of that panel, which previously urged EPA to set a tougher national smog standard. (I am sure he’d love to discuss this new study, if you are interested.)

This new research will not be part of the evidence officially reviewed by EPA or the science panel, though it is confirmation that dirty air hurts babies – and can leave them with a life-long problem.

EPA has set a teleconference Friday Feb. 18 from 1-5 pm Eastern time for the science advisers to discuss the issue yet again.

Guest posting: study clean air science online

2011-01-05T06:53:00.000-08:00

[This is a guest posting by Kayla Tanner]

Study Clean Air Science Online

In today’s world of arguing; disagreeing and general bickering it’s nice to know of a few topics that everyone can agree upon. One of them is the need for clean air.

Many may have different views on how to approach reversing the damage already caused to the air by various sources of pollution. But everyone can definitely agree that they enjoy breathing.

How To Clean Up the Air

As with most endeavors, approaching the issue of cleaning up our air is best undertaken by first establishing a basis in education. This of course includes the gaining of ongoing knowledge and the educating of others in steps that can be taken that will insure cleaner air now and in the future.

Obviously an undertaking such as educating the entire world is a large proposition to say the least. But every venture begins with a first step. So it would be wise to consider making the first step one that involves educating yourself.

Educational Options

The most obvious of options to choose where gaining knowledge is concerned in any field is to undertake a course of self-study. In other words, you’d be wise to consider the internet, public library, local book stores and reliance upon your own common sense in order to gain knowledge on topics concerning how to clean up the air and clean air in general. However, other available options should also be considered.

Obviously enrollment at a college or university would help you enormously in the gaining of knowledge in clean air studies and the sciences attached to the subject overall. But often such educational pursuits prove impractical for many reasons.

For example, leaving home to go off to college is not usually viable for those with families, jobs and any number of life’s other obligations to be considered. And even if the college or university you choose to learn from offers the appropriate courses in clean air sciences and related fields you’re looking for on a commuter basis that does not require living arrangements on campus, they will obviously cause you to make room in your life’s schedule for physical attendance within a timetable of their choosing where traditional enrollment is involved.

There is also the issue of cost involved when considering traditional enrollment at most institutions of higher learning. The price of tuition alone is high enough to give most working people a nosebleed. Then add to that the need for housing costs and other living expenses if you choose to live on campus, and you will more than likely find the cost of such an education to be out of your reach (unless your name happens to be Kennedy, Getty or Rockefeller).

There is of course the possibility of acquiring student loans and various grants. But these seldom cover the entire tab for a college education.

More Practical Educational Options

Presently we live in a world of electronic communication that is nearly instantaneous. And this is a plus where access to education in fields such as clean air studies and related sciences are concerned. More specifically, the most practical approach for most seeking additional education involves the investigation of online schools.

Most educators believe that online schools represent the future of education, as we know it. However, there is a stigma mistakenly attached to them by many who equate such internet study to an electronic incarnation of disreputable correspondence schools of the past. But such negative thinkers couldn’t be more mistaken.

Even as you read this, most every educational institution on our planet is offering degrees that can be acquired (at least in part) via their online schools and courses of study. And such learning institutions obviously include a myriad of science schools that can help any dedicated individual further their education in the area of clean air.

Air pollution linked to baby ear infections

2010-12-03T07:25:00.000-08:00

http://in.reuters.com/article/idINTRE6B162I20101202

Startling new report on mercury and birds

2010-12-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

Published online 1 December 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.641

News

Mercury causes homosexuality in male ibises

Environmental pollutant radically changes birds' mating behaviour.

More a:

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101201/full/news.2010.641.html

Air pollution, eye changes and disease

2010-12-01T06:21:00.000-08:00

Public release date: 30-Nov-2010
Contact: Katie Hickling
press@plos.org
44-122-344-2815
Public Library of Science

Air pollution is associated with eye vessel changes indicative of cardiovascular disease

It is known that fine particle air pollution is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease; a study by Sara Adar, and colleagues (University of Washington/University of Michigan), published in this week's PLoS Medicine, takes this association further by showing that older people living in areas with long-term air pollution, or even exposed to short term pollution, are more likely to have narrowing of their retinal arterioles — microvascular changes associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

The authors took digital retinal photographs of participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis—which includes people aged 45 years of various ethnic backgrounds who had no cardiovascular disease symptoms when they enrolled in the study—to measure the diameter of retinal blood vessels. The authors modeled the long-term outdoor concentration of fine particle pollution at each participant's house for the 2-year period preceding the retinal examination; outdoor measurements taken the day before the examination provided data on short-term fine particle pollution levels. Of the 4,607 participants for whom complete data was available, retinal arteriolar diameters were narrowed among those who lived in regions with increased levels of long- and short-term fine particle pollution. In addition, increased retinal venular diameters were weakly associated with long-term (but not short-term) high concentrations of fine particle pollution.

The authors conclude: ''Residing in regions with higher air pollution concentrations and experiencing daily increases in air pollution were each associated with narrower retinal arteriolar diameters in older individuals.'' They continue: "These findings support the hypothesis that important vascular phenomena are associated with small increases in short-term or long-term air pollution exposures, even at current exposure levels, and further corroborate reported associations between air pollution and the development and exacerbation of clinical cardiovascular disease."

###

Citation: Adar SD, Klein R, Klein BEK, Szpiro AA, Cotch MF, et al. (2010) Air Pollution and the Microvasculature: A Cross-Sectional Assessment of In Vivo Retinal Images in the Population-Based Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). PLoS Med 7(11): e1000372. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000372

Full article available online at:

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000

How Air Pollution Can Damage the Heart

2009-09-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

from Time Magazine

Sitting in traffic can certainly be infuriating enough to raise your blood pressure. But new research shows that traffic can raise your blood pressure and put your heart at risk in a more direct way — by exposing you to the pollution in exhaust fumes...

The new findings, published in the journal Hypertension, offers a potentially new understanding of how pollutants can affect the heart.

More at http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1921080,00.html

New federal study: traffic pollution kills people with respiratory problems

2009-05-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

There’s a new study in the current issue of Environmental Health Perspectives (published by a branch of the federal Department of Health and Human Services) which is perhaps worth a gander. See link below.

Basically, scientists found increased death among people with respiratory disease who were exposed to traffic-related nitrogen dioxide pollution in Toronto.

This is further evidence that current air quality standards for this pollutant need to be made tougher. The current standard was set in 1971 (!)

The US EPA reported last year that exposure to nitrogen dioxide – even at levels below current standards – increased the risk of hospital admissions.

The agency is under a court order to review the current national air standards for nitrogen dioxide and propose its results by June 26.

http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2009/11533/abstract.html

The Journal Nature: Time Running Out to Deal With Global Warming

2009-04-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

The world must burn less than one-quarter of its remaining fossil fuel reserves if it is to avoid dangerous climate change, according to new research.

Two studies published today in the journal Nature warn that the world must limit its total carbon dioxide emissions to about 1 trillion tons by 2050 to have the best chance at holding temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius.

That's the target identified by some scientists and many governments that believe warming beyond that point could greatly increase the chance of catastrophic -- and in some cases, irreversible -- changes in the world's climate.

The bottom line is simple, said Myles Allen of Oxford University, the lead author of one of the new studies. "Every ton [of carbon dioxide] you release now is a ton you won't be able to release in 50 years' time," he said. "The longer we postpone emissions reductions, the harder we make the task when the time comes around."

To stay under that 1 trillion ton limit, governments would have to sharply reduce their greenhouse gas emissions from current levels. Malte Meinshausen, lead author of one study, said the world's total CO2 emissions could reach 1 trillion tons in just 20 years.

If no climate policies are implemented (red), global warming will cross 2 degrees Celsius by the middle of the century. Strong action to mitigate emissions (blue) would limit the risk of exceeding 2 degrees to 25 percent. Graph courtesy of M. Meinshausen.

"We've already emitted a third of that in the past nine years, from 2000 to 2009," explained Meinshausen, a professor at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

And Meinshausen's study suggests the true "carbon dioxide budget" could be even lower if the warming effects of other greenhouse gases, such as methane, are taken into account.

But even achieving the limit recommended by the new studies isn't a guarantee that the world will avoid serious climate change, experts said.

More at:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v458/n7242/full/4581077a.html

A foetus suffers from a mother's bad air

2008-10-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

8th October 2008

Babies exposed to air pollution in the womb have to breathe faster to get more oxygen in their lungs, according to research confirmed that air pollution can damage a child's lungs before birth.

more at:

http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=520582

Air pollution linked to blood clots

2008-05-13T13:44:00.000-07:00

Long-term exposure to a type of air pollution, the air-borne fine particles, appears to dramatically increase the risk of deep vein thrombosis, a condition that can lead to a life-threatening pulmonary embolism, according to a study in the May 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

More at http://foodconsumer.org/7777/8888/M_edicare_54/051309452008_Air_pollution_linked_to_blood_clots.shtml

Smog steals flower fragrance

2008-04-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

A very interesting study this week on how ozone, or smog, or harming the fragrance of flowers -- and inhibiting the ability of pollinating insects to follow the scent trail to their source.

More at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080410170413.htm

Outdoor smog hurts workers inside buildings

2008-01-29T04:54:00.000-08:00

Berkeley Lab Scientists Find Evidence of Link Between Outdoor Ozone and Building-Related Health Symptoms

BERKELEY, CA — A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found evidence that the prevalence of building-related symptoms (BRS) increases with increasing outdoor concentrations of the pollutant ozone. They have also discovered that the type of air filter that some buildings use in their ventilation systems may also play a role in the prevalence of BRS.

More at

http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/EETD-BRS.html

Kids and dirty air

2007-10-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

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

Global warming: it's not just the heat -- it's the humidity!

2007-10-10T14:38:00.001-07:00

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.

Diesel pollution linked to heart disease

2007-07-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

from today's Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-heart26jul26,1,5279648.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=2&cset=true

Pollution-cholesterol link to heart disease seen The combination activates genes that can cause clogged arteries, UCLA researchers say.

By Marla Cone, Times Staff Writer
July 26, 2007

Strengthening the link between air pollution and cardiovascular disease, new research suggests that people with high cholesterol are especially vulnerable to heart disease when they are exposed to diesel exhaust and other ultra-fine particles that are common pollutants in urban air.
Microscopic particles in diesel exhaust combine with cholesterol to activate genes that trigger hardening of the arteries, according to a study by UCLA scientists to be published today.

The full study is at
http://genomebiology.com/2007/8/7/R149

Smog worse for women than men?

2007-06-28T05:58:00.000-07:00

Study: Ozone affects females more than men

HERSHEY, Pa., June 27 (UPI) -- A Penn State University College of Medicine study suggests air pollution has a more significant effect on the immune systems of females than of males.
Researchers studied mice exposed to ozone and then infected with pneumonia. Significantly more females than males died from the infection.

"If we could extrapolate what we found to the human population, it would mean women with lung infections may be at higher risk for negative outcomes if they are exposed to high amounts of air pollution, and in particular, ozone," said Professor Joanna Floros.

In the study, mice were exposed for three hours either to filtered air or to air with high levels of ozone. They then were infected with a pneumonia bacteria and monitored for two weeks.
The findings, among other things, showed mice exposed to ozone before infection died more often than did mice that had breathed only filtered air. And ozone exposure significantly decreased the likelihood of surviving pneumonia exposure for the female mice compared with males.

more at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070627-14250700-bc-us-ozone.xml

Large Antarctic Area Has Melted

2007-05-16T04:14:00.000-07:00

from the New York Times:

While much of the world has warmed in a pattern that scientists have linked with near certainty to human activities, the frigid interior of Antarctica has resisted the trend.

NASA’s QuikScat satellite detected extensive areas of snowmelt, shown in yellow and red, in west Antarctica in January 2005.

Now, a new satellite analysis shows that at least once in the last several years, masses of unusually warm air pushed to within 310 miles of the South Pole and remained long enough to melt surface snow across a California-size expanse.

The warm spell, which occurred over one week in 2005, was detected by scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA and the University of Colorado, Boulder...

It is too soon to know whether the warm spell was a fluke or a portent.

More bad climate news: artic ice retreating more rapidly

2007-04-30T14:32:00.000-07:00

Arctic Ice Retreating More Quickly Than Computer Models Project

April 30, 2007
BOULDER
Arctic sea ice is melting at a significantly faster rate than projected by even the most advanced computer models, a new study concludes. The research, by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), shows that the Arctic's ice cover is retreating more rapidly than estimated by any of the 18 computer models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in preparing its 2007 assessments.http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2007/seaice.shtml

New report: global warming is here -- and it's big trouble

2007-04-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

More at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/science/earth/06cnd-climate.html?hp

and www.ipcc.ch

Medical experts urge tougher smog standards

2007-04-05T08:43:00.000-07:00

April 4, 2007

The Honorable Stephen L. Johnson
Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460

Re: Broad Scientific Consensus to Lower Ozone Air Quality Standard and Close the Rounding Loophole

Dear Administrator Johnson:

We, the undersigned scientists, doctors, and public health professionals, are writing to express strong support for a revised primary eight-hour ozone ambient air quality standard at a level that reduces the health burden experienced by the nation's population as the result of exposure to ozone air pollution. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards must accurately reflect the state of the science and fulfill the Clean Air Act's mandate of protecting the public health, including those most vulnerable to the effects of air pollution, with an adequate margin of safety.

We note that the EPA's panel of expert science advisors, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), has reviewed the scientific evidence in the EPA Criteria Document and Staff Paper and has unanimously recommended that "the primary 8-hr NAAQS needs to be substantially reduced to protect human health, particularly in sensitive subpopulations" (CASAC letter to Administrator Johnson, dated October 24, 2006). We also agree with their unanimous conclusion that “there is no scientific justification for retaining the current primary 8-hour NAAQS.” Expert opinion, including recommendations by EPA staff scientists in the final Staff Paper, holds that retaining the current standard would put large numbers of people at risk for respiratory effects, asthma exacerbations, emergency room visits, hospital admissions, and mortality.

The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee has further recommended that EPA close the “rounding loophole” which allows areas with concentrations up to 0.085 ppm to escape regulation under the current standard of 0.08 ppm, a position that we fully endorse.

The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee has further unanimously recommended an eight-hour primary ozone standard in the range of 0.060 ppm to 0.070 ppm. The Committee specifically expressed its recommendation to the third decimal place to avoid the rounding loophole. This recommendation was unanimously reconfirmed in a March 5, 2007 meeting of the Committee.

Such strongly worded consensus statements are unusual for this panel of scientists, which is deliberately selected to represent a variety of viewpoints. These unambiguous, unanimous recommendations to your office reflect the strong body of scientific literature indicating significant harm to adults and children from exposures to ozone at and below the current standard of 0.08 ppm (effectively 0.085 due to rounding).

Controlled human exposure studies of healthy adults have repeatedly demonstrated reduced lung function, increased respiratory symptoms, changes in airway responsiveness, and increased airway inflammation following 6.6 hour exposures to 0.08 ppm ozone. Recent studies demonstrate that some of the people tested experience these adverse effects at concentrations of 0.06 ppm and below. Multiple field studies have shown adverse health effects of ozone exposures below 0.08 ppm on children, especially worsening of respiratory status in asthmatics. In addition, a series of recently published meta-analyses and primary national-scale epidemiological studies have documented consistent associations between premature mortality and ozone exposures below the current eight hour standard of 0.08 ppm.

In conclusion, we strongly and solemnly request that you follow the recommendations of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and reduce the eight-hour primary ozone standard to a range between 0.060 and 0.070 ppm.
Thank you for considering our views.
Sincerely,

Jonathan I. Levy, Sc.D.
Associate Professor of Environmental Health and Risk Assessment
Harvard School of Public Health

Kent Pinkerton, Ph.D.
Director of the Center for Health and the Environment
University of California at Davis

William Rom, M.D., M.P.H.
Sol and Judith Bergstein Professor of Medicine and Environmental Medicine
Director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
New York University School of Medicine

Additional signatories

Jerrold L. Abraham, M.D.
Professor of Pathology
Director of Environmental and Occupational Pathology
SUNY Upstate Medical University

Joseph Adams, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Greater Baltimore Medical Center
Towson, Maryland

Robert Aris, M.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ed Avol, M.S.Department of Preventive MedicineUniversity of Southern California

John M. Balbus, M.D., M.P.H.
Health Program Director
Environmental Defense
Adjunct Associate Professor
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Rebecca Bascom, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Medicine
Penn State University, College of Medicine

William S. Beckett, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Environmental Medicine and Medicine
University of Rochester School of Medicine

Kenneth A. Berkowitz, M.D., F.C.C.P.
Associate Professor of Medicine
New York University Medical Center

Jonathan A. Bernstein, M.D., F.A.A.A.A.I.
Professor of Clinical Medicine
Division of Immunology/Allergy
University of Cincinnati

Kent J. Bransford, M.D.
Monterey Bay Oncology
Monterey, California

Katherine L. Bright, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
University of Kentucky

Arezoo Campbell, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Western University of Health Sciences

Lung Chi Chen, M.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Environmental Medicine
New York University School of Medicine

David Chong, M.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine
New York University School of Medicine

David C Christiani, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Professor of Occupational Medicine and Epidemiology
Harvard School of Public Health

Devra Davis, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Professor of EpidemiologyDirector of the Center for Environmental Oncology
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute

Dorr G. Dearborn, Ph.D., M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics
Chairman of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences
Case Western Reserve University

George L. Delclos, M.D., M.P.H.
Director of the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
University of Texas

Ralph J. Delfino, M.D., Ph.D.
Epidemiology Division
University of California at Irvine

Anthony J. DeLucia, Ph.D.
Professor of Surgery
Adjunct Professor of Environmental Health
East Tennessee State University

Richard D. Dey, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy
Director of the Center for Respiratory Biology and Lung Disease
West Virginia University

Jefferson H. Dickey, M.D.
Bodkhe Dickey Health Associates
Franklin Medical Center
Greenfield, Massachusetts

Douglas W. Dockery, Sc.D.
Professor of Environmental Epidemiology
Chair of the Department of Environmental Health
Harvard School of Public Health

Lisa Doggett, M.D., M.P.H.
Austin, Texas

Martin Donohoe, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Lecturer in the Department of Community Health
Portland State University

Harold J. Farber, M.D.
Specialist of Pediatric Pulmonology and Medical Director of the Pediatric Asthma Care Management Program at Kaiser Permanente
Vallejo, California

Karl Fields, M.D.
Professor of Family Medicine
University of North Carolina

Jonathan M. Fine, M.D.
Research Associate Professor
New York University School of Medicine

Henry Jay Forman, Ph.D.
Professor and Founding FacultySchool of Natural Sciences
University of California, Merced

Mark W. Frampton, M.D.
Professor of Medicine and Environmental Medicine
University of Rochester Medical Center

Erica Frank, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of the Department of Health Care and Epidemiology
University of British Columbia

Michael Friedman, M.D.
Chennai, India

George Friedman-Jiménez, M.D.
Director, Bellevue/NYU Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic
New York University School of Medicine

John R. Froines, Ph.D.
Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health
University of California at Los Angeles

Frank Gilliland, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine
Keck School of Medicine
University of Southern California

Lynn Goldman, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Johns Hopkins University

Bob Gould, M.D.
Associate Pathologist at Kaiser Hospital
San Jose, California

Roni Grad, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Tee L. Guidotti, M.D., M.P.H.
Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health
Director of the Division of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology (Dept. of Medicine)
The George Washington University Medical Center

David C. Hall, M.D.
Specialist in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Seattle, Washington

Winifred J. Hamilton, Ph.D., S.M.
Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Neurosurgery
Baylor College of Medicine

S. Katharine Hammond, Ph.D., C.I.H.
Professor and Chair of Environmental Health Sciences
University of California at Berkeley

Michael R. Harbut, M.D., M.P.H., F.C.C.P.
Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine
Wayne State University School of Medicine

Ira Helfand, M.D.
Specialist in Emergency Care
Leeds, Massachusetts

Howard Hu, M.D., M.P.H., Sc.D.
Chair and Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
University of Michigan

Kazuhiko Ito, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Environmental Medicine
New York University School of Medicine

Dan Jaffe, Ph.D.
Professor of Environmental Science
University of Washington-Bothell

Sarah Jordan, M.D., M.S.P.H.
Specialist in Family Care Medicine at the Siler City Community Health Center
Piedmont Health Services, Inc.
Siler City, North Carolina

Patrick L. Kinney, Sc.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Environmental Health Sciences
Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University

Howard M. Kipen, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine
Chief of the Clinical Research and Occupational Medicine Division
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

Jane Q. Koenig, Ph.D.
Professor of Environmental Health
University of Washington

Dana L. Kornfeld, M.D.
Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics
George Washington University Medical Center

Ana Krieger, M.D., F.C.C.P.
Assistant Professor
New York University School of Medicine

Nino Kuenzli, M.D., Ph.D.Associate Professor
Department of Preventative Medicine
University of Southern California Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology
Barcelona, Spain

Francine Laden, Sc.D.
Assistant Professor of Environmental Epidemiology
Harvard University

William Lambert, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
Oregon Health and Science University

Joyce C. Lashof, M.D.
Professor Emerita of Public Health
University of California at Berkeley

Robert S. Lawrence, M.D.
Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Health Policy
Director of the Center for a Livable Future
Johns Hopkins University

Eric Leibert, M.D.Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine New York University School of Medicine

George Leikauf, Ph. D.
Professor of Environmental Health and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
University of Cincinnati

Deborah Leiner, M.D., F.A.A.P.
Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chair of the North Carolina Pediatric Society Environmental Health Group
Greensboro, North Carolina

Louis S. Libby, M.D.
Specialist in Pulmonology and Chief Medical Officer at the Oregon Clinic
Portland, Oregon

Michael Lipsett, M.D., J.D.
Associate Clinical Professor
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
University of California, San Francisco

Alan H. Lockwood, M.D.
Professor of Neurology and Nuclear Medicine
Adjunct Professor of Communicative Disorders and Sciences
State University of New York at Buffalo

Frank Martiniuk, PhD
Research Associate Professor
New York University School of Medicine

Rob S. McConnell, M.D.
Professor of Preventive Medicine
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

Siobhan McNally, M.D., F.A.A.P.
Specialist in Pediatrics
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Co-chair of the Massachusetts Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health

Peter H. Michelson, M.D.
Department of Pediatrics
Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine
Duke University

Jana Milford, Ph.D., J.D.
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
University of Colorado at Boulder

Albert Miller, M.D.
Professor of Medicine
New York Medical College
Director of Pulmonary Medicine
Caritas Health Care
Jamaica, NY

Shelly L. Miller, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Environmental Engineering Program in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Colorado at Boulder

John S. Munger, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Cell Biology
New York University School of Medicine

Bonnie A. New, M.D., M.P.H.
Beacon Medical Management for Industry
Coordinator of Health Professionals for Clean Air
Houston, Texas

Anna Nolan, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care
New York University School of Medicine

George T. O’Connor, M.D., M.S.
Professor of Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine

Marie S. O’Neill, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Environmental Health
University of Michigan

Peter Orris, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor and Director, Occupational Health Services Institute
University of Illinois School of Public Health

Cindy L. Parker, M.D., M.P.H.
Instructor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences
Johns Hopkins University

Jerome A. Paulson, M.D., F.A.A.P.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health
Co-Director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment
George Washington University

Jennifer L. Peel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences
Colorado State University

Arnold C.G. Platzker, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Pediatric Pulmonology
University of Southern California

Jenny E. Pompilio, M.D.
Practitioner of Internal Medicine
Hillsboro, Oregon

Joan Reibman, M.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine and Environmental Medicine
New York University

Don Richardson, M.D.
Brevard, North Carolina

Beate Ritz, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Epidemiology, Environmental Health Sciences, and Neurology
Vice Chair of the Department of Epidemiology
University of California at Los Angeles

Jonathan Samet, M.D., M.S.
Professor and Chair of Epidemiology
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Brian S. Schwartz, M.D., M.S.
Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Epidemiology, and Medicine
Johns Hopkins University

Joel Schwartz, Ph.D.
Professor of Environmental Epidemiology
Harvard University

Katherine M. Shea, M.D., M.P.H.
Adjunct Professor of Maternal and Child Health
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Dean Sheppard, M.D.
Professor of Medicine
Director of the Lung Biology Center
University of California at San Francisco

Carl M. Shy, M.D.
Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Constantinos Sioutas, Sc.D.
Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Co-director of the Southern California Particle Center
University of Southern California

John D. Spengler, Ph.D.
Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation
Harvard University

Helen Suh, S.B., M.S., Sc.D.
Associate Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Exposure Assessment
Harvard University

Tim K. Takaro, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.
Associate Professor
Faculty of Health Sciences
Simon Fraser University

Duncan C. Thomas, Ph.D.
Director of the Biostatistics Division
Department of Preventive Medicine
University of Southern California

Catherine Thomasson, M.D.
Practitioner of Internal Medicine
Center for Student Health and Counseling
Portland State University

George D. Thurston, Sc.D.
Associate Professor of Environmental Medicine
New York University

Doris Tse, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine
New York University School of Medicine

Arthur Upton, Ph.D.
Professor of Environmental and Community Medicine
Rutgers University

Judith A. Voynow, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine
Duke University

Bailus Walker Jr., Ph.D, M.P.H.
Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine and Toxicology
Howard University

Virginia M. Weaver, M.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor
Division of Occupational and Environmental Health
Johns Hopkins University

Ronald H. White, M.S.T.
Associate Scientist
Department of Epidemiology
Deputy Director of the Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute
Johns Hopkins University

Michelle Wilhelm, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor In Residence
Department of Epidemiology
University of California at Los Angeles

Peter Wilk, M.D.
Specialist in Psychiatry
Sebago, Maine

Antonella Zanobetti, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
Department of Environmental Health
Harvard University

Junfeng (Jim) Zhang, Ph.D.
Professor and Acting Chairman
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

New study: particle soot boosts heart disease in women

2007-01-31T12:53:00.000-08:00

From the University of Washington:

Women living in areas with higher levels of air pollution have a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease and subsequently dying from cardiovascular causes, according to a University of Washington study appearing in the Feb. 1 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The study is one of the largest of its kind, involving more than 65,000 Women's Health Initiative Observational Study participants, age 50 to 79, living in 36 cities across the United States.

UW researchers studied women who did not initially have cardiovascular disease, following them for up to nine years to see who went on to have a heart attack, stroke, or coronary bypass surgery, or died from cardiovascular causes. They linked this health information with the average outdoor air pollution levels near each woman's home, and found that higher pollution levels posed a significant hazard – much higher than previously thought – for development of cardiovascular disease.

The researchers studied levels of fine particulate matter, which are tiny airborne particles of soot or dust, and can come from a variety of sources, like vehicle exhaust, coal-fired power plants, industrial sources, and wood-burning fireplaces. These particles are less than 2.5 microns in diameter -- about 30 to 40 of them would equal the diameter of a human hair. Particulate matter levels are monitored and regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They're typically invisible to the human eye once they're in the atmosphere, though they may be visible in dense clouds as they come out of a tailpipe, smokestack or chimney, and are responsible for urban haze.

"These soot particles, which are typically created by fossil-fuel combustion in vehicles and power plants, can contain a complex mix of chemicals," explained Dr. Joel Kaufman, professor of environmental & occupational health sciences, epidemiology, and medicine at the UW, and leader of the study. "The tiny particles – and the pollutant gases that travel along with them – cause harmful effects once they are breathed in."

Fine particulate matter is measured in micrograms (or millionths of a gram) per cubic meter; cities in the study had average levels of fine particulate matter ranging from about 4 to nearly 20 micrograms per cubic meter. The researchers found that each 10-unit increase in fine particulate matter level was linked to a 76 percent increase in the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, after taking into account known risk factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and smoking. Higher long-term average levels of fine particulate matter also led to a higher overall risk of cardiovascular disease events, including stroke and heart attack.

They also found that local differences in particulate matter levels within a city, as well as exposure differences between cities, translate to a higher or lower risk of cardiovascular disease and related death.

"Our findings show that both what city a woman lived in, and where she lived in that city, affected her exposure level and her disease risk," said Kristin Miller, first author of the study and a doctoral student in epidemiology at the UW.

Previous studies have found apparent links between airborne particulate matter and cardiovascular disease, but this study was the first to look specifically at new cases of cardiovascular disease in previously healthy subjects and local air pollution levels within metropolitan areas. Researchers used data from the multi-site Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, which is funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and coordinated through a center based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. The EPA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences provided funding for the study of the effects of air pollution.
Scientists don't understand exactly how fine particulate matter may be leading to cardiovascular disease, but some believe that the soot particles are accelerating atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which is the major precursor of heart disease.

"This could be a cellular and biochemical process that starts in the lung and then proceeds from there into the cardiovascular system," Kaufman explained. "Or it could be that these very small particles actually enter the blood stream through vessels in the lung, and then begin affecting blood vessels throughout the body."

Kaufman is leading a major new EPA-funded study to uncover these mechanisms – an air-pollution study based on the NIH's Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, or MESA. The MESA Air Pollution Study tackles two key areas for understanding this problem, Kaufman said: investigating the mechanisms through which particulate matter leads to cardiovascular disease, and identifying the sources of pollution that cause the problem. "Preventing these effects requires reducing the pollution at the source," Kaufman said.

The implications of this connection could be very significant.

"More than one out of three deaths in the United States are due to cardiovascular disease – it's the leading cause of death," Miller said. "If the annual average concentration of fine particulate air pollution can be reduced, it would potentially translate on a national scale to the prevention or delay of thousands and thousands of heart attacks, strokes, and bypass surgeries, not to mention fewer early deaths."

An editorial from researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital will accompany the study in the Feb. 1 issue of the journal. In that editorial, the authors suggest public health interventions to address this problem, as well as a tightening of the EPA standards regulating fine particulate matter pollution.

In addition to Kaufman and Miller, the study included researchers from the UW School of Medicine and the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Harborview Medical Center, all in Seattle.

NOTE: To determine the average annual concentration of fine particulate matter for a particular city or county, visit the EPA's Air Trends Web site and look for "PM 2.5 Wtd AM" in the tables provided. The most recent data available from the EPA is from 2005. http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/factbook.html

Glaciers melting at unprecedented speed

2007-01-29T14:18:00.000-08:00

Published: January 29 2007

Mountain glaciers around the world are melting at an unprecedented rate, according to new scientific data that will reinforce pressure on governments to take stronger action on global warming.

The World Glacier Monitoring Service in Zurich, Switzerland, said preliminary estimates for 2005 based on monitoring of 30 “reference” glaciers showed an average loss of 0.6 metres in ice thickness.

The 2005 figures match the average annual loss rate since 2000, which is one-and-a-half times the average annual ice loss in the 1990s and three times the loss rate of the 1980s, the WGMS said.

Experts fear upcoming global warming report may understate problem

2007-01-29T11:54:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Later this week in Paris, climate scientists will issue a dire forecast for the planet that warns of slowly rising sea levels and higher temperatures.
But that may be the sugarcoated version.

Early and changeable drafts of their upcoming authoritative report on climate change foresee smaller sea level rises than were projected in 2001 in the last report. Many top U.S. scientists reject these rosier numbers.

Those calculations don't include the recent, and dramatic, melt-off of big ice sheets in two crucial locations:

They "don't take into account the gorillas -- Greenland and Antarctica," said Ohio State University earth sciences professor Lonnie Thompson, a polar ice specialist. "I think there are unpleasant surprises as we move into the 21st century."

Michael MacCracken, who until 2001 coordinated the official U.S. government reviews of the international climate report on global warming, has fired off a letter of protest over the omission.
The melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are a fairly recent development that has taken scientists by surprise. They don't know how to predict its effects in their computer models. But many fear it will mean the world's coastlines are swamped much earlier than most predict.

Others believe the ice melt is temporary and won't play such a dramatic role.

That debate may be the central one as scientists and bureaucrats from around the world gather in Paris to finish the first of four major global warming reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel was created by the United Nations in 1988.

After four days of secret word-by-word editing, the final report will be issued Friday.

The early versions of the report predict that by 2100 the sea level will rise anywhere between 5 and 23 inches. That's far lower than the 20 to 55 inches forecast by 2100 in a study published in the peer-review journal Science this month. Other climate experts, including NASA's James Hansen, predict sea level rise that can be measured by feet more than inches.

The report is also expected to include some kind of proviso that says things could be much worse if ice sheets continue to melt.

The prediction being considered this week by the IPCC is "obviously not the full story because ice sheet decay is something we cannot model right now, but we know it's happening," said Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate panel lead author from Germany who made the larger prediction of up to 55 inches of sea level rise. "A document like that tends to underestimate the risk," he said.
"This will dominate their discussion because there's so much contentiousness about it," said Bob Corell, chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a multinational research effort. "If the IPCC comes out with significantly less than one meter (about 39 inches of sea level rise), there will be people in the science community saying we don't think that's a fair reflection of what we know."

In the past, the climate change panel didn't figure there would be large melt of ice in west Antarctica and Greenland this century and didn't factor it into the predictions. Those forecasts were based only on the sea level rise from melting glaciers (which are different from ice sheets) and the physical expansion of water as it warms.

But in 2002, Antarctica's 1,255-square-mile Larsen B ice shelf broke off and disappeared in just 35 days. And recent NASA data shows that Greenland is losing 53 cubic miles of ice each year -- twice the rate it was losing in 1996.

Even so, there are questions about how permanent the melting in Greenland and especially Antarctica are, said panel lead author Kevin Trenberth, chief of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.

While he said the melting ice sheets "raise a warning flag," Trenberth said he wonders if "some of this might just be temporary."

University of Alabama at Huntsville professor John Christy said Greenland didn't melt much within the past thousand years when it was warmer than now. Christy, a reviewer of the panel work, is a prominent so-called skeptic. He acknowledges that global warming is real and man-made, but he believes it is not as worrisome as advertised.

Those scientists who say sea level will rise even more are battling a consensus-building structure that routinely issues scientifically cautious global warming reports, scientists say.
The IPCC reports have to be unanimous, approved by 154 governments -- including the United States and oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia -- and already published peer-reviewed research done before mid-2006.

Rahmstorf, a physics and oceanography professor at Potsdam University in Germany, says, "In a way, it is one of the strengths of the IPCC to be very conservative and cautious and not overstate any climate change risk."

Federal government: 2006 hottest year on record

2007-01-10T04:11:00.000-08:00

We've been feeling the heat, and now the federal government confirms it:
2006 was the hottest year on record:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2007/s2772.htm

Air pollution increases risk of heart attack

2006-12-05T07:03:00.000-08:00

Study: Air Pollution Increases Risk of Heart Attack

December 4th, 2006 @ 6:01pmEd Yeates Reporting (KSL TV, Utah)

The American Heart Association's respected publication "Circulation" shows people with clogged arteries have an increased risk of heart attack after short term exposure to air pollution.

We are in the beginning stage of our own seasonal air inversion. Bad air, like we see here every year, was the basis for this Utah collaborative study. Brigham Young University and LDS Hospital teamed up on this latest research.

And it was extensive. It shows that very short term exposure to air pollution increases the risk of heart attack in those who have coronary artery blockage.

Jeffrey Anderson, M.D., LDS Hospital Cardiologist: "What was sobering about this study is even one or two or three days of exposure can bring on a heart attack."

Dr Jeffrey Anderson, along with a team of LDS Hospital cardiologists and colleagues, joined epidemiological researcher Dr. Arden Pope at BYU to collect this latest data. It shows a four percent increased risk of a heart attack for every ten milligrams of air containing fine pieces of particulate or soot (less than one hundredths the width of a human hair).

Anderson: "That's small particulate. Now that sounds like a fairly small increase, but we, on a bad day, might have an increase of a hundred, so ten times that." These little fine pieces, suspended in heavier concentrations during inversions, pretty much all come from vehicles and industry. Dr. Arden Pope, BYU Epidemiological Research: "They're not generated by wind blown dust or anything like that. They're almost entirely from burning things or high temperature industrial processes."

Circulation is publishing the Utah study because the evidence is backed with big numbers. Dr. Benjamin Horne, LDS Hospital Public Health Research: "typical studies have hundreds. This one had thousands. We had about five to six-thousand individuals who were having unstable chest pain or heart attacks." Along with the five to six thousand LDS Hospital was specifically following, an additional eight thousand people came into the hospital electively on those bad air days. HORNE: "THIS IS A BIG PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE" More studies are yet to come. Researchers want to find out what the pollution-triggered inflammation mechanism really is that causes the problem. They also want to find ways to protect these people during inversions.

Groups sue Bush administration for suppressing global warming science

2006-11-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

CLIMATE: Lawsuit accuses Bush admin of suppressing global warming assessment

Advocacy groups filed a lawsuit today aimed at forcing the Bush administration to produce an assessment of the effects of global warming and the state of climate science...

The administration's decision to follow its 2000 national assessment of climate science and consequences with a series of 21 staggered, narrowly defined reports violates the Global Change Research Act of 1990, the three groups said in their complaint.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The groups are asking the court to force the government -- through its Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy -- to produce a second national climate assessment.

Report for Tony Blair predicts big trouble on global warming

2006-10-30T06:25:00.000-08:00

Address climate change or risk global depression: economist

Failure to tackle the problem of climate change could trigger a worldwide economic slowdown along the same level as the Great Depression, warns a new report from a British economist.
Written by former World Bank economist Sir Nicholas Stern at the request of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the 700-page report was released on Monday.

"Our actions over the coming decades could create risks of major disruption to economic and social activity, later in this century and in the next, on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of the 20th century," says the report.

Failure to immediately tackle climate change could see global economic growth shrink by 20 per cent and cost the world economy close to $7 trillion US, warns Stern.

The report suggests other effects could include:
200 million new refugees as people are displaced by severe flooding or droughts.
Water shortages for one in six people.
A spike in world temperatures of up to 5 C.
Melting glaciers that could lead to water shortages.
20 to 40 per cent of wildlife species to become extinct.

More at http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/10/30/climate-cost.html

New study links traffic pollution to heart attacks

2006-10-12T05:21:00.000-07:00

Pollution from automobile traffic is linked with a significantly increased risk of heart attacks, according to a study published Oct. 11

An increase in traffic near the home was associated with a 4 percent increase in the risk of having a heart attack, and living near a major road was associated with a 5 percent increase, according to the study by six Massachusetts researchers.

The study was published online in Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The six researchers were from the Harvard School of Public Health, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and University of Massachusetts Medical School.

"We observed a significant association between exposure to traffic near the place of residence and the occurrence of acute myocardial infarction," the study said.

The research team analyzed the pollution levels near homes of 5,049 people in Worcester, Mass., who had heart attacks between 1995 and 2003 and compared that information to pollution of 10,277 people who did not have a heart attack.

http://www.ehponline.org/members/2006/9587/9587.pdf

NASA rings new global warming alarm bell; US has warmest summer since the Dust Bowl era

2006-09-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

Two new NASA studies are raising alarm bells about global warming.

Scientists with the space agency have found that there is a decline in the amount of arctic sea ice in the winter. Their findings also show the decline is occurring at a faster rate.

Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said 2006 was the warmest summer in the U.S. since the Dust Bowl in the 1930s -- and the second warmest since the record keeping began in 1895.

Scientists say global warming causing more violent hurricanes

2006-09-12T11:15:00.001-07:00

A new study reports stronger links between human-caused global warming and rising ocean temperatures -- a key factor in the development and growth of hurricanes.

The new study was done by researchers at Lawrence Livermore lab in California.

''We've now learned that the human-induced buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere appears to be the primary driver of increasing hurricane activity,'' Robert Corell, an oceanographer and a researcher for the American Meteorological Society, said during a press conference to promote the study.

The findings were published Monday in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Heat-trapping emissions could be stored under the ocean

2006-08-08T09:43:00.000-07:00

Conditions deep beneath the ocean floor are ripe for the permanent storage of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions, according to research published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new study -- conducted by researchers at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University -- raises the possibility of injecting the atmosphere's most abundant greenhouse gas at least 3,000 meters below sea level.

Outdoor Air Pollution Causes Infant Deaths

2006-08-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/118/2/493?ct=ct

PEDIATRICS Vol. 118 No. 2 August 2006, pp. 493-502 (doi:10.1542/peds.2006-0027)

ARTICLE
Air Pollution and Infant Death in Southern California, 1989–2000 Beate Ritz, MD, PhDa,b, Michelle Wilhelm, PhDa,b and Yingxu Zhao, PhDa
a Department of Epidemiologyb Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, California

OBJECTIVE. We evaluated the influence of outdoor air pollution on infant death in the South Coast Air Basin of California, an area characterized by some of the worst air quality in the United States.

METHODS. Linking birth and death certificates for infants who died between 1989 and 2000, we identified all infant deaths, matched 10 living control subjects to each case subject, and assigned the nearest air monitoring station to each birth address. For all subjects, we calculated average carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter <10 µm in aerodynamic diameter exposures experienced during the 2-week, 1-month, 2-month, and 6-month periods before a case subject's death.

RESULTS. The risk of respiratory death increased from 20% to 36% per 1-ppm increase in average carbon monoxide levels 2 weeks before death in early infancy (age: 28 days to 3 months). We also estimated 7% to 12% risk increases for respiratory deaths per 10-µg/m3 increase in particulate matter <10 µm in aerodynamic diameter exposure experienced 2 weeks before death for infants 4 to 12 months of age. Risk of respiratory death more than doubled for infants 7 to 12 months of age who were exposed to high average levels of particulates in the previous 6 months. Furthermore, the risk of dying as a result of sudden infant death syndrome increased 15% to 19% per 1-part per hundred million increase in average nitrogen dioxide levels 2 months before death. Low birth weight and preterm infants seemed to be more susceptible to air pollution-related death resulting from these causes; however, we lacked statistical power to confirm this heterogeneity with formal testing.

CONCLUSIONS. Our results add to the growing body of literature implicating air pollution in infant death from respiratory causes and sudden infant death syndrome and provide additional information for future risk assessment.

Key Words: air pollution • infant death • postneonatal death • epidemiology • respiratory death • sudden infant death syndrome • mortality
Abbreviations: PM10—particulate matter <10 µm in aerodynamic diameter • SoCAB—South Coast Air Basin • CI—confidence interval • OR—odds ratio • SIDS—sudden infant death syndrome • ICD-9—International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision • ICD-10—International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision • pphm—parts per hundred million • O3—ozone • NO2—nitrogen dioxide • CO—carbon monoxide • LBW—low birth weight • SO2—sulfur dioxide • PM2.5—particulate matter <2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter

NY Times: mercury found in songbirds

2006-07-25T04:18:00.000-07:00

Study of Songbirds Finds High Levels of Mercury

By ANTHONY DePALMA
Published: July 25, 2006

A biologist studying wild songbirds in New York State has found that all 178 woodland birds he tested last year had unusually high levels of mercury in their blood and feathers, a sign that the toxic chemical has spread farther in the environment than previously thought.

Tests on birds like this wood thrush found in the Catskills last year indicate that mercury may be a hazard in woods as well as in state waters.

The biologist, David C. Evers, who is also executive director of the Biodiversity Research Institute, a nonprofit ecological organization in Gorham, Me., said that his preliminary findings challenged existing perceptions about how far mercury travels, how it interacts with the environment and how it affects various forms of wildlife — all with worrisome implications for people.

While mercury has often been found in lakes and streams and in fish, Dr. Evers’s work documents the unexpected presence of the chemical in birds that do not live on water and never eat fish.

“Impacts on biological diversity usually show impacts on human health,” Dr. Evers said in a telephone interview. “If these birds are having trouble, that should be a very good indicator of a risk to our own well-being and health as well.”

Catherine H. Bowes, Northeast mercury program manager for the National Wildlife Federation, called the results of the songbird study “eye opening” and said they helped expand understanding of mercury contamination.

“It makes a compelling case for reducing mercury pollution from local sources, as New York is doing,” Ms. Bowes said.

Global warming spurs surge in western wildfires

2006-07-07T04:29:00.000-07:00

For more, see http://www.sciencemag.org/sciencexpress/recent.dtl

Gasp! Ozone Limits Don't Protect Babies

2006-06-29T15:31:00.000-07:00

from SCIENCE NEWS

By Raloff, Janet ENVIRONMENT

In healthy infants, even ozone concentrations well below those allowed by federal law trigger asthmalike symptoms, a new study shows.

The finding indicates that federal limits on this pervasive pollutant, a prime constituent of smog, don't protect infants "from rather severe respiratory symptoms," says epidemiologist Elizabeth W. Triche of the Yale University School of Medicine.

Triche's team recruited 691 women with 3-to-5-month-old infants from nonsmoking households around Roanoke, Va. Sixty-one moms had asthma, signaling that their babies were at high risk for developing the disease.

The researchers collected daily respiratory data, as reported by the mothers, on all the children for 8.3 days in summer- the peak ozone season-and then correlated the infant's symptoms with outdoor measurements of several air pollutants. As ozone values climbed, so did the risk of wheezing and troubled breathing in the babies, Triches team reports in the June Environmental Health Perspectives.

The other pollutants, such as fine particulates. didn't show that correlation. For each 11.8 parts per billion (ppb) increase in average daily concentrations in ozone, the likelihood of wheezing increased by 41 percent in all the infants and 91 percent in those with asthmatic moms. Each 11.8 ppb increase in ozone also increased the risk of labored breathing by almost 30 percent for all kids and more than doubled it in babies with asthmatic moms.

These findings dovetail with those that Triche's group reported 3 years ago in 6-to-12-year-old children. The big difference: Those children had asthma. In the new infant study, she notes, "children were not asthmatic." -J.R.

Global warming -- yes, it's real!

2006-06-23T17:14:00.000-07:00

The list of doubters has gotten pretty short, and the National Research Council has weighed in: the last few decades have been the hottest in at least 400 years. -- and maybe a lot longer than that.

For more, see
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11676

Unfortunately, even the best scientific evidence doesn't seem to be enough to win over the professional political doubters, led by Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX).

Another reason to worry about global warming: poison ivy!

2006-06-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

Duke University researchers report that poison ivy grows bigger and faster as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise.

The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA,Environmental Sciences-Biological SciencesBiomass and toxicity responses of poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) to elevated atmospheric CO2
( global change forest ecology Rhus radicans ) Jacqueline E. Mohan *, Lewis H. Ziska ¶, William H. Schlesinger *, Richard B. Thomas **, Richard C. Sicher ¶, Kate George ¶, and James S. Clark *
*Department of Biology and Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138; Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543; ¶Agricultural Research Service, Crop Systems, and Global Change Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705; and **Department of Biology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506
Contributed by William H. Schlesinger, April 22, 2006
Contact with poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) is one of the most widely reported ailments at poison centers in the United States, and this plant has been introduced throughout the world, where it occurs with other allergenic members of the cashew family (Anacardiaceae). Approximately 80% of humans develop dermatitis upon exposure to the carbon-based active compound, urushiol. It is not known how poison ivy might respond to increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), but previous work done in controlled growth chambers shows that other vines exhibit large growth enhancement from elevated CO2. Rising CO2 is potentially responsible for the increased vine abundance that is inhibiting forest regeneration and increasing tree mortality around the world. In this 6-year study at the Duke University Free-Air CO2 Enrichment experiment, we show that elevated atmospheric CO2 in an intact forest ecosystem increases photosynthesis, water use efficiency, growth, and population biomass of poison ivy. The CO2 growth stimulation exceeds that of most other woody species. Furthermore, high-CO2 plants produce a more allergenic form of urushiol. Our results indicate that Toxicodendron taxa will become more abundant and more "toxic" in the future, potentially affecting global forest dynamics and human health.

NOAA Predicts Bad Hurricane Season Ahead

2006-05-23T03:31:00.000-07:00

Warm sea temperatures cited...

SUMMARY

The outlook calls for a very active 2006 season, with 13-16 named storms, 8-10 hurricanes, and 4-6 major hurricanes. The likely range of the ACE index is 135%-205% of the median. This prediction indicates a continuation of above-normal activity that began in 1995. However, we do not currently expect a repeat of last year’s record season.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/outlooks/hurricane.shtml

New research warns of danger from ultra-fine particles

2006-05-02T08:43:00.000-07:00

from the Riverside Press-Enterprise Newspaper -- May 2, 2006

Tiny bits a big problemDeadliest pollution still unregulated
Andrew Silva, Staff writer

A whole new layer of regulations may be needed to deal with the tiniest and most dangerous bits of air pollution, as scientists released another study Monday showing children who live next to busy roads are twice as likely to have asthma symptoms.

"This is a major health issue," said John Froines, director of the Southern California Particle Center, during a conference in Los Angeles on ultrafine particles.

Ultrafine particles are unregulated, and are so small they can actually penetrate into cells, carrying toxic compounds right to a person's DNA and other critical areas.

As regulators struggle to scrub the air clean during a time of explosive growth in the diesel-powered shipping industry, scientists continue to warn that pollution from diesel sources is by far the most deadly. And the smaller the particle, the greater the danger.

"Ultrafines possess the greatest toxic potential compared to other particles," Froines said.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District will begin an in-depth examination of ultrafine particles in its next air quality management plan this year, said Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the region's smog-fighting agency.

Regulations to control the toxic flecks of pollution are expected to follow in the next few years.
The study on asthma and roads, published this month in the journal "Environmental Health Perspectives," looked at more than 5,000 children, ages 5 to 7, who live in 13 Southern California communities .

It found those who live within about 80 yards of a major road are 50 percent more likely to have had asthma symptoms in the previous year than those who live farther away.

The study dovetails with previous research showing concentrations of ultrafine particles are greatest near roadways and drop off dramatically with distance.

"Ultrafines may be the cause" of respiratory problems, said Rob McConnell, one of the study's authors and a professor at USC.

Restrictions are in place for larger particles, those 10 microns in diameter, or PM10, which is about one-seventh the diameter of a human hair, and the smaller PM2.5. A micron is one-millionth of a meter, or about the thickness of a dime sliced 1,000 times.

The regulations may be having a strange side effect.

Reductions in larger particles may actually spur an increase in the number of ultrafine particles, scientists said.

"Little particles attach to larger particles," Froines said. If you lower the number of big particles, there are fewer for the small particles to glom onto, he said.

That phenomenon has scientists calling for a change in the way particulates are measured.

Currently, particles are regulated by their mass, which is to say the particles in a cubic meter of air are basically weighed.
Instead, the particles should be counted, which is now being done in Europe.

Global warming threatens walrus

2006-04-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

We've heard about the threat global warming poses for polar bears. Now a new study says it could also threaten the walrus.

In a new study funded by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research, scientists have reported an unprecedented number of unaccompanied and possibly abandoned walrus calves in the Arctic Ocean, where melting sea ice may be forcing mothers to abandon their pups as the mothers follow the rapidly retreating ice edge north.

Nine lone walrus calves were reported swimming in deep waters far from shore by researchers aboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy during a cruise in the Canada Basin in the summer of 2004. Unable to forage for themselves, the calves were likely to drown or starve, the scientists said.

Lone walrus calves far from shore have not been described before, the researchers report in the April issue of Aquatic Mammals. The sightings suggest that increased polar warming may lead to decreases in the walrus population.

Bush Admin. to use more politics, less science, in setting clean-air standards

2006-04-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

The Bush administration is moving to use more politics and less science in the setting of national
clean air standards.

The current scientific process of setting standards – a process that has worked well for decades – would be replaced by a more political process. And this is specifically designed to prevent EPA career scientists from recommending tighter standards for ozone, or smog. (The agency is reviewing this standard under a court agreement; and recent science has found a strong link between breathing smog and dying early.)

The current process involves scientific interaction between EPA staff scientists and its outside science advisers. Draft staff paper reviewed by science advisers. Staff paper revision, another review by science advisers, etc.

Under the new process, EPA would deal with the issue like any other rulemaking – including early involvement by OMB. The outside science advisers would not be brought into the process until later in the game. As a result, the process will become more political, and less scientific. And EPA’s career scientists would not be able to frame the issues.

The Bush administration feels it was embarrassed because on the particle soot question, it was boxed in: both EPA career staff and the outside science advisers recommended something tougher than the White House wants. That has led to terrible pr. The Bush administration wants to make sure that never happens again.

The Cost of Pollution in San Joaquin Valley, CA

2006-03-30T04:27:00.000-08:00

A Valley's Smog Toll Tallied (Los Angeles Times)

In the San Joaquin, resulting health costs are $3.2 billion a year, a Cal State Fullerton study finds. That much would be gained by cleaner air.

By Janet Wilson, Times Staff WriterMarch 30, 2006

Smog in the San Joaquin Valley is responsible for $3.2 billion annually in health costs, according to findings released Wednesday by a Cal State Fullerton team.The lion's share of those costs — an estimated $3 billion — is tied to 460 smog-related deaths each year. Other major factors are school and work absences, hospital admissions and treatment for bronchitis and other illnesses.

The team concluded that the valley — with air quality that ranks among the worst in the nation, along with Los Angeles and Houston — would save more than $3 billion if it came into compliance with federal and state ozone and particulate standards."The results are important because it gives people a concrete sense of what price people pay for dirty air, and the flip side of that is the economic benefits of moving more quickly to achieve … air quality standards," said the study's lead author, Jane Hall, a professor of economics and co-director of the Institute for Economics and Environmental Studies at Cal State Fullerton.

Savings would come from 188,000 fewer school absences, an equal number of reduced-activity days for adults, 23,000 fewer asthma attacks, and reductions in hospital admissions, acute bronchitis and other health problems.The study found that although the entire valley suffered from bad air throughout the year because of its unique topography and weather, poor communities in Kern and Fresno counties were hit hardest by pollution and its costs.

Major sources of the air pollution include agricultural equipment as well as truck and car traffic along the 99 and 5 freeways.The research team did similar studies on the economic benefits of reducing air pollution in the Los Angeles Basin 18 years ago, and in Houston and San Francisco since then.

The bulk of the savings comes from preventing premature deaths from cancer, heart attack and other ailments from chronic exposure to particulates, according to study coauthor Victor Brajer, an economics professor at Cal State Fullerton.Brajer said longtime workplace studies show that wages are higher where there is a greater risk of death.

He also said other studies indicate that people spend more on consumer safety products where mortality risks are greater. Such costs are averaged together to arrive at an overall per-capita figure. Similar estimates are now also used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and others in research on costs and benefits of reducing air pollution.

Air regulators said the studies have been widely used to counteract claims by businesses that controlling air pollution costs too much and would lead to catastrophic economic losses."A large part of the economic consequences of air pollution come from Jane Hall, from the studies that she and her staff have done over the years," said California Air Resources Board spokesman Jerry Martin.

He said air regulators in the Los Angeles Basin in particular were "under enormous pressure" in the late 1980s from manufacturers and other industries threatening to move away if they were required to implement costly air pollution control measures until Hall's study provided a counterbalance showing substantial economic benefits to reducing air pollution.

Additionally, he said the state air board in the mid-1990s faced "draconian" proposals by the federal government that could have cost billions more to implement, but that Hall's work showed the state plan was the most cost-effective.

Kelly Morphy, spokeswoman for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, said the study could still be helpful to her agency's efforts to secure tougher regulations from state and federal air regulators of vehicle emissions in the valley. "I think we've turned that corner in that the businesses and industry in the San Joaquin Valley understand that they play an important role in cleaning up the air," she said. "But where we are now because of the unique topography and weather issues in the valley is we need more controls than the local air district has the authority to adopt.

The bulk of the emissions, especially when we talk about summertime pollution, is from mobile sources, from cars and trucks." Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said Hall's study of the Los Angeles Basin "was really one of the first times we had a very scientific and methodical approach to quantifying the health benefits of cleaning up the air." He said the district's 2003 air pollution control plan, now in effect, found average yearly benefits of complying with state and federal air standards to total an estimated $6.4 billion, while total costs were $3.25 billion.

Global Warming -- Why It's Worse Than We Thought

2006-03-28T14:35:00.000-08:00

In the March 24, 2006 issue of Science Magazine:

http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/ice/#section_this-week