|
Chu on this!
RELEASED
Chu on this! |
|
NATIONAL
RESEARCH COUNCIL REPORT CASTS DOUBT ON DECISION TO PRODUCE
ELECTRIC CARS IN ABSENCE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE
"...When the damages attributable to the other parts of the
lifecycle were included, especially the emissions from the
feedstock and the fuel (emissions from electricity production),
the aggregate
damages for the grid-dependent and all-electric vehicles become
comparable to, or somewhat higher than, those from gasoline."
-- page 146 |
|
DESPITE ITS TITLE,
THE REPORT OMITS THE GREATEST HIDDEN COST OF ENERGY: THE
MILITARY SECURMENT OF MIDDLE EAST OIL FIELDS FOR U.S.
TRANSPORTATION |
 |
Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy
Production and Use
U.S. National Academies of Science
Report Examines Hidden Health and Environmental Costs Of Energy
Production and Consumption In U.S.
U.S. National Academies of
Science
October 19, 2009 |
A new report from
the National Research Council examines and, when possible,
estimates "hidden" costs of energy production and use -- such as
the damage air pollution imposes on human health -- that are not
reflected in market prices of coal, oil, other energy sources,
or the electricity and gasoline produced from them. The report
estimates dollar values for several major components of these
costs. The damages the committee was able to quantify were an
estimated $120 billion in the U.S. in 2005, a number that
reflects primarily health damages from air pollution associated
with electricity generation and motor vehicle transportation.
The figure does not include damages from climate change, harm to
ecosystems, effects of some air pollutants such as mercury, and
risks to national security, which the report examines but does
not monetize.
Requested by Congress, the report assesses what economists
call external effects caused by various energy sources over
their entire life cycle -- for example, not only the pollution
generated when gasoline is used to run a car but also the
pollution created by extracting and refining oil and
transporting fuel to gas stations. Because these effects are not
reflected in energy prices, government, businesses and consumers
may not realize the full impact of their choices. When such
market failures occur, a case can be made for government
interventions -- such as regulations, taxes or tradable permits
-- to address these external costs, the report says.
The committee that wrote the report focused on monetizing the
damage of major air pollutants -- sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
oxides, ozone, and particulate matter – on human health, grain
crops and timber yields, buildings, and recreation. When
possible, it estimated both what the damages were in 2005 (the
latest year for which data were available) and what they are
likely to be in 2030, assuming current policies continue and new
policies already slated for implementation are put in place.
The committee also separately derived a range of values for
damages from climate change; the wide range of possibilities for
these damages made it impossible to develop precise estimates of
cost. However, all model results available to the committee
indicate that climate-related
damages caused by each ton of CO2 emissions will be far worse in
2030 than now; even if the total
amount of annual emissions remains steady, the damages caused by
each ton would increase 50 percent to 80 percent.
more
|
|
Climate Change and Health Costs of Air Emissions from Biofuels and
Gasoline
J. Hill, S. Polaskya, E. Nelsonc , D. Tilmanb, H.
Huod, L. Ludwige, J. Neumanne, H. Zhenga, D. Bontaa
National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Feb 3, 2009 |
...For each billion ethanol-equivalent
gallons of fuel produced and combusted in the US, the combined
climate-change and health costs are $469 million for gasoline,
$472–952 million for corn
ethanol depending on biorefinery heat source (natural gas,
corn stover, or coal)....
Increasing liquid fuel production is not the only approach to
meeting society’s growing transportation energy needs.
Technological and
behavioral solutions include improved vehicle efficiency, public
transportation, redesign of urban landscapes, and hybrid, plug-in
electric, natural gas, and
hydrogen vehicles.
In total, the considerable societal costs of GHG and PM2.5
emissions, and of other effects not yet quantified, should be
given full weight in policy choices among energy sources,
efficiency, and conservation. |
LETTER TO ICHC August 26, 2008
Sustainable Energy and Sustaining Lives
David Latimer
Mesothelioma & Asbestos Awareness Center |
|
There has been no shortage of
coverage in the media in recent years about the costs of fuel prices and
how it relates to the cost fluctuation of a barrel of crude oil. Indeed,
these costs can be directly attributed to the outdated energy policies we
adhere to. However, what is not often mentioned is the human costs that
these energy policies present to us. While some people are paying at the
pump for these policies, others are paying with their lives.
There is no doubt that adverse health effects can be traced
to air pollution and the burning of fossil fuels. But what are even less
known are the health effects of the workers who labor in the processing of
these resources. The 2008 Olympics in Beijing put a world spotlight on the
adverse air quality in one of the world’s most notorious criminals in the
crime of pollution. And while we threaten the sustainability of our
earth’s ozone layer and ability to produce enough oxygen for our spiraling
population in the future, even today lives are at risk.
Within the processing centers where fossil fuels are
converted, such as coal factories and oil refineries, every day workers
encounter the dangerous realities of an obsolete energy paradigm. Among
the most common materials used in the fixtures of these factories is
asbestos. While asbestos was banned in the late 1970’s by the Consumer
Product Safety Commission, it still exists in nearly all facets of
American and foreign industry. Older fixtures built with asbestos have not
been replaced and represent a clear hazard to those who encounter them
each day.
Asbestos formed insulation compounds around piping and
boilers, as well as a myriad of other products which required a resistance
to temperature transfer. As these materials become abraded by age or
damage, asbestos fibers can easily be released into the air, posing a
serious hazard for surrounding workers. In recent years, there has been an
influx of pleural mesothelioma (a rare but deadly cancer caused by
asbestos exposure) and other respiratory complications as a result of
occupational exposures in fuel processing centers. However, mesothelioma
is not the only hazard our energy policies pose. It’s just another
consequence of a dirty business. At this point as a country we can go one
of two ways. We can stay on the course we’re on, which is a dead end. Or
we can move out of fossil fuels and into a new era of practical and
sustainable energy, saving not only the earth for our posterity but the
lives of our workers today. |
|
 |
WHY
HYDROGEN?
Living Near Highways
Can Stunt Lungs
Major traffic exposure could result in lifetime
deficits in lung function, a USC study of children finds
Jennifer Chan USC Today
January 25, 2007 |
|
“Otherwise-healthy children who
were non-asthmatic and non-smokers also experienced a significant decrease
in lung function from traffic pollution.
This suggests that all children,
not just susceptible subgroups, are potentially affected by traffic
exposure.”
W. James Gauderman, associate professor of
preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine |
|
Children who live near a major
highway are not only more likely to develop asthma or other respiratory
diseases, but their lung development may also be stunted. ...[R]esearchers
at the Keck School of Medicine of USC found that children who lived within
500 meters of a freeway, or approximately a third of a mile, since age 10
had substantial deficits in lung function by the age of 18 years, compared
to children living at least 1,500 meters, or approximately one mile, away.
|
|
COAL OR RENEWABLES?
YOU DECIDE.
STATES FINALLY REBEL AGAINST CUMULATIVE MERCURY POISONING FROM COAL POWER
PLANTS
 |
|
"We are morally compelled to take
effective action to safeguard our people
against this toxic pollutant."
Kathleen A. McGinty, Secretary Pennsylvania
EPA
Pennsylvania EPA Rejects New Federal Rule Allowing Big Coal to Poison
Their State with Deadly Mercury
Penn Department of Environmental Protection
April 26, 2006 |
Nearly half of the nation has voted, or is about to act, on state-specific
plans rejecting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's flawed Clean
Air Mercury Rule to control emissions from coal-fired power plants. "The
fact that so many states are choosing a different course clearly shows
that the federal rule does little to protect the environment while it puts
residents -- especially children, pregnant women and unborn babies -- in
jeopardy of continued damaging exposure to mercury," Environmental
Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty said.
Pennsylvania is not alone. Because of
the toxicological effects that mercury has on humans, wildlife and the
environment, other states have announced their intention to do the same.
Mercury is a persistent, bio- accumulative neurotoxin that can remain
active in the environment for more than 10,000 years. Mercury accumulation
in aquatic ecosystems in Pennsylvania, and 45 other states, has caused
$1.6 billion worth of pollution damages to the state's recreational
fishing industry.
...According to EPA's April 12 Toxic Release Inventory
report, Pennsylvania moved from third to second in 2004 in the total
amount of mercury pollution spewed from power plants. The commonwealth
previously had been third behind Texas and Ohio, respectively. Texas
remains first. |
|
DISTRIBUTED ENERGY IS
NO SOLUTION WITHOUT CLEAN AIR TECHNOLOGY |
|
Quantifying the Air Pollution Exposure Consequences of Distributed
Electricity Generation
Garvin A. Hath, Patrick W. Granvold, Abigail S.
Hoats, William W. Nazaroff
University of California Energy Institute
November 2005 |
|
Private sector and governmental
organizations have been promoting the deployment of small-scale,
distributed electricity generation (DG) technologies for their many
benefits as compared to the traditional paradigm of large, centralized
power plants. While some researchers have investigated the impact of a
shift toward DG in terms of energy use and even air pollutant
concentrations, it is also important to evaluate the air pollutant
exposure implications of this shift. We conducted a series of case studies
within the state of California that combined air dispersion modeling and
inhalation exposure assessment. Twenty-five central stations were selected
and five air pollutant-emitting DG technologies were considered, including
two that meet the 2003 and 2007 California Air Resources Board DG
emissions standards (microturbines and fuel cells with on-site natural gas
reformers, respectively). This investigation has revealed that the
fraction of pollutant mass emitted that is inhaled by the downwind,
exposed population can be more than an order of magnitude greater for all
five DG technologies considered than for large, central-station power
plants in California. |
CALIFORNIA DETROIT AIR RESOURCES
BOARD
September 24, 2004 |
 |
Dr. Alan Lloyd,
Chairman
California Air Resources
Board |
Terry
Tamminen, Secretary
California EPA |
California Regulators Approve
World's Toughest Smog Rules
Tim Molloy AP/Sacramento Bee |
The proposals stem from a law signed by former Gov. Gray
Davis in 2002 that required the board to set emission standards for greenhouse gases. The
bill's author, Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, said Friday's vote marked the
first time in the world regulations have been placed on vehicles for the specific purpose
of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
She said the fact the action had the support of Davis, a Democrat, and
Schwarzenegger, the Republican who replaced him, "speaks to the unified effort among
all Californians" to reduce greenhouse gases.
 Board members
said there is no dispute that greenhouse gases contribute to global warming that can harm
California's economy in fields ranging from agriculture to tourism.
They said the emissions can also lead to serious respiratory problems, especially among
children, by exacerbating the effects of smog. Los Angeles has the worst smog problem in
the nation. Board member Henry Gong, a physician, noted that many medical experts pushed
for the regulations and none testified against them. |
"We see... no
apparent health benefit at a great cost to California consumers."
Gloria J. Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the industry trade group
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers Sacramento Bee
RECOMMENDED READING FOR THE
ALLIANCE OF AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURERS: |
- Researchers with the Children's
Health Study have monitored levels of major pollutants in a dozen Southern California
communities since 1993, while carefully following the respiratory health of more than
3,000 students. The report released in the October issue of the American Journal of
Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, covers smog's health effects on children over the
first four years of the study.
For more information about the Children’s Health
Study, visit the researchers' website at: www.usc.edu/medicine/scehsc
W. James Gauderman, Rob McConnell, Frank Gilliland,
Stephanie London, Duncan Thomas, Edward Avol, Hita Vora, Kiros Berhane, Edward B.
Rappaport, Fred Lurmann, Helene G. Margolis and John Peters, Association Between Air Pollution and Lung Function Growth in
Southern California Children. American Journal
of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Vol 162, No. 4, October 2000, pp. 1-8.
Acknowledgement: This research was supported by the California
Air Resources Board (under the auspices of the Long-Term Exposure Health Effects
Research Program), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (which funds
the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center), the Environmental
Protection Agency, and the Hastings Foundation.
- Report says auto emissions in
Southland cost health care $1.8 Billion. Nearly half of all Americans
are breathing unhealthy air, and air quality in dozens of metropolitan areas has actually
gotten worse over the last decade according to a new report from the Surface
Transportation Policy Project. The study names transportation as a major contributor to
air pollution nationwide, and calls on Congress to protect and strengthen clean air laws
and funding. The new report, Clearing the Air, Public Health
Threats from Cars and Heavy Duty Vehicles - Why We Need to Protect Federal Clean Air Laws
ranks metropolitan areas by the highest number of days of
unhealthy air pollution levels.
|
"What are we doing?"
Pollutants Cause Huge
Rise
in Brain Diseases
Scientists alarmed as number of cases
triples in 20 years
Juliette Jowit
The Observer (UK)
August 15, 2004 |
| The alarming rise, which includes
figures showing rates of dementia have trebled in men, has been
linked to rises in levels of pesticides, industrial effluents,
domestic waste, car exhausts and other pollutants, says a report in
the journal Public Health.
In the late 1970s, there were around 3,000 deaths a year from these
conditions in England and Wales. By the late 1990s, there were
10,000.
'This has really scared me,' said Professor Colin
Pritchard of Bournemouth University, one of the report's authors.
'These are nasty diseases: people are getting more of them and they
are starting earlier. We have to look at the environment and ask
ourselves what we are doing.'
The report, which Pritchard wrote with colleagues
at Southampton University, covered the incidence of brain diseases
in the UK, US, Japan, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy,
Netherlands and Spain in 1979-1997. The researchers then compared
death rates for the first three years of the study period with the
last three, and discovered that dementias - mainly Alzheimer's, but
including other forms of senility - more than trebled for men and
rose nearly 90 per cent among women in England and Wales. All the
other countries were also affected. more |
UNITED STATES
PUBLIC CITIZEN ENVIRONMENTAL INTEGRITY
PROJECT
May 5, 2004 |
FOSSIL
ENERGY IS "CHEAPER" THAN RENEWABLE ENERGY ONLY BECAUSE THE IMMENSE
COSTS OF RESULTING HEALTH, MILITARY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS ARE PASSED INDIRECTLY TO
CITIZENS AS HIGHER TAXES, INCREASED HEALTHCARE AND LIVING EXPENSES. - RDM
"Besides causing major environmental and
property damage from acid rain, sulfur dioxide also inflicts a serious health toll in
terms of asthma attacks and lung ailments. According to EPA studies, pollution from power
plants is linked to heart and lung diseases which contribute to more than 20,000 premature
deaths a year. Mercury is a highly toxic metal that, once released into the atmosphere,
settles in lakes and rivers, where it moves up the food chain to humans. In 2003, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that roughly 10 percent of American
women carry mercury concentrations at levels considered to put a fetus at risk to
neurological damage. " - EIP/PC Report |
 |
America's Dirtiest Power
Plants
Environmental Integrity Project and Public Citizen
"No
one should have any illusions about what is happening:
This is a well-connected industry that is absolutely intent on preserving
its ‘right’ to foul the air regardless of the consequences for the American
public.” - Eric Schaeffer, EIP Director |
|
|
| CALIFORNIA
SCAQMD |
 "Shortsighted and Unenlightened":
AQMD Head Issues Scathing Response to Critical Author
Invites Romm to California to learn about clean air! |
Letter to L.A. Times by
South Coast Air Quality Management District Executive Officer Barry R. Wallerstein
Hydrogen-Power Cars Help Air Quality
Joseph J. Romm's piece, "Lots of Hot Air
About Hydrogen" (Opinion, March 28), is a shortsighted and unenlightened view of
a developing technology that is likely to play a crucial role in cleaning up the
Southland's smog. Romm should spend a summer in Southern California — where residents
last year suffered 68 days of unhealthful air quality — to appreciate the urgency for
developing zero-emission vehicles. Southern California has just six years left to meet
federal health-based standards for ground-level ozone air quality, or else potentially
face sanctions that could hamstring the region's economy.
The development of vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells will indeed
face substantial challenges, from the refinement of fuel-cell design to the building of a
hydrogen fueling network. The South Coast Air Quality Management District is co-funding a
nascent network of five hydrogen fueling stations for a fleet of 35 hydrogen-powered
Toyota Priuses. Unlike fuel-cell cars, these Priuses will burn hydrogen in conventional
internal-combustion engines, with emissions as low as or lower than the gasoline-hybrid
Prius touted by Romm.
While fuel-cell vehicles still are in the demonstration phase and can
cost millions apiece, the Priuses can be converted to burn hydrogen at a relatively low
cost. These kinds of vehicles can help jump-start a hydrogen fueling network, which will
in turn provide an incentive for automakers to produce zero-emission fuel-cell-powered
cars.
Incidentally, all of the major automakers currently are demonstrating
fuel-cell vehicles, and GM has committed to bring a model to the consumer market by 2010.
-- Barry R. Wallerstein AQMD Executive Officer Diamond Bar |
CALIFORNIA QUANTUM SCAQMD March 18, 2004
Quantum Awarded Contract to
Develop Fleet of Hydrogen Fueled Vehicles Quantum
MICHIGAN ECD
CHEVRONTEXACO TOYOTA March 9, 2004
Hydrogen Hybrid
Vehicle Powered With Ovonic® Solid State
Hydrogen
Storage: A Practical First Step on the Road to a
Hydrogen-fueled
Future Energy Conversion Devices
CALIFORNIA QUANTUM TOYOTA March
9, 2004
Expert Panel Recommends
California's South Coast Air Quality
Management District Operate a
Fleet of 35 Prius Hydrogen
Hybrids SCAQMD
Hydrogen Cars Draw City Funds Los Angeles Daily News |
 |
"Look, one in six kids in
the Central Valley, we now know, walks around with one of these [asthma inhaler] in their pocket --
and so do I. So this is personal. We are going to get the tons.
We are going to get the pollution. And hydrogen is going to be a
key way of doing that."
Terry Tamminen
Secretary, California
Environmental Protection Agency
Address to the California Hydrogen Business Council
South Coast Air Quality Management District January 23, 2004
Transcript
Image: VIMS
|
"If provisions in last
year's United States energy bill pass this year, many diesel vehicles will qualify for the
same tax credits as hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. It is a surprise to me that
this proposal was made before its possible effect on public health was evaluated.''
Mark Z. Jacobsen
associate professor of civil and environmental engineering,
Stanford
Stanford
Research: U.S. Push for Diesel Fuel Risky
CBS 5 Eyewitness News February 22, 2004
Study Refutes
Notion that Diesel-powered Vehicles are better for the Environment Czerne
Reid Stanford Report February 11, 2004
The Effect on Photochemical Smog
of Converting the U.S. Fleet of Gasoline Vehicles to Modern Diesel Vehicles - Mark Z. Jacobson, Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Stanford University; John H. Seinfeld, Departments of Chemical Engineering
and Environmental Science and Engineering, California Institute of Technology; Greg R.
Carmichael, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Iowa; David
G. Streets, Argonne National Laboratory
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 31, L02116, doi:10.1029/2003GL018448, 2004
Association Between Air Pollution and Lung Function Growth in
Southern California Children. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Vol 162, No.
4, October 2000, pp. 1-8.
USC
Study Shows School Absenteeism Rises as Air Pollution Worsens January 2002
|
 Smog Causing
'Epidemic'
Report says auto emissions in Southland cost
health care
$1.8 Billion
Kerry Cavanaugh Daily News August
19, 2003
Download Report
Nationwide, childhood asthma rates have doubled in the last two
decades and the public health cost of pollution from cars and trucks is estimated to be
$40 billion to $65 billion a year, according to the report. |
 "The minor funding that is being offered today for enhancing
the fuel-cell and hydrogen opportunities in Canada are almost insignificant to what is
really needed. When you compare that to the cost to society of maintaining welfare roles
when today's children are unable to work because they have no lung power, we'll realize
what a bargain we passed up a few years back."
 Dr. Geoffrey Ballard
co-founder of Ballard Power Systems
Gov't Passing Up
Bargain Says Fuel Cell's Godfather
Jim Jamieson The
Province/Canada.com June
10, 2003
Study
Finds Damage to Human
Cells Exposed to Air Pollution
University of California, Los Angeles
April 10, 2003
The study is among the first to report
that ultrafine particulates not only lodge deep inside the lungs, but also penetrate deep
into the mitochondria, the power source of a human cell, and they remain there
indefinitely. Over time, ultrafine particulates lodged in the mitochondria cause severe
structural damage, adversely affecting cell function.
A number of past epidemiological
studies have shown an association between ambient air particulates from automobile exhaust
and adverse health outcomes, but those studies focus on particulates that measure greater
than 0.1 micrometers. The findings in the current study are considered significant in this
field of research because they are among the first to show a direct link between ultrafine
particulates and destruction of a specific entity in a human cell.
...Funding for the study was provided
by the EPA Science To Achieve Results program and the California Air Resources Board,
with support by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
|
AIR POLLUTION
MAY ALTER GENES
Six years ago, scientists found that
herring gulls living near steel mills around the harbour in Hamilton, Ontario, tended to
have high DNA mutation rates. These mutations were then transferred to the next generation
of gulls, increasing the offspring's chances of developing genetic diseases like cancer
and birth defects. Researchers suspected at the time that air pollution was causing the
mutations, but they couldn't eliminate other factors, such as polluted water or
contaminated fish, that also could have been responsible.
Now other scientists have
published a paper indicating that air pollution is indeed the likely culprit behind the
mutations. What's more, there's no reason why human DNA should be immune from the same
pollution. So our genes may also be damaged and inherited by our children.
It's sobering to think that
chemicals in our air affect us at a genetic level. Few studies have been done on this
topic outside examinations of animals exposed to radioactive dust from nuclear accidents.
...The chemicals thought to be
responsible for the mutations ...are also found in cigarette smoke. They're called
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, a group of about 100 different chemicals that
are created largely when fossil fuels are burned, but are also found in charred food and
cigarettes.
Air Pollution May Alter Genes
Environmental News Network David Suzuki January 7, 2003 |
Senate
Backs Relaxation of
Clean Air Regulations in 50 to 46 Vote
Washington Post
January 23, 2003 |
"Shouldn't we
look before we leap? Before we change rules that can affect the most basic protections for
our kids and families and our parks, shouldn't we at least do an analysis of what impact
it's going to have?"
1
"To not take a serious
scientific look on what effect it will have on kids with asthma, on seniors with
respiratory problems, on human health is an enormous mistake." 2
Presidential Candidate Senator John Edwards
Sponsor of the defeated amendment to delay the
changes for six months while a panel of scientists studies the effects of increased
polllutionAir Trust |
C
L
I
C
K
O
N
I
M
A
G
E |
Hydrogen Hero |
Dr. Robert Zweig, 77, Advocate
for Cleaner Air and Alternative Fuels
Los Angeles Times
February 25, 2002 |
Hydrogen Visionary
Dr. Robert Zweig, 77
|
"Promoting
hydrogen and policies that would reduce the impact of air pollution on his patients was
Bob's life's passion. His patients were all of us. He fought so hard to educate the
public, policy makers, and anyone else who would listen on the benefits of moving to a
hydrogen energy economy, from the halls of Congress and the Offices of the President and
Vice President of the United States to the schoolhouses. All without remuneration. We are
indebted to his tenacity."
James
Provenzano, Executive V.P. Clean Air Now |
 A Memorial Tribute to
Dr. Robert Zweig
The dedication of the Zweig Educational Building
at Sunline Transit Agency April 28, 2000
QUICKTIME
8MB WINDOWS
MEDIA 3MB REALVIDEO
1MB
Get Quicktime
Get Windows
Media Player Get
RealVideo |
Many of the elements of the
 Clean Air Now Solar Hydrogen
Project at Xerox, El Segundo, are now employed in producing hydrogen for the public
hydrogen fueling station at
Sunline Transit Agency near
Palm Springs, California. See the PHOTO TOUR of the
November 2000 meeting of the Department of Energy's Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel at
Sunline Transit. |
 EXPANDING PETROLEUM
TRANSPORT WILL DOOM CHINA
AND INDIA, DEBILITATE JAPAN
ASIAN BROWN CLOUD
CENTRAL CHINA JULY
11, 2002
HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGE
1KM
500M
250M
According to a recent report from
the United Nations Environment Program, a vast blanket of pollution being called the
"Asian Brown Haze" stretches across South Asia on a regular basis. This mixture
of emissions from biomass burning, industrial activities, and inefficient use of wood and
dung as home heating and cooking sources is reducing agricultural yields, altering
rainfall patterns and endangering the health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of
people. - NASA
|
DEAD
END
2002 U.N. ESTIMATE:
HALF A MILLION DEAD!
ASIA'S DEADLY DANCE WITH OIL AND POLLUTION |
"Carbon
based economies, supplying energy in the quantities necessary to assure progress in
developing nations, would completely destroy Earth’s fragile atmosphere."
Dr. Geoffrey Ballard
General Hydrogen
|
 The Asian Brown Cloud
Climate and other Environmental Impacts
United Nations Environmental Program |
 |
Executive Summary |
| Part I: The South Asian
Haze:Air Pollution, Ozone and Aerosols |
| Part II: Climate and
Environmental Impacts |
| Part III:
Global and Future Implications |
U.S. FEDERAL COURT
REVERSES APPEALS COURT RULING:
FAVORS CLEAN AIR ACT
"EPA now has a clear path
to move forward to ensure
that all Americans
can breathe cleaner air."
EPA Administrator Christie Whitman
Federal
Court Gives EPA Final Go-Ahead
To Issue Stricter Air Quality Health Standards
by Josef Herbert
AP/New Jersey.com March
27, 2002
The changes have been in limbo because
of the court challenges waged by industry groups and several states that argued that the
EPA had exceeded its authority in issuing standards that had no definitive scientific
basis and would be exceedingly expensive to business.
The Supreme Court ruled a year ago that the EPA under the Clean Air Act
had no requirement to take into account costs when issuing health standards and had acted
reasonably in trying to protect certain population groups including small children, the
elderly and people with respiratory problems.
In the latest court decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of
Appeals rejected claims the EPA had acted arbitrarily in determining the level of the new
standards.
|
USC Study Shows Air
Pollution
Slows Lung Function Growth
As Children Grow Up
by Jon Weiner University of Southern California October
19, 2000
|
Common air pollutants slow children's lung development over time,
according to results from the University of Southern California-led Children's Health
Study. The 10-year-long study is considered one of the nation's most comprehensive studies
to date of the long-term effects of smog on children. The study was initiated with support
from the California Air
Resources Board. Additional funding has been provided by the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Hastings
Foundation.
|
"This
is the best evidence yet of a chronic effect of air pollution in children," says John
Peters, M.D., D.Sc., USC professor of preventive medicine and one of the study authors.
"Long -term exposure to air pollution has long-term effects on children’s lungs,
and the effects are more pronounced in areas of higher air pollution."
|
Researchers with the Children's Health Study have monitored levels of
major pollutants in a dozen Southern California communities since 1993, while carefully
following the respiratory health of more than 3,000 students. The report released in the
October issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, covers
smog's health effects on children over the first four years of the study.
For more information about the Children’s Health Study,
visit the researchers' website at: www.usc.edu/medicine/scehsc
W. James Gauderman, Rob McConnell, Frank Gilliland, Stephanie London, Duncan
Thomas, Edward Avol, Hita Vora, Kiros Berhane, Edward B. Rappaport, Fred Lurmann, Helene
G. Margolis and John Peters, Association
Between Air Pollution and Lung Function Growth in Southern California Children.
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Vol 162, No. 4, October 2000,
pp. 1-8.
Acknowledgement: This research was supported by the
California Air Resources Board (under the auspices of the Long-Term
Exposure Health Effects Research Program), the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences (which funds the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center), the
Environmental Protection Agency, and the Hastings Foundation.
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California:
Toxic Beginnings: A Lifetime of Chemical Exposure
in the First Year
National Environmental Trust
Air
quality in Los Angeles has been a problem for decades and despite efforts to clean the
air, residents are still breathing toxic and potentially carcinogenic air. This new report
shows that a child born in Los Angeles receives a lifetime's acceptable cancer risk in
just his or her first two months of life.
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