Air Pollution

Fossil Fuels Kill Nearly Nine Million Annually

February 14, 2021 Climate Nexus, EcoWatch. Educate! Air Pollution, Deaths, Fossil Fuels

Burning fossil fuels kills nearly 9 million people worldwide and an estimated 350,000 in the U.S. every year, according to a new study by scientists from Harvard and three British universities. The staggering death toll is more than double the WHO's 2017 estimate of deaths caused by air pollution. "There's a perception in the United States that we have this under control, but that's a mistake," Joel Schwartz, a Harvard professor and one of the study's authors, told the Boston Globe. Based on data from 2018, the scientists found nearly one-in-five deaths that year — and nearly a third of deaths in eastern Asia — were caused by burning fossil fuels.

Springfield Says “No” To Biomass Power Plant

September 5, 2020 Peter Goonan, Mass Live. Resist! Air Pollution, Biomass, Energy, Massachusetts

Springfield, MA - More than 75 people gathered on the steps of City Hall on Thursday calling for an end to a long-proposed biomass project in East Springfield, saying it is a threat to public health and an environmental hazard. Some of those speaking used he phrase “we can’t breathe” in expressing their strong opposition to the wood-to-energy plant proposed by Palmer Renewable Energy LLC at 1000 Page Blvd. Verne McArthur, of the Springfield Climate Justice Coalition, led the activists and residents in chants against the biomass project, including, “We will, we will, block you, block you.”

How The Harvard Covid-19 Study Became The Center Of A Partisan Uproar

July 28, 2020 Marianne Lavelle, Inside Climate News. Educate! Air Pollution, COVID-19, EPA, health

The researchers found that Covid-19 patients who lived in polluted areas were more likely to die than those in less polluted areas, with a small increase in PM 2.5 associated with a large increase in the risk of premature death. If the results held up, it would be striking evidence of the need for a more expansive public policy to control Covid-19 that included environmental, as well as personal, protection. But the paper instantly touched off a political scrum, in large part because the Harvard team's conclusion was directly at odds with the Trump administration's drive to aggressively roll back environmental regulation. Democrats and environmental advocates cited the research in their battle against the Trump agenda, while Andrew Wheeler, the administrator of Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Wheeler's science advisers, Republican members of Congress and anti-regulation lobbyists all blasted the study.

Report: Nearly Half Of Americans Breathing Unhealthy Air

May 4, 2020 Dana Drugmand, DeSmog Blog. Educate! Air Pollution, EPA, health, Trump

As the death toll from COVID-19 continues to rise in the U.S. — and as initial studies suggest that long-term exposure to air pollution may lead to higher death rates from the disease — a new report finds that nearly five in 10 Americans are breathing polluted air. According to the American Lung Association’s (ALA) latest State of Air Report released April 21, 150 million Americans — almost half the population — are living in areas with unhealthy air. The findings challenge clean air claims by the Trump administration and fossil fuel allies. The report also describes how the current administration’s environmental rollbacks threaten the nation’s air quality and public health. The American Lung Association’s 21st annual State of the Air Report marks the 50th anniversary of the Clean Air Act, a bedrock environmental law enacted in 1970.

Trump’s EPA Weakens Justification For Life-Saving Mercury Pollution Rule

April 21, 2020 Olivia Rosane, Ecowatch. Educate! Air Pollution, Deregulation, EPA, health

As many Americans fight for their lives in the midst of a respiratory pandemic, the Trump administration Thursday axed the justification for a mercury pollution rule that saves more than 10,000 lives and prevents as many as 130,000 asthma attacks each year. The new rollback leaves mercury emission standards in place for now, but changes how their benefits are calculated so that the economic cost takes precedence over public health gains, The New York Times reported. The move provides a legal opening to challenge other pollution controls even as evidence suggests that exposure to air pollution might increase one's chances of dying from the new coronavirus. "This is an absolute abomination," former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head under Obama and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) president Gina McCarthy said in a statement.

How Linda Garcia Risked Everything To Keep Big Oil Out Of Her Community

May 7, 2019 Nina Lakhani, Huffpost.com Resist! Air Pollution, Environment, Oil, Washington

Every time Linda Garcia’s cellphone pings, she wonders if it will be another death threat. The environmental activist has been targeted by anonymous callers for five years since taking on Big Oil to save her community from environmental devastation. Garcia lives in Fruit Valley, the kind of close-knit place where everybody knows everybody. The low-income community in Vancouver, Washington, sits just across the river from Portland, Oregon, and is home to a thousand households. It also has a severe air pollution problem.

Microplastics Are Blowing In The Wind: New Study Shows Plastic Pollution Falling From The Sky

April 20, 2019 Ashley Curtin, Nationofchange.org Educate! Air Pollution, Plastic

Plastic pollution is now the greatest global issue. And a new study proves microplastics are traveling through the atmosphere. In a first of its kind published in Nature Geoscience, the study looked at atmospheric microplastic deposition and transport. Research presented in the study included “observations of atmospheric microplastic deposition in a remote, pristine mountain catchment (French Pyrenees).” Over a five month period, samples were analyzed in both wet and dry deposition identifying fibers up to ~750 µm long and fragments ≤300 µm as microplastics, the study reported. The study concluded “daily counts of 249 fragments, 73 films and 44 fibers per square meter” that deposited on the French Pyrenees.

EPA Rule Change On Mercury Could Kill Thousands

January 20, 2019 By Olivia Alperstein, Otherwords Educate! Air Pollution, EPA, Mercury

On December 28, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposal that would effectively weaken the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which protect American families from mercury and other harmful air pollutants emitted by power plants. These regulations save a lot of lives — 11,000 every year, according to the EPA’s own data — and they prevent 130,000 asthma attacks annually. Stripping this regulatory power virtually guarantees more asthma attacks and more preventable deaths.

Trump’s Air Pollution Adviser: Clean Air Saves No Lives

October 26, 2018 By Jason Plautz, Revealnews.org Educate! Air Pollution, Environment, Trump Administration

Last spring, air pollution researchers from around the world gathered to discuss their latest findings. Among them were scientists who led landmark studies linking smog and soot to deadly health problems. So it was shocking when one speaker essentially told everyone in the room that they were wrong. In his half-hour presentation, Tony Cox, a risk analyst from Denver, claimed that researchers are overstating the dangers of air pollution. He explained how his own statistical modeling of health data found no connection between dirty air and respiratory problems or heart attacks. Scientists and others at the Health Effects Institute annual conference were appalled. Some added to their speeches what they had thought was obvious: Yes, air pollution really is dangerous.

City-Level Action Is The Right Way To Tackle Emissions

June 30, 2018 Staff, M.phys.org Create! Air Pollution, Cities, emission, New Economy

Countries seeking to meet Paris Agreement targets on CO2 emissions must get a grip on the amount of pollution produced at city level, according to researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA). In a new study, published in Science Advances, the researchers set out a framework for gathering and analysing local information about how cities contribute to pollution levels, and show how these insights could be used to target climate mitigation initiatives most effectively. Using China as a model, the team has compared emissions data from 180 cities across the country, looking at the industrial make-up of each city, its socioeconomic profile, and the types of energy produced and consumed. The researchers used the data to classify cities according to different levels of industrial development and worked out the potential for emission reduction amongst the different groups.

Breathless: Pittsburgh’s Asthma Epidemic And The Fight To Stop It

June 13, 2018 Kristina Marusic, Ehn.org Educate! Air Pollution, Children, Pittsburgh

Asthma plagues children in Allegheny County—and air pollution is making it worse. How bad is it? With data lacking, a pediatrician and her colleagues set out to put a number on the problem. Testing more than 1,200 elementary school students, they found that 22 percent of kids in the region have asthma. At the state level, just 10 percent of kids have asthma. The national average? Eight percent. And there were consistently higher rates of asthma among kids living close to the region's big industrial polluters. We're going beyond the numbers. Meet the children who get pulled from school or football practice because they cannot catch their breath, and the concerned parents trying to give their kids a normal, healthy life.

Facing Deadly Levels Of Pollution, Will California Finally Step Up?

June 13, 2018 Kate Harveston, Popular Resistance. Resist! Air Pollution, California, health, Transportation

Humans do not exist in a vacuum. We are very much a part of the world, a part of our Mother Earth. And when Mother Earth is ailing, we fall sick as well. Indeed, multiple studies done by the California Air Resources Board have found a correlation between air pollution and respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease and lowered immune responses. California has a vibrant, growing economy. This abundance has led to increasing population growth. With that increasing population comes further damage to the environment as each new individual adds to the overall carbon footprint of the state.

Rebel Cities 4: In Warsaw, “Rights To The City” Means Clean Air And Affordable Homes

May 21, 2018 Steve Rushton, Occupy.com Create! Affordable Housing, Air Pollution

“We fight for a fair, more resident-friendly and greener city, which follows the principles of sustainable development," explained Justyna Kościńska, board member of Warsaw's municipalist organization Miasto jest Nasze. Miasto jest Nasze means City is Ours. Started in 2013 by social activists, it is now a urban movement spreading from the capital across Poland. Kościńska continued: "Since 2013, City is Ours has been actively searching for solutions to problems such as chaotic urban planning and architectural policy, and the deficiencies of the transport network and infrastructure in this rapidly developing city."

17 States Sue EPA Over Auto Emissions Standards Rollback

May 4, 2018 Nicholas Kusnetz, Insideclimatenews.org Resist! Air Pollution, emission, EPA

A coalition of 17 states and the District of Columbia sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, asking a federal court to block a Trump administration attempt to weaken automobile emissions standards. The states, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, argue that a recent EPA decision to revise the Obama-era emissions rules was made without clear reasoning or evidence to support it and should be struck down. "The evidence is irrefutable: today's clean car standards are achievable, science-based and a boon for hardworking American families," Becerra said in a statement. "But the EPA and Administrator Scott Pruitt refuse to do their job and enforce these standards." The standards ratchet up fuel economy requirements for cars and light trucks through model year 2025.

EPA Finds Black Americans Face More Health-Threatening Air Pollution

March 3, 2018 Phil McKenna, Insideclimatenews.org Educate! Air Pollution, Environmental racism, EPA, Racism

Black Americans are subjected to higher levels of air pollution than white Americans regardless of their wealth, researchers with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conclude. Researchers at the EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment looked at facilities emitting air pollution, as well as at the racial and economic profiles of surrounding communities. They found that black Americans were exposed to significantly more of the small pollution particles known as PM 2.5, which have been associated with lung disease, heart disease, and premature death. Most such sooty pollution comes from burning fossil fuels. Blacks were exposed to 1.54 times more of this form of pollution—particles no larger than 2.5 microns, that lodge in lung tissue—than the population at large. Poor people were exposed to 1.35 times more, and all non-whites to 1.28 times more, according to the study, published in the American Journal of Public Health.

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