By Gene Emery
BOSTON (Reuters) - Air pollution reduces blood flow and interferes with the body's natural ability to break up blood clots, researchers said on Wednesday in a finding that may help explain why pollution can cause heart attacks.
And the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also suggests that heart patients trying to shape up might do their exercising away from traffic.
The researchers tested 20 male volunteers, all of them heart attack survivors, who pedaled an exercise bike while breathing diluted fumes from the exhaust of an idling Volvo diesel engine.
The exposure was comparable to the pollution levels found while driving in traffic.
Doctors already know that long-term exposure to air pollution increases the risk of heart problems. The World Health Organization has estimated that it causes 800,000 premature deaths worldwide each year.
The new study looked at one particularly suspect element of air pollution and how it affected people over the short term.
Nicholas Mills of Britain's Edinburgh University and his colleagues found that when the volunteers breathed diesel fumes, their hearts were far more likely to be starved of oxygen than when they were breathing clean air.
And when they tested the blood of the men, they found that the fumes inhibited the body's natural system of breaking down the clots that can spark a heart attack or stroke.
That may explain the results of population-based studies showing that air pollution increases heart problems, they said.
It is not known exactly why the hearts became starved of oxygen or which substance in the exhaust was responsible for the effects.
"The study was specific in evaluating the effects of dilute diesel exhaust, an extremely complex mixture of particles and gases; it is not possible to glean which constituents of diesel exhaust were responsible for the observed effects," Dr. Murray Mittleman, of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, wrote in a commentary.
Although the study was only done on men with a previous heart attack, "these findings may represent the tip of an iceberg" and apply to anyone at risk for a heart attack, he said.
Exercise is already known to be beneficial and it especially decreases the risk that a person will have a heart attack while exerting themselves, Mittleman said.
"The risk-benefit ratio may be optimized if people exercise away from traffic when possible."
Copyright © 2007 Reuters
Memaparkan catatan dengan label chyrill_2020. Papar semua catatan
Memaparkan catatan dengan label chyrill_2020. Papar semua catatan
Rabu, 19 September 2007
USM Develops Air Filter System
PENANG: Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has developed a practical and cost-effective method of tackling air pollution.
Local researchers have developed a workable system, known as Rice Husk Ash-Based Sorbent/Catalyst As A Novel Industrial Gas Cleaning Technology, to this end.
The innovation won USM the most distinguished Higher Education Minister Award during the recent International Exposition of Research and Inventions of Institutions of Higher Learning (Pecipta) 2007, held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
USM School of Chemical Engineering lecturer Prof Dr Abdul Rahman Mohamed initiated the research work seven years ago.
Project leader and department lecturer Dr Lee Keat Teong said the system was ready for commercialisation.
“We are even prepared to market this system in the United States,” he said.
The technology requires a custom-built model that channels the gas or waste from any agricultural factory to a filter bag, flowing through an absorber made from the ash of rice husks.
“It can remove 100% of the air pollutant,” Dr Lee said after a press conference to announce the outcome of the Pecipta event held in Kuala Lumpur from Aug 10 to 12.
Dr Lee said the rice-husk ash method could be used to remove pollutants, such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide from the burning of industrial fuels, which caused acid rain and global warming.
Open Burning In Sarawak Contributing To Haze
By STEPHEN THEN
MIRI: Open burning of agriculture waste in interior plantations has resulted in numerous incidents of wildfires in different parts of central and northern Sarawak; with many of these fires already measuring more than a square kilometre each.
These domestic sources of fires are starting to cause a veil of haze in several interior settlements in Kapit, as well as in coastal areas in the southern parts of Miri.
These fires within Sarawak are already visible as hotspots in satellite images.
Sarawak Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) chief enforcement officer Dania Goyog, when contacted today, acknowledged that there are plantations operating in the central and northern regions that are currently carrying out open-burning activities.
He admitted there are some big fires ravaging in these plantations.
"These plantation companies had recently applied for permits from the NREB to burn their waste products. When we issued them the permits, the weather conditions throughout the state was good and there was no danger of haze or serious air pollution.
"The permits we issued them was for controlled burning on a limited scale. However, if the hazy situation in various parts of the state now gets worse, we will call for a total halt on open burning in the plantations.
"The permits we issued them can be revoked any time as and when we deem fit," he said when asked to comment on the fires which may get bigger if the weather becomes dry.
Sarawak is now experiencing strange weather changes. There was heavy rain less than a month ago and now the weather has became hot and dry, prompting plantation companies involved in the oil palm and timber industries to start open burning to get rid of their waste products.
When asked under what conditions the NREB would revoke the open-burning permits, Goyog said the board would do so as soon as the air pollutant index (API) reaches the unhealthy level at the specific area in question.
The NREB, he added, had also received information that there are forest fires in Kalimantan Borneo. If the haze from the Indonesian side were to sweep into Sarawak, and the domestic fires in Sarawak were to get bigger, the transboundary and domestic sources of haze would together create a sharp increase in the air pollutant index as was the case in recent years.
MIRI: Open burning of agriculture waste in interior plantations has resulted in numerous incidents of wildfires in different parts of central and northern Sarawak; with many of these fires already measuring more than a square kilometre each.
These domestic sources of fires are starting to cause a veil of haze in several interior settlements in Kapit, as well as in coastal areas in the southern parts of Miri.
These fires within Sarawak are already visible as hotspots in satellite images.
Sarawak Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) chief enforcement officer Dania Goyog, when contacted today, acknowledged that there are plantations operating in the central and northern regions that are currently carrying out open-burning activities.
He admitted there are some big fires ravaging in these plantations.
"These plantation companies had recently applied for permits from the NREB to burn their waste products. When we issued them the permits, the weather conditions throughout the state was good and there was no danger of haze or serious air pollution.
"The permits we issued them was for controlled burning on a limited scale. However, if the hazy situation in various parts of the state now gets worse, we will call for a total halt on open burning in the plantations.
"The permits we issued them can be revoked any time as and when we deem fit," he said when asked to comment on the fires which may get bigger if the weather becomes dry.
Sarawak is now experiencing strange weather changes. There was heavy rain less than a month ago and now the weather has became hot and dry, prompting plantation companies involved in the oil palm and timber industries to start open burning to get rid of their waste products.
When asked under what conditions the NREB would revoke the open-burning permits, Goyog said the board would do so as soon as the air pollutant index (API) reaches the unhealthy level at the specific area in question.
The NREB, he added, had also received information that there are forest fires in Kalimantan Borneo. If the haze from the Indonesian side were to sweep into Sarawak, and the domestic fires in Sarawak were to get bigger, the transboundary and domestic sources of haze would together create a sharp increase in the air pollutant index as was the case in recent years.
Taxing Environmental Abuse
Current Tax Matters
By JEYAPALAN KASIPILLAI
A significant problem associated with economic development is environmental abuse and its unforeseen disastrous effects.
Environmental degradation such as air and water pollution, deforestation, overuse and misuse of pesticides, shrinking of the ozone layer and global warming pose new challenges to most countries. Such problems are not alien to Malaysia.
Environmental abuse leads to the social cost of economic activities exceeding the social benefits they generate.
Environmental tax
Environmental taxes and subsidies are ways of sending proper signals to industry and consumers. These are necessary steps towards achieving sustainable patterns of consumption and production. For example, carbon tax will lower the consumption of fossil fuels while boosting the attractiveness of non-fossil-based renewable energy sources.
There is a range of possible fiscal changes in the existing tax structure that could be used to pursue environmental sustainability. Among others, two pertinent environmental objectives facing the Government revolve around improving air quality and sustainable waste management.
Haze is a constant threat and it can adversely affect tourism and the well being of the general public.
Spiralling economic activity and increased incomes have generated higher demand for personal travel and a hive of transport activity. Road transportation is recognised as the most air polluting industry in Malaysia and vehicles account for over 80% of the country’s air pollution.
Carbon dioxide represents a large part of all greenhouse gases emitted; hence, most policy objectives focus on carbon taxes. Advanced countries that have implemented some form of carbon taxes are Finland, in 1991; Norway and Sweden, 1991; and Denmark, 1992.
In Malaysia, there is no carbon tax but the Government provides incentives in the form of subsidies for the use of unleaded petrol. Hydrogen has the potential to lead to zero-emission transportation and will be an important fuel in the future. The Government should, therefore, exempt hydrogen from fuel duty, at least for a limited period.
Air pollution sources
Uncontrolled human activities result in deteriorating air quality. Human activities such as smoke emissions from motor vehicles, forest fires and electric power generation, lead to the emission of various pollutants into the atmosphere.
Fossil fuel combustion emitted by motor vehicle exhausts as well as industrial processes produce carbon monoxide (CO), a hazardous gas. According to the Statistics Department (2006), the concentration of CO is the highest in Port Klang, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur compared with other parts of the country.
The main contributor to air pollution (82.3%) is mobile sources, and this is primarily due to a surge in the number of motor vehicles on the road. The remaining sources are industrial sectors and power stations.
The Government provides numerous incentives to promote the use of natural gas by motor vehicle owners. For example, local vehicle assemblers are given import duty exemption on chassis fitted with engines for natural gas vehicles (NGV), monogas buses and motor vehicles for transportation of goods. They are also given import duty exemption on NGV engines replacing diesel engines for buses and motor vehicles. Excise duty on motor vehicles should be reviewed to provide incentives to motorists who purchase less polluting vehicles.
The use of an indirect tax system provides an alternative to the introduction of market-based incentives for pollution control. The cost of implementation will be lower because it can use the existing administrative procedures available to the Royal Customs and Excise Department Malaysia.
Conclusion
The success (or failure) of remedial measures initiated by the Government to compensate for the abuse of the environment does not depend on isolated factors but on a complex combination of circumstances.
While full voluntary effort by each and every citizen to preserve the environment remains an elusive dream of every government, it is nevertheless prudent to take every practical measure to encourage its practice.
The Ninth Malaysia Plan reiterates the Government’s commitment to mitigating and minimising pollution and addressing other adverse environmental impact arising from development activities.
Among the efforts under way to achieve this are the Clean Air Action Plan, National Strategic Plan for Solid Waste Management and Integrated Coastal Zone Management Policy. The author welcomes these efforts but urges the Government to go a step further by formulating a comprehensive transport taxation policy to address some of the environmental sustainability objectives.
The writer is Professor and Chair of Malaysian Business at the School of Business, Monash University, Sunway Campus. He also serves as a member of the Taxation Law and Policy Research Institute, Monash University, Melbourne.
By JEYAPALAN KASIPILLAI
A significant problem associated with economic development is environmental abuse and its unforeseen disastrous effects.
Environmental degradation such as air and water pollution, deforestation, overuse and misuse of pesticides, shrinking of the ozone layer and global warming pose new challenges to most countries. Such problems are not alien to Malaysia.
Environmental abuse leads to the social cost of economic activities exceeding the social benefits they generate.
Environmental tax
Environmental taxes and subsidies are ways of sending proper signals to industry and consumers. These are necessary steps towards achieving sustainable patterns of consumption and production. For example, carbon tax will lower the consumption of fossil fuels while boosting the attractiveness of non-fossil-based renewable energy sources.
There is a range of possible fiscal changes in the existing tax structure that could be used to pursue environmental sustainability. Among others, two pertinent environmental objectives facing the Government revolve around improving air quality and sustainable waste management.
Haze is a constant threat and it can adversely affect tourism and the well being of the general public.
Spiralling economic activity and increased incomes have generated higher demand for personal travel and a hive of transport activity. Road transportation is recognised as the most air polluting industry in Malaysia and vehicles account for over 80% of the country’s air pollution.
Carbon dioxide represents a large part of all greenhouse gases emitted; hence, most policy objectives focus on carbon taxes. Advanced countries that have implemented some form of carbon taxes are Finland, in 1991; Norway and Sweden, 1991; and Denmark, 1992.
In Malaysia, there is no carbon tax but the Government provides incentives in the form of subsidies for the use of unleaded petrol. Hydrogen has the potential to lead to zero-emission transportation and will be an important fuel in the future. The Government should, therefore, exempt hydrogen from fuel duty, at least for a limited period.
Air pollution sources
Uncontrolled human activities result in deteriorating air quality. Human activities such as smoke emissions from motor vehicles, forest fires and electric power generation, lead to the emission of various pollutants into the atmosphere.
Fossil fuel combustion emitted by motor vehicle exhausts as well as industrial processes produce carbon monoxide (CO), a hazardous gas. According to the Statistics Department (2006), the concentration of CO is the highest in Port Klang, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur compared with other parts of the country.
The main contributor to air pollution (82.3%) is mobile sources, and this is primarily due to a surge in the number of motor vehicles on the road. The remaining sources are industrial sectors and power stations.
The Government provides numerous incentives to promote the use of natural gas by motor vehicle owners. For example, local vehicle assemblers are given import duty exemption on chassis fitted with engines for natural gas vehicles (NGV), monogas buses and motor vehicles for transportation of goods. They are also given import duty exemption on NGV engines replacing diesel engines for buses and motor vehicles. Excise duty on motor vehicles should be reviewed to provide incentives to motorists who purchase less polluting vehicles.
The use of an indirect tax system provides an alternative to the introduction of market-based incentives for pollution control. The cost of implementation will be lower because it can use the existing administrative procedures available to the Royal Customs and Excise Department Malaysia.
Conclusion
The success (or failure) of remedial measures initiated by the Government to compensate for the abuse of the environment does not depend on isolated factors but on a complex combination of circumstances.
While full voluntary effort by each and every citizen to preserve the environment remains an elusive dream of every government, it is nevertheless prudent to take every practical measure to encourage its practice.
The Ninth Malaysia Plan reiterates the Government’s commitment to mitigating and minimising pollution and addressing other adverse environmental impact arising from development activities.
Among the efforts under way to achieve this are the Clean Air Action Plan, National Strategic Plan for Solid Waste Management and Integrated Coastal Zone Management Policy. The author welcomes these efforts but urges the Government to go a step further by formulating a comprehensive transport taxation policy to address some of the environmental sustainability objectives.
The writer is Professor and Chair of Malaysian Business at the School of Business, Monash University, Sunway Campus. He also serves as a member of the Taxation Law and Policy Research Institute, Monash University, Melbourne.
Selasa, 14 Ogos 2007
Air Pollution Causes and Effects
by Tom Socha
08/12/2007
History
Humans probably first experienced harm from air pollution when they built fires in poorly ventilated caves. Since then we have gone on to pollute more of the earth's surface. Until recently, environmental pollution problems have been local and minor because of the Earth's own ability to absorb and purify minor quantities of pollutants. The industrialization of society, the introduction of motorized vehicles, and the explosion of the population, are factors contributing toward the growing air pollution problem. At this time it is urgent that we find methods to clean up the air.
The primary air pollutants found in most urban areas are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, hydrocarbons, and particulate matter (both solid and liquid). These pollutants are dispersed throughout the world's atmosphere in concentrations high enough to gradually cause serious health problems. Serious health problems can occur quickly when air pollutants are concentrated, such as when massive injections of sulfur dioxide and suspended particulate matter are emitted by a large volcanic eruption.
Air Pollution in the Home
You cannot escape air pollution, not even in your own home. "In 1985 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that toxic chemicals found in the air of almost every American home are three times more likely to cause some type of cancer than outdoor air pollutants". (Miller 488) The health problems in these buildings are called "sick building syndrome". "An estimated one-fifth to one-third of all U.S. buildings are now considered "sick". (Miller 489) The EPA has found that the air in some office buildings is 100 times more polluted than the air outside. Poor ventilation causes about half of the indoor air pollution problems. The rest come from specific sources such as copying machines, electrical and telephone cables, mold and microbe-harboring air conditioning systems and ducts, cleaning fluids, cigarette smoke, carpet, latex caulk and paint, vinyl molding, linoleum tile, and building materials and furniture that emit air pollutants such as formaldehyde. A major indoor air pollutant is radon-222, a colorless, odorless, tasteless, naturally occurring radioactive gas produced by the radioactive decay of uranium-238. "According to studies by the EPA and the National Research Council, exposure to radon is second only to smoking as a cause of lung cancer". (Miller 489) Radon enters through pores and cracks in concrete when indoor air pressure is less than the pressure of gasses in the soil. Indoor air will be healthier than outdoor air if you use an energy recovery ventilator to provide a consistent supply of fresh filtered air and then seal air leaks in the shell of your home .
Sources of Pollutants
The two main sources of pollutants in urban areas are transportation (predominantly automobiles) and fuel combustion in stationary sources, including residential, commercial, and industrial heating and cooling and coal-burning power plants. Motor vehicles produce high levels of carbon monoxides (CO) and a major source of hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Whereas, fuel combustion in stationary sources is the dominant source of sulfur dioxide (SO2).
Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the major pollutants in the atmosphere. Major sources of CO2 are fossil fuels burning and deforestation. "The concentrations of CO2 in the air around 1860 before the effects of industrialization were felt, is assumed to have been about 290 parts per million (ppm). In the hundred years and more since then, the concentration has increased by about 30 to 35 ppm that is by 10 percent". (Breuer 67) Industrial countries account for 65% of CO2 emissions with the United States and Soviet Union responsible for 50%. Less developed countries (LDCs), with 80% of the world's people, are responsible for 35% of CO2 emissions but may contribute 50% by 2020. "Carbon dioxide emissions are increasing by 4% a year". (Miller 450)
In 1975, 18 thousand million tons of carbon dioxide (equivalent to 5 thousand million tons of carbon) were released into the atmosphere, but the atmosphere showed an increase of only 8 billion tons (equivalent to 2.2 billion tons of carbon". (Breuer 70) The ocean waters contain about sixty times more CO2 than the atmosphere. If the equilibrium is disturbed by externally increasing the concentration of CO2 in the air, then the oceans would absorb more and more CO2. If the oceans can no longer keep pace, then more CO2 will remain into the atmosphere. As water warms, its ability to absorb CO2 is reduced.
CO2 is a good transmitter of sunlight, but partially restricts infrared radiation going back from the earth into space. This produces the so-called greenhouse effect that prevents a drastic cooling of the Earth during the night. Increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere reinforces this effect and is expected to result in a warming of the Earth's surface. Currently carbon dioxide is responsible for 57% of the global warming trend. Nitrogen oxides contribute most of the atmospheric contaminants.
N0X - nitric oxide (N0) and nitrogen dioxide (N02)
-Natural component of the Earth's atmosphere.
-Important in the formation of both acid precipitation and photochemical smog (ozone), and causes nitrogen loading.
-Comes from the burning of biomass and fossil fuels.
-30 to 50 million tons per year from human activities, and natural 10 to 20 million tons per year.
-Average residence time in the atmosphere is days.
-Has a role in reducing stratospheric ozone.
N20 - nitrous oxide
-Natural component of the Earth's atmosphere.
-Important in the greenhouse effect and causes nitrogen loading.
-Human inputs 6 million tons per year, and 19 million tons per year by nature.
-Residence time in the atmosphere about 170 years.
-1700 (285 parts per billion), 1990 (310 parts per billion), 2030 (340 parts per billion).
-Comes from nitrogen based fertilizers, deforestation, and biomass burning.
Sulfur and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
Sulfur dioxide is produced by combustion of sulfur-containing fuels, such as coal and fuel oils. Also, in the process of producing sulfuric acid and in metallurgical process involving ores that contain sulfur. Sulfur oxides can injure man, plants and materials. At sufficiently high concentrations, sulfur dioxide irritates the upper respiratory tract of human beings because potential effect of sulfur dioxide is to make breathing more difficult by causing the finer air tubes of the lung to constrict. "Power plants and factories emit 90% to 95% of the sulfur dioxide and 57% of the nitrogen oxides in the United States. Almost 60% of the SO2 emissions are released by tall smoke stakes, enabling the emissions to travel long distances". (Miller 494) As emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide from stationary sources are transported long distances by winds, they form secondary pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, nitric acid vapor, and droplets containing solutions of sulfuric acid, sulfate, and nitrate salts. These chemicals descend to the earth's surface in wet form as rain or snow and in dry form as a gases fog, dew, or solid particles. This is known as acid deposition or acid rain.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
CFCs are lowering the average concentration of ozone in the stratosphere. "Since 1978 the use of CFCs in aerosol cans has been banned in the United States, Canada, and most Scandinavian countries. Aerosols are still the largest use, accounting for 25% of global CFC use". (Miller 448) Spray cans, discarded or leaking refrigeration and air conditioning equipment, and the burning plastic foam products release the CFCs into the atmosphere. Depending on the type, CFCs stay in the atmosphere from 22 to 111 years. Chlorofluorocarbons move up to the stratosphere gradually over several decades. Under high energy ultra violet (UV) radiation, they break down and release chlorine atoms, which speed up the breakdown of ozone (O3) into oxygen gas (O2).
Chlorofluorocarbons, also known as Freons, are greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Photochemical air pollution is commonly referred to as "smog". Smog, a contraction of the words smoke and fog, has been caused throughout recorded history by water condensing on smoke particles, usually from burning coal. With the introduction of petroleum to replace coal economies in countries, photochemical smog has become predominant in many cities, which are located in sunny, warm, and dry climates with many motor vehicles. The worst episodes of photochemical smog tend to occur in summer.
Smog
Photochemical smog is also appearing in regions of the tropics and subtropics where savanna grasses are periodically burned. Smog's unpleasant properties result from the irradiation by sunlight of hydrocarbons caused primarily by unburned gasoline emitted by automobiles and other combustion sources. The products of photochemical reactions includes organic particles, ozone, aldehydes, ketones, peroxyacetyl nitrate, organic acids, and other oxidants. Ozone is a gas created by nitrogen dioxide or nitric oxide when exposed to sunlight. Ozone causes eye irritation, impaired lung function, and damage to trees and crops. Another form of smog is called industrial smog.
This smog is created by burning coal and heavy oil that contain sulfur impurities in power plants, industrial plants, etc... The smog consists mostly of a mixture of sulfur dioxide and fog. Suspended droplets of sulfuric acid are formed from some of the sulfur dioxide, and a variety of suspended solid particles. This smog is common during the winter in cities such as London, Chicago, Pittsburgh. When these cities burned large amounts of coal and heavy oil without control of the output, large-scale problems were witnessed. In 1952 London, England, 4,000 people died as a result of this form of fog. Today coal and heavy oil are burned only in large boilers and with reasonably good control or tall smokestacks so that industrial smog is less of a problem. However, some countries such as China, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and some other eastern European countries, still burn large quantities of coal without using adequate controls.
Pollution Damage to Plants
With the destruction and burning of the rain forests more and more CO2 is being released into the atmosphere. Trees play an important role in producing oxygen from carbon dioxide. "A 115 year old Beech tree exposes about 200,000 leaves with a total surface to 1200 square meters. During the course of one sunny day such a tree inhales 9,400 liters of carbon dioxide to produce 12 kilograms of carbohydrate, thus liberating 9,400 liters of oxygen. Through this mechanism about 45,000 liters of air are regenerated which is sufficient for the respiration of 2 to 3 people". (Breuer 1) This process is called photosynthesis which all plants go though but some yield more and some less oxygen. As long as no more wood is burnt than is reproduced by the forests, no change in atmospheric CO2 concentration will result.
Pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone and peroxyacl nitrates (PANs), cause direct damage to leaves of crop plants and trees when they enter leaf pores (stomates). Chronic exposure of leaves and needles to air pollutants can also break down the waxy coating that helps prevent excessive water loss and damage from diseases, pests, drought and frost. "In the midwestern United States crop losses of wheat, corn, soybeans, and peanuts from damage by ozone and acid deposition amount to about $5 billion a year". (Miller 498)
Reducing Pollution
You can help to reduce global air pollution and climate change by driving a car that gets at least 35 miles a gallon, walking, bicycling, and using mass transit when possible. Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, make your home more energy efficient, and buy only energy efficient appliances. Recycle newspapers, aluminum, and other materials. Plant trees and avoid purchasing products such as Styrofoam that contain CFCs. Support much stricter clean air laws and enforcement of international treaties to reduce ozone depletion and slow global warming.
Earth is everybody's home and nobody likes living in a dirty home. Together, we can make the earth a cleaner, healthier and more pleasant place to live.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Works Cited:
Breuer, Georg, Air in Danger: Ecological Perspectives of the Atmosphere. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Stewart, T. Charles, Air Pollution, Human Health and Public Policy. New York: Lexington Books, 1979
Miller, G. Tyler, Living in the Environment: an introduction to environmental science. Belmont: Wadsworth, 1990.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Sources of Information:
Home, Sick Home — Johns Hopkins Science & Technology
Safety and Comfort in Your Home
Air Pollution and Respiratory Health — Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
Indoor Air Pollution
Clean Energy Gains Support
Outdoor Air Pollution
Cancer Epidemic: Symptom of an Unsustainable Society
Air Pollution Linked to Birth Defects
Inflammation is a Secret Killer
Clean energy and efficiency investments would create 3.3 million jobs, says study
State of the Air: 2004 — American Lung Association
Air Pollution — National Library of Medicine
Second National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals — Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
Toxic Releases and Health: A Review of Pollution Data and Current Knowledge on the Health Effects of Toxic Chemicals
New Report Finds Cancer Risk From Air Pollution Nearly 500 Times Greater Than Clean Air Act Standard
Weatherization and Indoor Air Quality: Minimizing entry of outdoor air pollutants
Air Pollution: Our Children at Risk
Air pollution causes lung disease in school-age children
Air Pollution Causes Blood Vessels to Constrict — American Heart Association
Energy Department Data Confirm that President's Global Warming Plan Would Accelerate Pollution
How industry-funded "experts" twist the environmental debate
Mold (health effects, economic effects, mitigation, etc.)
Heavy Metal Toxicity
Fire's dangers drift far beyond flames
Tobacco Related Diseases
Real-Time Air Pollution and Visibility Monitoring (multiple outdoor web cams)
NOTE: You can help to reduce air pollution by improving energy efficiency so that less fossil fuel is burned. This will help you to endure the oil shortages and natural gas shortages.
08/12/2007
History
Humans probably first experienced harm from air pollution when they built fires in poorly ventilated caves. Since then we have gone on to pollute more of the earth's surface. Until recently, environmental pollution problems have been local and minor because of the Earth's own ability to absorb and purify minor quantities of pollutants. The industrialization of society, the introduction of motorized vehicles, and the explosion of the population, are factors contributing toward the growing air pollution problem. At this time it is urgent that we find methods to clean up the air.
The primary air pollutants found in most urban areas are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, hydrocarbons, and particulate matter (both solid and liquid). These pollutants are dispersed throughout the world's atmosphere in concentrations high enough to gradually cause serious health problems. Serious health problems can occur quickly when air pollutants are concentrated, such as when massive injections of sulfur dioxide and suspended particulate matter are emitted by a large volcanic eruption.
Air Pollution in the Home
You cannot escape air pollution, not even in your own home. "In 1985 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that toxic chemicals found in the air of almost every American home are three times more likely to cause some type of cancer than outdoor air pollutants". (Miller 488) The health problems in these buildings are called "sick building syndrome". "An estimated one-fifth to one-third of all U.S. buildings are now considered "sick". (Miller 489) The EPA has found that the air in some office buildings is 100 times more polluted than the air outside. Poor ventilation causes about half of the indoor air pollution problems. The rest come from specific sources such as copying machines, electrical and telephone cables, mold and microbe-harboring air conditioning systems and ducts, cleaning fluids, cigarette smoke, carpet, latex caulk and paint, vinyl molding, linoleum tile, and building materials and furniture that emit air pollutants such as formaldehyde. A major indoor air pollutant is radon-222, a colorless, odorless, tasteless, naturally occurring radioactive gas produced by the radioactive decay of uranium-238. "According to studies by the EPA and the National Research Council, exposure to radon is second only to smoking as a cause of lung cancer". (Miller 489) Radon enters through pores and cracks in concrete when indoor air pressure is less than the pressure of gasses in the soil. Indoor air will be healthier than outdoor air if you use an energy recovery ventilator to provide a consistent supply of fresh filtered air and then seal air leaks in the shell of your home .
Sources of Pollutants
The two main sources of pollutants in urban areas are transportation (predominantly automobiles) and fuel combustion in stationary sources, including residential, commercial, and industrial heating and cooling and coal-burning power plants. Motor vehicles produce high levels of carbon monoxides (CO) and a major source of hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Whereas, fuel combustion in stationary sources is the dominant source of sulfur dioxide (SO2).
Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the major pollutants in the atmosphere. Major sources of CO2 are fossil fuels burning and deforestation. "The concentrations of CO2 in the air around 1860 before the effects of industrialization were felt, is assumed to have been about 290 parts per million (ppm). In the hundred years and more since then, the concentration has increased by about 30 to 35 ppm that is by 10 percent". (Breuer 67) Industrial countries account for 65% of CO2 emissions with the United States and Soviet Union responsible for 50%. Less developed countries (LDCs), with 80% of the world's people, are responsible for 35% of CO2 emissions but may contribute 50% by 2020. "Carbon dioxide emissions are increasing by 4% a year". (Miller 450)
In 1975, 18 thousand million tons of carbon dioxide (equivalent to 5 thousand million tons of carbon) were released into the atmosphere, but the atmosphere showed an increase of only 8 billion tons (equivalent to 2.2 billion tons of carbon". (Breuer 70) The ocean waters contain about sixty times more CO2 than the atmosphere. If the equilibrium is disturbed by externally increasing the concentration of CO2 in the air, then the oceans would absorb more and more CO2. If the oceans can no longer keep pace, then more CO2 will remain into the atmosphere. As water warms, its ability to absorb CO2 is reduced.
CO2 is a good transmitter of sunlight, but partially restricts infrared radiation going back from the earth into space. This produces the so-called greenhouse effect that prevents a drastic cooling of the Earth during the night. Increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere reinforces this effect and is expected to result in a warming of the Earth's surface. Currently carbon dioxide is responsible for 57% of the global warming trend. Nitrogen oxides contribute most of the atmospheric contaminants.
N0X - nitric oxide (N0) and nitrogen dioxide (N02)
-Natural component of the Earth's atmosphere.
-Important in the formation of both acid precipitation and photochemical smog (ozone), and causes nitrogen loading.
-Comes from the burning of biomass and fossil fuels.
-30 to 50 million tons per year from human activities, and natural 10 to 20 million tons per year.
-Average residence time in the atmosphere is days.
-Has a role in reducing stratospheric ozone.
N20 - nitrous oxide
-Natural component of the Earth's atmosphere.
-Important in the greenhouse effect and causes nitrogen loading.
-Human inputs 6 million tons per year, and 19 million tons per year by nature.
-Residence time in the atmosphere about 170 years.
-1700 (285 parts per billion), 1990 (310 parts per billion), 2030 (340 parts per billion).
-Comes from nitrogen based fertilizers, deforestation, and biomass burning.
Sulfur and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
Sulfur dioxide is produced by combustion of sulfur-containing fuels, such as coal and fuel oils. Also, in the process of producing sulfuric acid and in metallurgical process involving ores that contain sulfur. Sulfur oxides can injure man, plants and materials. At sufficiently high concentrations, sulfur dioxide irritates the upper respiratory tract of human beings because potential effect of sulfur dioxide is to make breathing more difficult by causing the finer air tubes of the lung to constrict. "Power plants and factories emit 90% to 95% of the sulfur dioxide and 57% of the nitrogen oxides in the United States. Almost 60% of the SO2 emissions are released by tall smoke stakes, enabling the emissions to travel long distances". (Miller 494) As emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide from stationary sources are transported long distances by winds, they form secondary pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, nitric acid vapor, and droplets containing solutions of sulfuric acid, sulfate, and nitrate salts. These chemicals descend to the earth's surface in wet form as rain or snow and in dry form as a gases fog, dew, or solid particles. This is known as acid deposition or acid rain.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
CFCs are lowering the average concentration of ozone in the stratosphere. "Since 1978 the use of CFCs in aerosol cans has been banned in the United States, Canada, and most Scandinavian countries. Aerosols are still the largest use, accounting for 25% of global CFC use". (Miller 448) Spray cans, discarded or leaking refrigeration and air conditioning equipment, and the burning plastic foam products release the CFCs into the atmosphere. Depending on the type, CFCs stay in the atmosphere from 22 to 111 years. Chlorofluorocarbons move up to the stratosphere gradually over several decades. Under high energy ultra violet (UV) radiation, they break down and release chlorine atoms, which speed up the breakdown of ozone (O3) into oxygen gas (O2).
Chlorofluorocarbons, also known as Freons, are greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Photochemical air pollution is commonly referred to as "smog". Smog, a contraction of the words smoke and fog, has been caused throughout recorded history by water condensing on smoke particles, usually from burning coal. With the introduction of petroleum to replace coal economies in countries, photochemical smog has become predominant in many cities, which are located in sunny, warm, and dry climates with many motor vehicles. The worst episodes of photochemical smog tend to occur in summer.
Smog
Photochemical smog is also appearing in regions of the tropics and subtropics where savanna grasses are periodically burned. Smog's unpleasant properties result from the irradiation by sunlight of hydrocarbons caused primarily by unburned gasoline emitted by automobiles and other combustion sources. The products of photochemical reactions includes organic particles, ozone, aldehydes, ketones, peroxyacetyl nitrate, organic acids, and other oxidants. Ozone is a gas created by nitrogen dioxide or nitric oxide when exposed to sunlight. Ozone causes eye irritation, impaired lung function, and damage to trees and crops. Another form of smog is called industrial smog.
This smog is created by burning coal and heavy oil that contain sulfur impurities in power plants, industrial plants, etc... The smog consists mostly of a mixture of sulfur dioxide and fog. Suspended droplets of sulfuric acid are formed from some of the sulfur dioxide, and a variety of suspended solid particles. This smog is common during the winter in cities such as London, Chicago, Pittsburgh. When these cities burned large amounts of coal and heavy oil without control of the output, large-scale problems were witnessed. In 1952 London, England, 4,000 people died as a result of this form of fog. Today coal and heavy oil are burned only in large boilers and with reasonably good control or tall smokestacks so that industrial smog is less of a problem. However, some countries such as China, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and some other eastern European countries, still burn large quantities of coal without using adequate controls.
Pollution Damage to Plants
With the destruction and burning of the rain forests more and more CO2 is being released into the atmosphere. Trees play an important role in producing oxygen from carbon dioxide. "A 115 year old Beech tree exposes about 200,000 leaves with a total surface to 1200 square meters. During the course of one sunny day such a tree inhales 9,400 liters of carbon dioxide to produce 12 kilograms of carbohydrate, thus liberating 9,400 liters of oxygen. Through this mechanism about 45,000 liters of air are regenerated which is sufficient for the respiration of 2 to 3 people". (Breuer 1) This process is called photosynthesis which all plants go though but some yield more and some less oxygen. As long as no more wood is burnt than is reproduced by the forests, no change in atmospheric CO2 concentration will result.
Pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone and peroxyacl nitrates (PANs), cause direct damage to leaves of crop plants and trees when they enter leaf pores (stomates). Chronic exposure of leaves and needles to air pollutants can also break down the waxy coating that helps prevent excessive water loss and damage from diseases, pests, drought and frost. "In the midwestern United States crop losses of wheat, corn, soybeans, and peanuts from damage by ozone and acid deposition amount to about $5 billion a year". (Miller 498)
Reducing Pollution
You can help to reduce global air pollution and climate change by driving a car that gets at least 35 miles a gallon, walking, bicycling, and using mass transit when possible. Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, make your home more energy efficient, and buy only energy efficient appliances. Recycle newspapers, aluminum, and other materials. Plant trees and avoid purchasing products such as Styrofoam that contain CFCs. Support much stricter clean air laws and enforcement of international treaties to reduce ozone depletion and slow global warming.
Earth is everybody's home and nobody likes living in a dirty home. Together, we can make the earth a cleaner, healthier and more pleasant place to live.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Works Cited:
Breuer, Georg, Air in Danger: Ecological Perspectives of the Atmosphere. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Stewart, T. Charles, Air Pollution, Human Health and Public Policy. New York: Lexington Books, 1979
Miller, G. Tyler, Living in the Environment: an introduction to environmental science. Belmont: Wadsworth, 1990.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Sources of Information:
Home, Sick Home — Johns Hopkins Science & Technology
Safety and Comfort in Your Home
Air Pollution and Respiratory Health — Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
Indoor Air Pollution
Clean Energy Gains Support
Outdoor Air Pollution
Cancer Epidemic: Symptom of an Unsustainable Society
Air Pollution Linked to Birth Defects
Inflammation is a Secret Killer
Clean energy and efficiency investments would create 3.3 million jobs, says study
State of the Air: 2004 — American Lung Association
Air Pollution — National Library of Medicine
Second National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals — Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
Toxic Releases and Health: A Review of Pollution Data and Current Knowledge on the Health Effects of Toxic Chemicals
New Report Finds Cancer Risk From Air Pollution Nearly 500 Times Greater Than Clean Air Act Standard
Weatherization and Indoor Air Quality: Minimizing entry of outdoor air pollutants
Air Pollution: Our Children at Risk
Air pollution causes lung disease in school-age children
Air Pollution Causes Blood Vessels to Constrict — American Heart Association
Energy Department Data Confirm that President's Global Warming Plan Would Accelerate Pollution
How industry-funded "experts" twist the environmental debate
Mold (health effects, economic effects, mitigation, etc.)
Heavy Metal Toxicity
Fire's dangers drift far beyond flames
Tobacco Related Diseases
Real-Time Air Pollution and Visibility Monitoring (multiple outdoor web cams)
NOTE: You can help to reduce air pollution by improving energy efficiency so that less fossil fuel is burned. This will help you to endure the oil shortages and natural gas shortages.
The Donora Smog Disaster October 30-31, 1948
Manuscript Group 190: James H. Duff Papers, Subject File, Letter of Mrs. Lois Bainbridge of Webster, PA, to the Governor, October 31, 1948. One page, fountain pen ink on paper.
On October 30 and 31, 1948, atmospheric conditions in the vicinity of Donora, Pennsylvania, contributed to the deaths of nineteen people within a 24-hour period. Of the fatalities, two had active pulmonary tuberculosis. The other seventeen were known to have had chronic heart disease or asthma. All were between 52 and 85 years of age. In addition, approximately five hundred residents of the area became ill, reporting symptoms of respiratory problems. No doubt, countless others suffered in silence.
Donora is located on the western bank of the Monongahela River in Washington County. During the late Colonial period (1760s and 1770s), the area was known as "Horseshoe Bottom, because there the river curved into that shape. Nearby hills rise approximately 400 feet above the river's surface, and their peaks are approximately one mile apart. Early settlers grew grain in the fertile valley which led two of them to build a grain mill and lay out streets around it. By 1815, the village, then known as Columbia, contained twenty houses. In 1819, the postal authorities changed the name to West Columbia. Other small communities developed in the area including Bisselltown, Sunnyside, Bakertown, and Webster, which emerged on the other side of the river. These places remained little more than villages throughout the nineteenth century.
Modern Donora began in 1900 with the development of heavy industry in the area. The town was incorporated in 1901. Its name is a combination of Nora Mellon, wife of R. B. Mellon, and W. H. Donner, the purchasers of the land along the river on which their Union Steel Company constructed a rod mill that later became the American Steel and Wire Works. In 1902, the Carnegie Steel Company completed a facility that consisted of two blast furnaces, twelve open hearth furnaces, and a forty foot blooming mill furnace. At the same time, the Matthew Woven Wire Fence Company erected a facility. A third rod mill was constructed in 1916. A year earlier the Donora Zinc Works began production. Such industrial expansion required more effective transportation facilities than the river barges and short-line railroads could provide. The Pennsylvania Railroad bought what had been the Monongahela Valley Company and expanded rail service. By 1908, the Donora station had the largest volume of freight in the "Mon Valley." Of course, these industries needed workers, and job-seekers flocked to the area, especially recently arrived immigrants. In 1948, 14,000 people resided in Donora, and additional thousands lived in towns in the immediate vicinity.
The causes of the incident are difficult to identify conclusively, nevertheless, there are several obvious possibilities. Residents, such as Mrs. Lois Bainbridge, who wrote to Governor James T. Duff about the situation, stated that people in the area had complained for years abut the industrial pollutants that "eats the paint off your houses" and prevents fish from living in the river. Indeed, an investigation supervised by the director of the state government's Bureau of Industrial Hygiene revealed an extraordinarily high level of sulfur dioxide, soluble sulphants, and fluorides in the air on October 30 and 31. According to the agency's report and complaints by residents, such contamination of the atmosphere was caused by the zinc smelting plant, steel mills' open hearth furnaces, a sulphuric acid plant, with slag dumps, coal burning steam locomotives, and river boats also contributing to the problem. An unusually dense fog, the likes of which even long-time residents could not remember, may have been held in the valley by the surrounding hills. The fog probably kept the pollutants close to the earth's surface where the residents inhaled them.
Solutions to the problem were obvious. Mrs. Bainbridge charged that the zinc company officials "for years" had discussed moving the plant; however, they did not do it. As her letter indicates, she was certain that "there is something in the Zinc Works causing these deaths." She observed that when the "smelting plant" closed briefly after the crisis, "you could breathe normally…." She proposed also the installation of more modern equipment that "would help consume the fumes." Because the plants' owners had not acted to eliminate the pollutants, she proposed Washington County "Smoke Control" laws similar to those that were enacted in Pittsburgh a few years earlier.
Such solutions were difficult to implement. Moving or closing the offending industries could cost workers their jobs, as Mrs. Bainbridge acknowledged. Nevertheless, to her, men's jobs were less important than people's lives. The acquisition of new equipment and the use of new procedures could be costly which would affect adversely the profitability and practicality of manufacturing the product. Politicians were aware of the complexity of these issues and were reluctant to legislate on them.
The Donora Smog Disaster attracted attention to this problem. Although smog's effect on the people in and around Donora on October 30 and 31, 1948 was extreme, residents of other communities also suffered from environmental contaminants. Consequently in 1949, the state government established the Division of Air Pollution Control to study the matter. Eventually, members of Pennsylvania's General Assembly felt the pressure to cleanse Pennsylvania's atmosphere of harmful substances. Consequently, the legislature passed the clean streams law in 1965 and began to enact state wide clean air regulations in 1966. In 1970, the legislature passed an "Environmental Bill of Rights" which stated that "the people have a right to clean air, [and] pure water…." Simultaneously, the national government established the Environmental Protection Agency, and Congress passed the Clean Air Act. A few years later, Pennsylvania established the Department of Environmental Resources, one of the prominent objectives of which was "to ensure future generations of Commonwealth residents a quality environment." This function is carried on today by the Department of Environmental Protection. It might be noted too that many of the contaminating industries have left the state and some have left the nation. Whether there is a "cause and effect" relationship between environmental legislation and the loss of heavy industry is not clear.
The Donora Fluoride Fog : A Secret History of America's Worst Air Pollution Disaster
This article appears in the Fall 1998 Earth Island Journal
by Chris Bryson
The anniversary of the worst recorded industrial air pollution accident in US history - which occurred 50 years ago this October in Donora, Pennsylvania -will go virtually unmarked. The Donora incident, which killed 20 and left hundreds seriously injured and dying, was caused by fluoride emissions from the Donora Zinc Works and steel plants owned by the US Steel Corporation.
In the aftermath of the accident, US Steel conspired with US Public Health Service (PHS) officials to cover up the role fluoride played in the tragedy. This charge comes from Philip Sadtler, a top industrial chemical consultant who conducted his own research at the scene of the disaster.
Fifty years later, Earth Island Journal has learned, vital records of the Donora investigation are missing from PHS archives. Fifty years later, US Steel continues to block access to their records of the Donora disaster, including a crucial air chemical analysis taken on the final night of the tragedy.
The "Donora Death Fog"
Horror visited the US Steel company-town of Donora on Halloween night, 1948, when a temperature inversion descended on the town. Fumes from US Steel's smelting plants blanketed the town for four days, and crept murderously into the citizens' homes. If the smog had lasted another evening "the casualty list would have been 1,000 instead of 20," said local doctor William Rongaus at the time. Later investigations by Rongaus and others indicated that one-third of the town's 14,000 residents were affected by the smog. Hundreds of residents were evacuated or hospitalized. A decade later, Donora's mortality rate remained significantly higher than neighboring areas.
The "Donora Death Fog", as it became known, spawned numerous angry lawsuits and the first calls for national legislation to protect the public from industrial air pollution.
A PHS report released in 1949 reported that "no single substance" was responsible for the Donora deaths and laid major blame for the tragedy on the temperature inversion. But according to industry consultant Philip Sadtler, in an interview taped shortly before his 1996 death, that report was a whitewash. "It was murder," said Sadtler about Donora. "The directors of US Steel should have gone to jail for killing people." Sadtler charged that the PHS report helped US Steel escape liability for the deaths and spared a host of fluoride- emitting industries the expense of having to control their toxic emissions. (A class-action lawsuit by Donora victims families was later settled out of court.)
In 1948, Sadtler was perhaps the nation's leading expert on fluorine pollution. He had gathered evidence for plaintiffs across the country, including an investigation of the Manhattan Project and the DuPont company's fluoride pollution of New Jersey farmland during World War II [see "Fluoride and the A-Bomb", 1997-98 EIJ].
For giant fluoride emitters such as US Steel and the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa), the cost of a national fluoride clean-up "would certainly have been in the billions," said Sadtler. So concealing the true cause of the Donora accident was vital. "It would have complicated things enormously for them if the public had been alerted to [the dangers of] fluoride."
A 50-Year Cover-up
US industry was well-placed to orchestrate a whitewash of the Donora investigation. The PHS was then a part of the Federal Security Agency. The FSA, in turn, was headed by Oscar R. Ewing, a former top lawyer for Alcoa. Neither his old industry connections, nor the fact that Alcoa had been facing lawsuits around the country for its wartime airborne fluoride pollution was mentioned in Ewing's introduction to the official report on Donora.
Sadtler remembers seeing a PHS van in Donora conducting air testing after the disaster. "I looked in and the chemist said, 'Phil, come on in.' Very friendly. He says, 'I know you are right, but I am not allowed to say so.' He must have been influenced by US Steel."
Sadtler blamed fluoride for the Donora disaster in an account published in the December 13, 1948 issue of Chemical and Engineering News. He reported fluorine blood levels of dead and hospitalized citizens to be 12 to 25 times above normal, with "primary symptoms of acute fluorine poisoning, dyspnea (distressed breathing similar to asthma) ... found in hundreds of cases." He recommended that, "Changes should be made in suspect processes to prevent emission of fluorine-containing fumes."
Industry moved quickly to silence Sadtler, who had been a contributor to Chemical and Engineering News for many years. (C&EN is published by the American Chemical Society.) "I had a call from the editor that I was not to send them any more [articles]," Sadtler said. The editor told Sadtler that the head of the Alcoa and the US Steel-funded Mellon Institute, Dr. [first name] Weidline (who also had served as a director of the American Chemical Society) "went to Washington and told [the magazine's editors] that they were not to publish any more of what I wrote," Sadtler said.
Looking Back on Donora
Today, 50 years later, researchers examining the Donora disaster face two troubling obstacle: (1) vital records are missing from the PHS archives and (2) US Steel's records are closed to reporters, researchers and investigators. In her 1994 doctoral dissertation ("The Death-Dealing Smog Over Donora, Pennsylvania: Industrial Air Pollution, Public Health Policy and the Politics of Expertise, 1948-1949"), Lynne Page Snyder of the University of Pennsylvania, described the response to the disaster.
The following excerpts were published in the Spring 1994 issue of the Environmental History Review.
"Pollution from the Donora Zinc Works smelting operation and other sources containing sulfur, carbon monoxide and heavy metal dusts, was trapped by weather conditions in the narrow river valley in and around Donora and neighboring Webster.
"Air pollution problems were recognized from the facility as early as 1918, when the plant owner paid off the legal claims for causing pollution that affected the health of nearby residents.
"In the 1920s, residents and farmers in Webster took legal action again against the company for loss of crops and livestock. Regular sampling of the air was begun in 1926 and stopped in 1935."
From local accounts of the time, Snyder provided this description of the 1948 disaster. "By Friday evening (October 2), local residents were crowding into nearby hospitals and dozens of calls were made to the area's eight physicians. While Fire Department volunteers administered oxygen to those unable to breathe, Board of Health member Dr. William Rongaus led an ambulance by foot through darkened streets to ferry the dead and dying to hospitals or on to a temporary morgue.
"On Rongaus' advice, those with chronic heart or respiratory ailments began to leave town late Friday evening, but before noon on Saturday, 11 people died. "Conditions had not improved by Saturday night, and with roads congested by smog and traffic, evacuation became impossible. The company operating the Donora Zinc Works finally ordered the plant shut down at 6 a.m. Sunday morning. By mid-day Sunday, rain had dispersed the smog.
"Pittsburgh itself escaped the episode primarily because it had just begun to enforce a smoke control ordinance and was cutting back on the use of bituminous coal as a fuel source. The Donora Smog gained national attention when Walter Winchell broadcast news of the disaster on his national radio show.
"The Pennsylvania Department of Health, United Steelworkers, Donora's Borough Council and the US Public Health Service all participated in the investigation of the air pollution incident. The investigation was the first time there was an organized effort to document the health impacts of air pollution in the United States. Commenting on the studies of the incident, the Monessen Daily Independent wrote that damage from air pollution from the Zinc Works was 'something no scientific investigation is necessary to prove. All you need is a pair of reasonably good eyes.'
"Before the Donora smog, neither manufacturers nor public health professionals considered air pollution an urgent issue. At the annual meeting of the Smoke Prevention Association in May 1949, a leading industrial physician and consultant to insurance companies dismissed air pollution as a threat, except 'on rare occasions [when] Mother Nature has played us false.''
"The studies of the Donora Smog did not fix blame and could not document levels of pollution beyond workplace limits set at the time. The Public Health Service recommended a warning system tied to weather forecasts and an air sampling system be installed to avoid future incidents. The lessons learned at Donora resulted in the passage of the 1955 Clean Air Act and began modern air pollution control efforts in the Commonwealth.
Snyder learned that US Steel had conducted an air analysis on the final night of the smog. But despite her numerous requests for the Donora records, Snyder recalls, US Steel officials finally informed her that they didn't "have anything for me." Equally frustrating to Snyder was the missing PHS records. At the time, Donora was the largest environmental investigation the government agency ever had mounted. "The kinds of papers I would expect to find are the correspondence files, the original and carbon copies of responses sent out, typed-up site visits, typed-up telephone conversations, maps, rough drafts of reports, photos," Snyder explained. But all these records have vanished.
"You have to suspect the worst. Not only of US Steel, but of the Public Health Service," Snyder says. Now herself a PHS historian, she concludes of the Donora records, "Someone may have decided they were too hot to handle and got rid of them. I'm open to that prospect."
Transcripts of Philip Sadtler's historic full interview are available from Earth Island Journal.
-------------------------------
Chris Bryson is a New York-based investigative reporter and co-author with Joel Griffiths of Fluoride and the A-Bomb (Winter 97-98 EIJ).This report was compiled with research assistance by Ellie Rudolph
-------------------------------
Death in Donora
I have felt the fog in my throat --
The misty hand of Death caress my face;
I have wrestled with a frightful foe
Who strangled me with wisps of gray fog-lace.
Now in my eyes since I have died.
The bleak, bare hills rise in stupid might
With scars of its slavery imbedded deep;
And the people still live -- still live -- in the poisonous night.
Folklorist Dan G. Hoffman reported collecting the ballad "Death in Donora" from area resident John P. Clark
-------------------------------
Sidebar: Fluoride and the Mohawks
Cows crawled around the pasture on their bellies, inching along like giant snails. So crippled by bone disease they could not stand up, this was the only way they could graze. Some died kneeling, after giving birth to stunted calves. Others kept on crawling until, no longer able to chew because their teeth had crumbled down to the nerves, they began to starve.
These were the cattle of the Mohawk Indians on the New York-Canadian St. Regis Reservation during the period 1960-75, when fluoride pollution from neighboring aluminum plants devastated the herd and the Mohawks' way of life. Crops and trees withered, birds and bees fled from this remnant of land the Mohawk still call Akwesasne, "the land where the partridge drums."
Today, nets cast into the St. Lawrence River by Mohawk fishers bring up ulcerated fish with spinal deformities. Mohawk children, too, have shown signs of damage to bones and teeth.
In 1980, the Mohawks filed a $150 million lawsuit for damage to themselves and their property against the companies responsible for the pollution: the Reynolds Metals Co. and the Aluminum Co. of America. But five years of legal costs bankrupted the tribe and they settled for $650,000 in damages to their cows. The court left the door open for a future Mohawk suit for damage to their own health. After all, commented human rights lawyer Robert Pritchard, "What judge wants to go down in history as being the judge who approved the annihilation of the Indians by fluoride emissions?" -- Joel Griffiths
The lessons learned at Donora resulted in the passage of the 1955 Clean Air Act America's worst air pollution disaster may have been caused by fluoride emissions: 50 years later, vital records are still missing.
by Chris Bryson
The anniversary of the worst recorded industrial air pollution accident in US history - which occurred 50 years ago this October in Donora, Pennsylvania -will go virtually unmarked. The Donora incident, which killed 20 and left hundreds seriously injured and dying, was caused by fluoride emissions from the Donora Zinc Works and steel plants owned by the US Steel Corporation.
In the aftermath of the accident, US Steel conspired with US Public Health Service (PHS) officials to cover up the role fluoride played in the tragedy. This charge comes from Philip Sadtler, a top industrial chemical consultant who conducted his own research at the scene of the disaster.
Fifty years later, Earth Island Journal has learned, vital records of the Donora investigation are missing from PHS archives. Fifty years later, US Steel continues to block access to their records of the Donora disaster, including a crucial air chemical analysis taken on the final night of the tragedy.
The "Donora Death Fog"
Horror visited the US Steel company-town of Donora on Halloween night, 1948, when a temperature inversion descended on the town. Fumes from US Steel's smelting plants blanketed the town for four days, and crept murderously into the citizens' homes. If the smog had lasted another evening "the casualty list would have been 1,000 instead of 20," said local doctor William Rongaus at the time. Later investigations by Rongaus and others indicated that one-third of the town's 14,000 residents were affected by the smog. Hundreds of residents were evacuated or hospitalized. A decade later, Donora's mortality rate remained significantly higher than neighboring areas.
The "Donora Death Fog", as it became known, spawned numerous angry lawsuits and the first calls for national legislation to protect the public from industrial air pollution.
A PHS report released in 1949 reported that "no single substance" was responsible for the Donora deaths and laid major blame for the tragedy on the temperature inversion. But according to industry consultant Philip Sadtler, in an interview taped shortly before his 1996 death, that report was a whitewash. "It was murder," said Sadtler about Donora. "The directors of US Steel should have gone to jail for killing people." Sadtler charged that the PHS report helped US Steel escape liability for the deaths and spared a host of fluoride- emitting industries the expense of having to control their toxic emissions. (A class-action lawsuit by Donora victims families was later settled out of court.)
In 1948, Sadtler was perhaps the nation's leading expert on fluorine pollution. He had gathered evidence for plaintiffs across the country, including an investigation of the Manhattan Project and the DuPont company's fluoride pollution of New Jersey farmland during World War II [see "Fluoride and the A-Bomb", 1997-98 EIJ].
For giant fluoride emitters such as US Steel and the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa), the cost of a national fluoride clean-up "would certainly have been in the billions," said Sadtler. So concealing the true cause of the Donora accident was vital. "It would have complicated things enormously for them if the public had been alerted to [the dangers of] fluoride."
A 50-Year Cover-up
US industry was well-placed to orchestrate a whitewash of the Donora investigation. The PHS was then a part of the Federal Security Agency. The FSA, in turn, was headed by Oscar R. Ewing, a former top lawyer for Alcoa. Neither his old industry connections, nor the fact that Alcoa had been facing lawsuits around the country for its wartime airborne fluoride pollution was mentioned in Ewing's introduction to the official report on Donora.
Sadtler remembers seeing a PHS van in Donora conducting air testing after the disaster. "I looked in and the chemist said, 'Phil, come on in.' Very friendly. He says, 'I know you are right, but I am not allowed to say so.' He must have been influenced by US Steel."
Sadtler blamed fluoride for the Donora disaster in an account published in the December 13, 1948 issue of Chemical and Engineering News. He reported fluorine blood levels of dead and hospitalized citizens to be 12 to 25 times above normal, with "primary symptoms of acute fluorine poisoning, dyspnea (distressed breathing similar to asthma) ... found in hundreds of cases." He recommended that, "Changes should be made in suspect processes to prevent emission of fluorine-containing fumes."
Industry moved quickly to silence Sadtler, who had been a contributor to Chemical and Engineering News for many years. (C&EN is published by the American Chemical Society.) "I had a call from the editor that I was not to send them any more [articles]," Sadtler said. The editor told Sadtler that the head of the Alcoa and the US Steel-funded Mellon Institute, Dr. [first name] Weidline (who also had served as a director of the American Chemical Society) "went to Washington and told [the magazine's editors] that they were not to publish any more of what I wrote," Sadtler said.
Looking Back on Donora
Today, 50 years later, researchers examining the Donora disaster face two troubling obstacle: (1) vital records are missing from the PHS archives and (2) US Steel's records are closed to reporters, researchers and investigators. In her 1994 doctoral dissertation ("The Death-Dealing Smog Over Donora, Pennsylvania: Industrial Air Pollution, Public Health Policy and the Politics of Expertise, 1948-1949"), Lynne Page Snyder of the University of Pennsylvania, described the response to the disaster.
The following excerpts were published in the Spring 1994 issue of the Environmental History Review.
"Pollution from the Donora Zinc Works smelting operation and other sources containing sulfur, carbon monoxide and heavy metal dusts, was trapped by weather conditions in the narrow river valley in and around Donora and neighboring Webster.
"Air pollution problems were recognized from the facility as early as 1918, when the plant owner paid off the legal claims for causing pollution that affected the health of nearby residents.
"In the 1920s, residents and farmers in Webster took legal action again against the company for loss of crops and livestock. Regular sampling of the air was begun in 1926 and stopped in 1935."
From local accounts of the time, Snyder provided this description of the 1948 disaster. "By Friday evening (October 2), local residents were crowding into nearby hospitals and dozens of calls were made to the area's eight physicians. While Fire Department volunteers administered oxygen to those unable to breathe, Board of Health member Dr. William Rongaus led an ambulance by foot through darkened streets to ferry the dead and dying to hospitals or on to a temporary morgue.
"On Rongaus' advice, those with chronic heart or respiratory ailments began to leave town late Friday evening, but before noon on Saturday, 11 people died. "Conditions had not improved by Saturday night, and with roads congested by smog and traffic, evacuation became impossible. The company operating the Donora Zinc Works finally ordered the plant shut down at 6 a.m. Sunday morning. By mid-day Sunday, rain had dispersed the smog.
"Pittsburgh itself escaped the episode primarily because it had just begun to enforce a smoke control ordinance and was cutting back on the use of bituminous coal as a fuel source. The Donora Smog gained national attention when Walter Winchell broadcast news of the disaster on his national radio show.
"The Pennsylvania Department of Health, United Steelworkers, Donora's Borough Council and the US Public Health Service all participated in the investigation of the air pollution incident. The investigation was the first time there was an organized effort to document the health impacts of air pollution in the United States. Commenting on the studies of the incident, the Monessen Daily Independent wrote that damage from air pollution from the Zinc Works was 'something no scientific investigation is necessary to prove. All you need is a pair of reasonably good eyes.'
"Before the Donora smog, neither manufacturers nor public health professionals considered air pollution an urgent issue. At the annual meeting of the Smoke Prevention Association in May 1949, a leading industrial physician and consultant to insurance companies dismissed air pollution as a threat, except 'on rare occasions [when] Mother Nature has played us false.''
"The studies of the Donora Smog did not fix blame and could not document levels of pollution beyond workplace limits set at the time. The Public Health Service recommended a warning system tied to weather forecasts and an air sampling system be installed to avoid future incidents. The lessons learned at Donora resulted in the passage of the 1955 Clean Air Act and began modern air pollution control efforts in the Commonwealth.
Snyder learned that US Steel had conducted an air analysis on the final night of the smog. But despite her numerous requests for the Donora records, Snyder recalls, US Steel officials finally informed her that they didn't "have anything for me." Equally frustrating to Snyder was the missing PHS records. At the time, Donora was the largest environmental investigation the government agency ever had mounted. "The kinds of papers I would expect to find are the correspondence files, the original and carbon copies of responses sent out, typed-up site visits, typed-up telephone conversations, maps, rough drafts of reports, photos," Snyder explained. But all these records have vanished.
"You have to suspect the worst. Not only of US Steel, but of the Public Health Service," Snyder says. Now herself a PHS historian, she concludes of the Donora records, "Someone may have decided they were too hot to handle and got rid of them. I'm open to that prospect."
Transcripts of Philip Sadtler's historic full interview are available from Earth Island Journal.
-------------------------------
Chris Bryson is a New York-based investigative reporter and co-author with Joel Griffiths of Fluoride and the A-Bomb (Winter 97-98 EIJ).This report was compiled with research assistance by Ellie Rudolph
-------------------------------
Death in Donora
I have felt the fog in my throat --
The misty hand of Death caress my face;
I have wrestled with a frightful foe
Who strangled me with wisps of gray fog-lace.
Now in my eyes since I have died.
The bleak, bare hills rise in stupid might
With scars of its slavery imbedded deep;
And the people still live -- still live -- in the poisonous night.
Folklorist Dan G. Hoffman reported collecting the ballad "Death in Donora" from area resident John P. Clark
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Sidebar: Fluoride and the Mohawks
Cows crawled around the pasture on their bellies, inching along like giant snails. So crippled by bone disease they could not stand up, this was the only way they could graze. Some died kneeling, after giving birth to stunted calves. Others kept on crawling until, no longer able to chew because their teeth had crumbled down to the nerves, they began to starve.
These were the cattle of the Mohawk Indians on the New York-Canadian St. Regis Reservation during the period 1960-75, when fluoride pollution from neighboring aluminum plants devastated the herd and the Mohawks' way of life. Crops and trees withered, birds and bees fled from this remnant of land the Mohawk still call Akwesasne, "the land where the partridge drums."
Today, nets cast into the St. Lawrence River by Mohawk fishers bring up ulcerated fish with spinal deformities. Mohawk children, too, have shown signs of damage to bones and teeth.
In 1980, the Mohawks filed a $150 million lawsuit for damage to themselves and their property against the companies responsible for the pollution: the Reynolds Metals Co. and the Aluminum Co. of America. But five years of legal costs bankrupted the tribe and they settled for $650,000 in damages to their cows. The court left the door open for a future Mohawk suit for damage to their own health. After all, commented human rights lawyer Robert Pritchard, "What judge wants to go down in history as being the judge who approved the annihilation of the Indians by fluoride emissions?" -- Joel Griffiths
The lessons learned at Donora resulted in the passage of the 1955 Clean Air Act America's worst air pollution disaster may have been caused by fluoride emissions: 50 years later, vital records are still missing.
Langgan:
Catatan (Atom)
