tagged w/ particulates
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Air pollution: The silent killer
Air pollution: Silent killer in the city
By Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent
November 16, 2010 8:53 a.m. EST
How to protect yourself from polluted air
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Air pollution can raise the risk of lung and heart problems, Dr. Gupta says
* Urban pollution kills more than a million people annually, according to U.N. figures
* Cities around the world are trying out solutions to tackle the problem
Kobe, Japan (CNN) -- For the last several days, I have been in beautiful Kobe, Japan, reporting about the World Health Organization forum on urbanization and health.
Given that more than half the world's population now lives in cities, with the number expected to increase significantly, the implications on individual health are becoming pretty clear. A lot of the discussion here has been specifically on the quality of the air we breathe, and the news has not been great.
For starters, an Environmental Protection Agency report found the air in many cities is simply too dirty to breathe. Think about that: as things stand now, toxic pollution has become a particular disease of the world's urbanites, affecting more than a billion of its citizens.
And, if you look more closely at the impact of pollution, you see more than half the burden on human health is on people in developing countries already crippled with poverty and few resources.
As things stand now, toxic pollution has become a particular disease of the world's urbanites.
--Dr. Sanjay Gupta
For example, here in Kobe, there is an obvious marriage between the industrial sector filled with at least 15 large factories, and residential areas close by. Walking around the city, you quickly see the consequences of explosive urban growth. The combination of factory emissions with exhaust from trucks, buses and automobiles is proving toxic to human health.
Today, urban pollution kills a million people a year, according to the United Nations. And, conventional wisdom was that it took a long time to develop health problems associated with pollution, but it is simply not the case. A study published in 2007 found that on days when pollution is high, cities see spikes in emergency room visits over the next 24 hours. Just one day.
If you live in a city, chances are you might not even notice just how polluted the air has become. Turns out that within four days of breathing the dirty air in, your body sort of becomes accustomed to it, despite the fact that your airways becomes more inflamed and restricted, and your risk of lung and heart problems start to rise.
The good news is that fixes are being tested in many cities around the world. In Shanghai, coal-free downtown areas have been established, which has already resulted in lower particulate matter. In New York City, there is a ban on idling trucks and buses. And in Bogota, transport management policies have led to increased use of mass transit.
Having spent time in many major cities on every continent in the world, it is safe to say "urbanization" is here to stay. As individuals and as societies, however, it is up to us to try to make the beautiful city we live in a safer and healthier one.Air pollution: The silent killer
Air pollution: Silent killer in the city
By Dr.... more
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More destruction to mountains to fill the pockets of those who really do not care about the consequences of their actions. It is time to stand up to them for a cleaner better future. There is no such thing as clean coal and everytime a representative of one of these companies uses that term as if it is available now, they are lying through their teeth. It must be stopped.
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From the article:
Environmentalists are vowing to block a proposed $6 billion coal-fired power plant in Surry County, saying it would increase air pollution, would contribute to global warming and is not needed.
Advocacy groups including the Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center and Chesapeake Climate Action Network are gearing up for what one activist called all-out war in response to plans announced this week by the project sponsor, Old Dominion Electric Cooperative.
ODEC, a nonprofit utility based in Richmond, said it wants to build the plant on about 1,600 acres in the town of Dendron, about 40 miles west of Norfolk, in order to meet anticipated demand for electricity in the near future in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
The utility has given the plant a name - Cypress Creek Power Station - and said it would burn mostly Appalachian coal to produce 750 megawatts to 1,500 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 400,000 homes. Woody timber wastes, known as biomass, would fuel about 3 percent of the plant.
In comparison, the coal-fired plant under construction in Wise County in Southwest Virginia is expected to produce 585 megawatts and cost about $1.8 billion. That project, led by Dominion Virginia Power, is being challenged in court by environmentalists.
In the face of an economic recession and mounting threats from climate change, the prospect of introducing an unnecessary $6 billion coal plant is outrageous said Tom Cormons, a lawyer and campaign coordinator for Appalachian Voices, a group fighting the Wise County plant as well.
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How much renewable energy could 6 billion dollars buy? Well, you sure would get more for your money with it besides devastated mountains, black water, black lung and cancer. This is simply insane.
^^More destruction to mountains to fill the pockets of those who really do not care... more
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Every year, South Carolina's power plants burn enough coal to fill 10 large football stadiums, leaving behind a stadium-size pile of toxic ash.
Every year, our power companies dump roughly 2.3 billion pounds of this tainted ash in landfills and holding ponds, many precariously close to rivers and neighborhoods.
And every year, some of these landfills and ponds leak. Scattered across South Carolina, these vast pits and ponds of coal ash are polluting groundwater and waterways with arsenic, selenium and other chemicals that can cause health problems in wildlife and people, a Post and Courier Watchdog investigation found.
Water under some landfills has concentrations of arsenic many times the federal limit, documents obtained under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act show.
Consider:
Near Moncks Corner, in the quiet Whitesville community, arsenic-laced water from a coal ash landfill is leaking into a nearby pond.
Farther north, near Congaree National Park, arsenic 200 to 400 times the federal drinking water limit has been found in groundwater at SCE&G's plant on the banks of the Wateree River.
On the Savannah River, SCE&G's Urquhart plant has groundwater tainted with arsenic eight times above the federal standard.
Closer to Charleston, near Canadys, a breach in an earthen wall at two ash ponds allowed arsenic and nickel to pollute groundwater next to the Edisto River.
At Santee Cooper's coal plant near Conway, arsenic levels in groundwater near the edge of the Waccamaw River were 900 times higher than the federal limit. Significant contamination also has been found in coal ash ponds at the Savannah River Site.
Because of lax government oversight and bureaucratic loopholes, coal ash landfill operators here have polluted groundwater at their plants for years without a single fine.
So far, contamination is limited to the landfill operators' properties and the groundwater below, according to engineers with utilities and state Department of Health and Environmental Control. They say that they're unaware of anyone being sickened by coal waste. Officials with SCE&G and Santee Cooper say their ash disposal operations are in full compliance with state and federal laws.
Still, while coal and other industry interests downplay the dangers of coal ash, it's increasingly clear that many ash ponds and landfills have caused serious pollution problems here and across the nation.
An analysis last year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found 67 cases in 26 states where ash waste tainted groundwater and lakes.
A different EPA study found that people who live next to certain types of coal ash landfills and ponds have a higher risk of getting cancer.
Meanwhile, residents in other states are filing lawsuits alleging that ash basins polluted their drinking wells. In Maryland, state regulators recently fined a utility $1 million over a leaking coal ash pit.
The debate over coal ash has been simmering for years, eclipsed by more heated exchanges about mountaintop removal in Appalachia and coal's role in global warming. That could change.
Earlier this year, South Carolina health officials tightened ash disposal rules — after years of allowing landfill operators to treat ash as if it were no more dangerous than a pile of construction debris.
Meanwhile, Santee Cooper wants to build a new ash landfill and pond next to its proposed Pee Dee coal plant, and SCE&G is building new landfill near Congaree National Park. Citizens groups and nearby residents are fighting both projects.
Every year, South Carolina's power plants burn enough coal to fill 10 large... more
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