Air pollution continues to plague many large U.S. cities, where coal plants and tailpipe emissions poison the air with asthma-aggravating, cancer causing ozone and particle emissions. But the picture, and the air, is much clearer in Peoria, Springfield and a few dozen other mid-sized meccas, according to the American Lung Association’s annual report. See what the air rates where you live.
Tags: · air, American Lung Association, Asthma, car emissions, Carbon Dioxide, coal plants, COPD, diabetes, heart disease, lungs, Ozone, particle pollution, pollution, smog
By declining to implement tougher regulations on smog last fall, President Obama rejected measures that could have saved several thousand lives a year and prevented millions of cases of asthma attacks and other acute respiratory problems, according to …
Tags: · Air Pollution, Asthma, city smog, EPA smog standard, heart conditions, Johns Hopkins study, non-attainment areas, ozone pollution
Public health advocates and environmentalists praised the Obama Administration for adopting standards for air pollution to reduce mercury and other toxics released mainly from power plants.
The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for Power Plants, announced today by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “are long overdue” and will help reduce the amounts of mercury, lead, arsenic and other pollutants that affect human health, American Lung Association leaders said.
“Since toxic air pollution from power plants can make people sick and cut lives short, the new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards are a huge victory for public health,” said Albert A. Rizzo, MD, National Volunteer Chair of the American Lung Association, and pulmonary and critical care physician in Newark, Delaware. “The Lung Association expects all oil and coal-fired power plants to act now to protect all Americans, especially our children, from the health risks imposed by these dangerous air pollutants.”
Tags: · Air Pollution, Asthma, cardiac health, coal-fired power plants, EPA mercury emissions rule, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for Power Plants, power plants, public health effects of coal emissions, pulmonary health, toxic emissions standard issued by EPA
Pollution from natural gas drilling is a key factor in North Texas’ continuing smog pollution problems, but the skies could be much cleaner if natural gas drilling companies would take a few simple steps, according to a citizens’ clean air group.
The 9-county area around Dallas and Fort Worth has struggled to meet the EPA’s clean air standards set for the region, despite warnings to improve air quality dating to the early 1990s. Now, even though pollution from cars and trucks has been reduced through better tailpipe technology, the region still fails to meet basic clean air benchmarks. The reason, clean air advocates say, is the natural gas industry.
Hundreds of drilling operations in the region release tons of methane gas, a greenhouse gas 21 times as potent as carbon dioxide, as well as Volatile Organic Compounds, like benzene and formaldehyde, every day.
Tags: · Air Pollution, American Lung Association, Asthma, Barnett Shale, Downwinders at Risk, greenrightnow.com, health effects of natural gas drilling, Marcellus Shale, natural gas, North Texas, report on VOCs from natural gas, VOCs
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
You know those smoggy, hazy days when you look toward downtown to find the skyscrapers obscured behind a ripply, gray veil? What horrible pollution, you think. And it may be.
But watch out, those other days when the skyscrapers blaze brightly under clear blue skies may be deceptively hazardous to your health as well, or maybe more so.
Tags: · Air Pollution, arterosclerosis, Asthma, carbon dioxide emissions, cardiovascular illness, diabetes, exhaust fumes, micro particles, National Environmental Public Health Tracking Record, particulate matter, respiratory illness, smog
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
The Earth Day Network, the Clean Air Campaign and UPS have launched a campaign that challenges an American tradition – idling your car outside the neighborhood school while waiting to scoop up the munchkins.
The groups are targeting active idlers because the practice needlessly pollutes the air, contributing to global warming and aggravating kids’ respiratory health issues.
Tags: · Asthma, Clean Air Campaign, Earth Day Network, gasoline, Idling, UPS
By Diane Porter
There are already undeniable legacies of the 2008 Olympic Games: eight gold medals hanging around U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps’ neck, for instance, or the otherworldly sprint that helped Jamaican runner Usain Bolt break Michael Johnson’s record in the men’s 100 meter race. There are visual reminders, as well; the Olympic pavilions, Bird’s Nest and Water Cube will remain a part of central Beijing life for decades.
Perhaps the most crucial legacy, however, is yet to be played out. As hotels empty, athletes and television crews return to their home countries, and Beijing goes back to a life more sheltered from the world, the lingering question is this: Will the enormous and by most accounts successful efforts to reduce the city’s pollution during the Olympic games continue in some fashion, improving life for those who live there and reducing the city’s footprint on the global environment?
“Beijing will be built into a livable city,” said Du Shaozhong, deputy head of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau in a press conference the day before closing ceremonies.
Tags: · Air Pollution, Asthma, Athletes, Beijing, Olympics
Barbara Kessler
Andrew Winston
Danielle Nierenberg
Anthony Swift
