Local and Globally, the Pollution Problem

We talk a lot of about air pollution, air purification, clean air, and how our systems help. I'm in the South Florida tri-county area (Miami Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach), but the problem is global, as shown in these news excerpts:

• Pakistan
• Utah
• Ontario, Canada
• Jerusalem

Obesity and Air Pollution

Obesity linked to air pollution in inner cities:

     It's well known that a poor diet and physical inactivity are the main contributors to obesity, now an epidemic that afflicts 17 percent of America's children. But why would the rate be higher--closer to 25 percent greater, according to a new studyconducted by the Columbia University Center for Children's Environmental Health--among children living in inner-city neighborhoods? The statistic seems particularly strange for a city like New York, where most of us walk or take public transportation to get about. Could there be other factors to consider?
     Indeed, the Center's study strongly suggests that a common urban air pollutant, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs for short, could be playing a role. PAHs are released into the air from the burning of coal, diesel, oil and gas, and other organic substances like tobacco. Trucks and buses are the worst polluters, as they use diesel fuel, not gasoline.
     Previous research at the Center indicates that exposure to PAHs poses a number of health hazards. Prenatal exposure to PAH can negatively affect children's IQ and is linked to anxiety, depression, and attention problems in young children. Also PAHs are known carcinogens and have been shown to disrupt the body's endocrine system, which is instrumental in regulating mood, growth and development, metabolism, sexual function, and reproductive processes.
So is it the PAHs' effect on the endocrine system and its control of metabolism that links the pollutant to obesity? Possibly. According to studies on mice, exposure to PAHs causes gains in fat mass in the mice. Corroborating evidence from cell culture studies has shown exposures to PAH prevent normal lipolysis, the process by which fat cells shed lipids and shrink in size.
     These earlier studies correlate well with the findings from the new "street-science" study, which was published earlier this month in the American Journal of Epidemiology. In this new study, researchers recruited 702 nonsmoking pregnant women who all lived in areas in northern Manhattan or the South Bronx. Over the course of two days during their third trimester, the women wore a small backpack equipped to continually sample the surrounding air; at night, each placed it near her bed. What the researchers found was that children of the women exposed to high levels of PAH during pregnancy were nearly twice as likely (1.79 times) to be obese at age 5, and more than twice as likely (2.26 times) to be obese at age 7, compared with the children whose mothers had lower levels of exposure. The 7-year-olds whose mothers were in the highest exposure group had, on average, 2.4 pounds more fat mass than the children of women with the least exposure.
     Interestingly, although obesity is clustered among poorer families and New York City has big pockets of poverty, Andrew G. Rundle, Dr. PH, the study's lead author and a professor of epidemiology at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, found the impact of PAH on risk of obesity was not influenced by household income or neighborhood poverty. His team also ruled out the influence of cigarette smoke in the household, another sources of PAHs.
Rundle offers this explanation for the role PAHs may play: "Obesity is a complex disease withmultiple risk factors... For many people who don't have the resources to buy healthy food or don't have the time to exercise, prenatal exposure to air pollution may tip the scales, making them even more susceptible to obesity."
     Obesity rates are higher among African American and Hispanic children, Rundle notes. "So while NYC has many advantages in terms of walkability and parks," he explains, "It also has many residents traditionally thought to be at higher risk."
     Fortunately, there are ways to reduce PAH exposure in your community. As noted above, certain fuels release more of the pollutant than others, so working with your city or town to require trucks, buses, and building furnaces to either switch to cleaner fuels or be equipped with the latest emission controls could make a big difference. Efforts on the part of community action groups in New York City to take diesel buses off the streets and retrofit oil furnaces so they burn cleaner fuel have improved air quality here.
     Also, you can join the many cities and towns that have passed anti-idling rules prohibiting trucks and buses from idling their engines when they stop for more than a few minutes. Consider including a clause like the one we have in NYC, which not only allows agents of the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Sanitation to issue idling summonses, appearance tickets, and violation notices, but also gives citizens the ability to report truck violations.
     Cleaner air, just like more healthful eating and access to parks and recreation areas, is our ticket to creating a smarter, healthier, more productive life for our children. We can all help to make our neighborhoods safer and healthier for them.

Source: Wendy Gordon, Huffington Post

Asthma Triggers

Asthma can first appear any time - even later in life. Experts don't know why some adults develop asthma, but they suspect heredity and environmental factors. Obesity may raise the risk of adult-onset asthma as well.

See video HERE

Here are other triggers, with tips to help protect yourself:

Trigger: Respiratory Infections
Scientists found an increased risk of asthma in poeple ages 21-63 who had been diagnosed with lower respiratory tract infections. Tip: Wash your hands often. This is one of the simplest ways to kill the germs that get you sick. Also, talk to your doctor about getting an annual flu shot.

Trigger: Allergies
Pollen, dust, and dander can set off symptoms. At least 30% of adult cases are caused by allergies. When your immune system mistakes a harmless allergen for a dangerous invader, it releases chemicals to attack it. For some people, this reaction also affects the lungs and airways. Tip: Consider immuno-therapy. Allergy shots gradually reduce your immune system reactions to specific allergens, which in turn decreases asthma symptoms.

Trigger: Your Job
If you wheeze at work, you may have occupational asthma, caused by inhaling potentially harmful job-related substances. Experts believe up to 15% of all asthma cases in the USA may be linked to working conditions. Tip: Avoid irritants.A doctor can help determine what on your job site may be causing your symptoms: If it's a specific irritant, talk to your employer about minimizing exposure.

Source: USA Weekend

Lower Asthma Attacks through Clean Indoor Air

Keeping the air clean inside your home helps everyone breathe easier and lowers the risk for asthma attacks in children – and adults - with this serious breathing problem. Here are some things you can do around the house to minimize asthma triggers in your indoor air:

• Ban smoking. An estimated 400,000 to one million asthmatic children have asthma worsened by exposure to secondhand smoke, according to the American Lung Association.
• Ask smokers to change clothes before coming inside. Even exposure to ‘third-hand smoke – the particles that cling to the hair, clothing and skin of a smoker, can make asthma worse for kids.
• Put plastic covers on the mattress and pillow of the beds in the asthmatic child’s bedroom.
• Wet dust the child’s room daily with disposable wipes or paper towels.
• Keep surfaces clear (“like a Marine’s barracks”) for easy cleaning. Put all the objects you cannot wash frequently into the closet - such as stuffed animals, throw pillows and fabric decorations.
• Don’t let pets – dogs, cats, guinea pigs, ferrets, the mouse your kid brought home for the weekend from the school science class - into the bedroom of the person with asthma, ever. Pet dander can be a potent asthma trigger.
• Avoid perfumes or other strong smells such as strongly-scented cleaning products.

Source: Philly Health

Fracking Harmful

You may have heard about water pollution from fracking (the production of natural gas from hydraulic fracturing), but air pollution is also on the rise from this process.

     "So much is being said in news about how this is the new clean fuel," she said. "It's not."
     Natural gas production is rapidly increasing across the country -- from Pennsylvania to Colorado. According to many public health experts, the natural and manmade chemicals released during drilling, hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) and reinjection steps are making more and more people sick. Adding to the concern are new findings showing the associated air pollution, and the dangers of exposure to very small doses of certain chemicals. Developing fetuses and young children can be the most vulnerable to these effects.
     "For children, the potential cancer risk is a serious consideration. They are more sensitive, exposed at younger ages and for longer periods of time," said Lisa McKenzie, lead researcher on the study at the Colorado School of Public Health.
     McKenzie said the results also pointed to potentially significant respiratory and neurological effects. For children, this could mean more headaches, sore throats and asthma. "Children are more sensitive to all of these pollutants, whether traditional ozone, dust or particulates caused by hydrocarbons leaking out of the wells or the diesel trucks carrying the materials," added Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst at the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, whose goal is to protect public health and the environment.

Source: Huffington Post

Smog and Stokes

Factors for stroke include: predisposition for weak blood vessels, smoking, and poor air quality. Combine any of these and you have a deadly combination.

For more on how smog increases the risk of stroke, click here to see the Video.

Symptoms of stroke:

• Numbness or weakness of face, arm or leg — especially on one side of the body
• Confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
• Trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance, poor coordination
• Severe headache with no known cause

If you notice anyone with sudden onset of those symptoms, they should seek immediate medical attention.

The National Stroke Association recommends you do the following to reduce your risk:

• Eat a healthful diet
• Don’t smoke
• Be active and exercise
• Limit alcohol use
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Manage high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol

Also, purify your air. The fine particles in the air are what increase the risk of stroke. Our purifiers increase the ozone, so the particles stick together, becoming larger.

Source: Press Enterprise

UV History

According to Good Changes Now, the history of ultraviolet light is as follows:

In 1800, a German astronomer, Fredrich William Herschel, was experimenting with passing sunlight through a glass prism. He observed that temperatures increased the more he went towards the red end of the spectrum. As a scientist he measured beyond the red end of the spectrum, naming it “ultra-red.”

A year later, Johann Wilhelm Ritter, Polish-born physicist, hearing of Herschel’s ultra-red discovery, wanted to know if light existed beyond it. At the University of Jena, Ritter did experiments using silver chloride. This light-sensitive material was used in passing different colors through a glass prism. He found an intense reaction with the silver chloride, and beyond the red end of the spectrum he found the violet light that he termed “chemical rays.” Later this light was referred to as “ultraviolet” light.

In 1877 two English scientists, W. B. Hugo Downes and Thomas Porter Blunt, discovered that sunlight kills bacteria. While doing an experiment with sugar water the part in the sun remained clear while the shaded side grew cloudy with bacteria.

Much later Marshall Ward discovered it was the ultraviolet portion that had the bacteria-killing properties.

Niels Finsen was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1903, for his work using UV light to fight tuberculosis.

The UV-C light sterilization has the ability to kill viruses, germs, and bacteria. The lights are now at a stage that we have sizes that we can use anywhere.

Further, Public Health Reports describes how we are using UV light for germicidal purposes:

Public health concerns such as multi- and extensive drug-resistant tuberculosis, bioterrorism, pandemic influenza, and severe acute respiratory syndrome have intensified efforts to prevent transmission of infections that are completely or partially airborne using environmental controls. One such control, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI), has received renewed interest after decades of underutilization and neglect. With renewed interest, however, come renewed questions, especially regarding efficacy and safety. There is a long history of investigations concluding that, if used properly, UVGI can be safe and highly effective in disinfecting the air, thereby preventing transmission of a variety of airborne infections. Despite this long history, many infection control professionals are not familiar with the history of UVGI and how it has, and has not, been used safely and effectively. This article reviews that history of UVGI for air disinfection, starting with its biological basis, moving to its application in the real world, and ending with its current status.