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The Health Link to Global Warming -- It's Not Just About Drought, Famine, and Shrinking Coastlines
UW study shows pollution linked to heart attacks
It looks at diesel, other particulates in the air By TOM PAULSON P-I REPORTER A nationwide research project coordinated out of Seattle has provided further evidence that exposure to air pollution raises the risk of heart attacks, heart disease and stroke. "We've found this risk to be even stronger than previously recognized," said Dr. Joel Kaufman, a University of Washington expert on environmental health who led the study published in today's New England Journal of Medicine. The results, though derived from a large research project involving only older women, almost certainly apply to men as well, Kaufman said. The study was focused on exposure to a common but invisible, fine particulate form of air pollution produced by diesel exhaust, coal- fired power plants and many other sources. The UW scientists looked at 36 cities with wide variation in the levels of these air pollutants. Many cities routinely test for air concentrations of these particles, known as PM2.5s. This refers to their size, which is less than 2.5 microns -- or less than one-tenth of the diameter of a human hair. Many scientists believe it is, in part, the small size of these particles that make them so toxic. "Seattle was included, and we're about in the middle range in terms of levels," Kaufman said. The lowest average level measured by the study was in Honolulu, at 3.4 micrograms (one millionth of a gram) per cubic meter. The highest was Riverside, Calif., at 28 micrograms. Seattle had PM2.5 air levels of 11 micrograms. "That's not terrible, but it's still in the higher range in terms of risk," Kaufman said. Levels of exposure to fine particulates vary within a city, he noted, which the researchers also considered when looking at an individual's health outcomes. "Our findings show that both what city a woman lived in, and where she lived in that city, affected her exposure and her disease risk," said Kristin Miller, a UW doctoral student in epidemiology and first author of the journal report. The UW scientists found that an increase of 10 points in the PM2.5 levels increased a woman's risk of a heart attack or other "cardiovascular event" by 24 percent and risk of death from heart disease by 76 percent. The link between air pollution and disease, especially cardiovascular disease, has been shown in numerous earlier studies, Kaufman noted. But most of the earlier research was retrospective, he said, based on reviewing death certificates and estimating the deceased's past exposure to pollution. "Because these findings have direct impact on clean-air regulations, they are often fiercely challenged by critics in industry," Kaufman said. "Preventing these effects requires reducing the pollution at the source." The implications of this connection could be very significant. "More than one out of three deaths in the United States are due to cardiovascular disease -- it's the leading cause of death," Miller said. "If the annual average concentration of fine particulate air pollution can be reduced, it would potentially translate on a national scale to the prevention or delay of thousands and thousands of heart attacks, strokes and bypass surgeries, not to mention fewer early deaths." An editorial from researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital accompanies the UW study. The authors suggest public-health interventions to address this problem and upgrading the federal standards to reduce fine particulate matter pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency tightened its daily limit for fine particulate pollutants in September. But it left the average annual limit untouched, allowing a concentration of fifteen-millionths of a gram for every cubic meter of air. The strength of the UW findings, researchers say, comes from more accurate air-pollution measurements in recent years and a massive treasure trove of biomedical data available through a multipurpose research project, involving more than 65,000 women, known as the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study. The Women's Health Initiative, funded by the National Institutes of Health and administered by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, was started in 1991 to look at the health effects of hormone therapy in post-menopausal women. Because of its extraordinarily large number of participants and statistical power, it has since been used to try to answer many other, broader questions of health and disease. Although the data is now fairly convincing showing the link between fine particulate air pollution and heart disease, the UW scientist said it remains unclear exactly how these tiny particles in such small doses are able to so vigorously attack the heart. "Do these particles get into the (blood) circulation, or do they have an effect in the lungs that propagates downstream?" Kaufman said. "We really don't know, and we need to figure this out." Another unknown is which type of PM2.5 particles are the worst, he said. Studies done in cities with varying levels of air pollution have shown an increase of heart attacks correlating with increases in diesel exhaust, Kaufman said. But a study of wood smoke in Seattle showed no such correlation between high levels of wood smoke and heart attacks, he said. "We've seen that the arteries constrict after exposure to diesel exhaust," Kaufman said. "I think it's a particularly bad actor, but we don't have the smoking gun yet." Evidence of the link between heart problems and pollution dates back at least to a 1952 disaster in London known as the "Great Smog." A cold December fog trapped coal smoke in an inversion, killing thousands of people (8,000, by one estimate) and prompting new clean- air regulations. LEARN MORE To determine the average annual concentration of fine particulate matter for a particular city or county, visit the EPA's Air Trends Web site and look for "PM 2.5 Wtd AM" in the tables provided. The most recent data available from the EPA are from 2005. epa.gov/airtrends/ factbook.html ©1996-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health...irheart01.html |
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The Health Link to Global Warming -- It's Not Just About Drought, Famine, and Shrinking Coastlines
On 1 Feb 2007 06:13:55 -0800, "PeterB" wrote:
UW study shows pollution linked to heart attacks It looks at diesel, other particulates in the air Which has bugger all to do with global warming! Sheeeesh!!! jack |
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The Health Link to Global Warming -- It's Not Just About Drought, Famine, and Shrinking Coastlines
On Feb 2, 1:40 pm, "vernon" stillhere@anhere wrote:
"PeterB" wrote in message oups.com... On Feb 2, 6:33 am, wrote: On 1 Feb 2007 06:13:55 -0800, "PeterB" wrote: UW study shows pollution linked to heart attacks It looks at diesel, other particulates in the air Which has bugger all to do with global warming! Sheeeesh!!! What are you smoking, Jack? The health consequences of exposure to particulate matter are concomitant with the release of carbon emmissions, or didn't you know that? If you think can cite a reference contradicting this one from the "Global Environemntal Change Report," please feel free to do so. "New American research suggests that ultra fine particles may trigger heart attacks. These tiny particles (PM2.5) are often derived from combustion processes and are therefore emitted from VEHICLES AND INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES [emphasis mine], rather than from agriculture or building work. These tiny particles can bypass the human defence system and penetrate deep into the lungs." [Source: Global Environmental change Report, 22 June 2001; Nature, 14 June 2001, vol. 411, pp. 765-766.] NOTHING whatever to do with so called Global warming. I'm not saying global warming causes heart attacks. I'm saying the immediate health effects of emissions are the bigger issue. ALSO Note "These tiny particles can bypass the human defense system and penetrate deep into the lungs." The small word "CAN" is very big and insignificant compared to the dangers or other pollutants. That's actually true, if only because city dwellers take the brunt of carbon emissions. But the volume of overlap in most industrial pollutants makes it hard (even impossible) to know the relative impact over time (ie., cities get larger, pollution travels, demographics change), so ignoring it is a bad idea. More recent studies are also more definitive [ref. http://www.news-medical.net/?id=13281, http:// news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1383645.stm, http://www.sciencedaily.com/ releases/2005/04/050422170441.htm and http://www.americanheart.org/ presenter.jhtml?identifier=4419.] I have not seen one single solitary cogent suggestion for solution by the "global warming" freaks because they are NOT interested in "Global Warming". Frankly, neither am I. I am, however, concerned about the quality of air I breathe. There really are short AND long term solutions, but if implemented would take the wind out of their purely political and disingenuous diatribe. What I find amusing about the global warming debate is the idea that it makes any difference if Man precipitated the current trend. The real question is whether carbon emissions are affecting human health right now, and the evidence I see tells me they are. The chance that human activity is *accelerating* a warming trend already underway, maybe causing climate change so intense that it threatens human life and economic development in the future, is really a separate issue. But then the 70 year plus 400 year cycle would occur and they would have some other political nonsense. I dread, but can't wait for the next major event like Krakatau or the 20 foot shift in the Mississippi valley or the entire flooding of ALL of New Orleans or the absolutely eminent total flooding of Long Island. One or more is inevitable in the next 50 years probably 7. Personally, I think polar bears are responsible for glacier thawing -- they never refill the ice cube trays. |
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The Health Link to Global Warming -- It's Not Just About Drought, Famine, and Shrinking Coastlines
On 5 Feb 2007 06:42:33 -0800, "PeterB" wrote:
UW study shows pollution linked to heart attacks It looks at diesel, other particulates in the air Which has bugger all to do with global warming! Sheeeesh!!! What are you smoking, Jack? The health consequences of exposure to particulate matter are concomitant with the release of carbon emmissions, or didn't you know that? If you think can cite a reference contradicting this one from the "Global Environemntal Change Report," please feel free to do so. "New American research suggests that ultra fine particles may trigger heart attacks. These tiny particles (PM2.5) are often derived from combustion processes and are therefore emitted from VEHICLES AND INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES [emphasis mine], rather than from agriculture or building work. These tiny particles can bypass the human defence system and penetrate deep into the lungs." [Source: Global Environmental change Report, 22 June 2001; Nature, 14 June 2001, vol. 411, pp. 765-766.] I've not seen half the messages in this thread. My newserver is apparently having mysterious problems that the techos know nothing about. The Sergeant Schulz defence. Whoever wrote the above, perhaps you are confusing particulate carbon emissions with carbon dioxide emissions. The latter is usually what is referred to as "carbon emissions". Particulates have very little to do with global temperature change (generally, particulates lower temp, as is done in nuclear winters) And carbon dioxide emissions have nothing to do with health. jack |
#5
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The Health Link to Global Warming -- It's Not Just About Drought, Famine, and Shrinking Coastlines
On Feb 5, 11:21 pm, wrote:
On 5 Feb 2007 06:42:33 -0800, "PeterB" wrote: UW study shows pollution linked to heart attacks It looks at diesel, other particulates in the air Which has bugger all to do with global warming! Sheeeesh!!! What are you smoking, Jack? The health consequences of exposure to particulate matter are concomitant with the release of carbon emmissions, or didn't you know that? If you think can cite a reference contradicting this one from the "Global Environemntal Change Report," please feel free to do so. "New American research suggests that ultra fine particles may trigger heart attacks. These tiny particles (PM2.5) are often derived from combustion processes and are therefore emitted from VEHICLES AND INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES [emphasis mine], rather than from agriculture or building work. These tiny particles can bypass the human defence system and penetrate deep into the lungs." [Source: Global Environmental change Report, 22 June 2001; Nature, 14 June 2001, vol. 411, pp. 765-766.] I've not seen half the messages in this thread. My newserver is apparently having mysterious problems that the techos know nothing about. The Sergeant Schulz defence. Whoever wrote the above, perhaps you are confusing particulate carbon emissions with carbon dioxide emissions. The latter is usually what is referred to as "carbon emissions". That's why I referred to the concomitance of emissions that include particulates of carbon effecting human health, because so far the debate has focused soley on the consequences of carbon dioxide. Particulates have very little to do with global temperature change (generally, particulates lower temp, as is done in nuclear winters) And carbon dioxide emissions have nothing to do with health. Again, as noted in the discussion of this thread. PeterB |
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