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The Health Link to Global Warming -- It's Not Just About Drought, Famine, and Shrinking Coastlines



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 1st, 2007, 03:13 PM posted to misc.health.alternative,alt.support.diet,alt.health,sci.life-extension,sci.med.nutrition
PeterB
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Posts: 218
Default 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

  #2  
Old February 2nd, 2007, 12:33 PM posted to misc.health.alternative,alt.support.diet,alt.health,sci.life-extension,sci.med.nutrition
[email protected]
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Posts: 18
Default 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
  #3  
Old February 5th, 2007, 03:42 PM posted to misc.health.alternative,alt.support.diet,alt.health,sci.life-extension,sci.med.nutrition
PeterB
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Posts: 218
Default 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.

  #4  
Old February 6th, 2007, 05:21 AM posted to misc.health.alternative,alt.support.diet,alt.health,sci.life-extension,sci.med.nutrition
[email protected]
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Posts: 57
Default 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  
Old February 6th, 2007, 09:48 PM posted to misc.health.alternative,alt.support.diet,alt.health,sci.life-extension,sci.med.nutrition
PeterB
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 218
Default 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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