Links found between lead exposure and violent crime

Links found between lead exposure and violent crime

This week’s article is about a study in Australia that has found a link between exposure to lead and violent crime.  It starts in the town of Boolaroo, which is located in New South Wales, Australia.  Chad Hinds grew up just 300 meters from the town’s lead and zinc smelter.  Chad suffered from asthma as a child, and later on in his life was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and memory loss.  Sammy Zahran, a Columbia University scientist, has discovered a consistent 20-year time gap between lead pollution and violent crime.   Australian researcher Mark Taylor has also began a study in Australian cities.  He claims that children living in high levels of lead pollution are pre-disposed to violent activity later in life.  Critics say the research is too broad, and there is no evidence that youth exposed to lead are the same people who commit the crimes.  But there is evidence on an individual level of people who are exposed and the likelihood of them engaging in violent crime.  Crime is associated with lower IQ, so researchers are trying to look at the relationship between the two.  Lead also affects the human brain, which could lower a person’s IQ, which leads to engaging in violent crime.  Nevertheless, the impacts of lead exposure are harmful to children and this should not be ignored. 

This is a different kind of pollution than I have blogged about before.  Lead pollution is harmful and does damage to the human brain.  Scientists in Australia as well as the United States are looking deeper into this link between lead exposure in childhood and violent crime later on in life.  It is critical to keep our children away from such harmful exposures, so they can grow into productive citizens of the society.  This article was great because it gave a counter argument of critics saying the studies are too broad.  

Carly Taylor
April 22, 2013 8:43PM

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-09/alarming-link-between-lead-exposure-and-violent-crime/4619168

High Levels of Air Pollution in Madrid

Madrid’s High Levels of Air Pollution

This week’s article is about extremely high levels of air pollution in Madrid, Spain.  Residents of Madrid are experiencing toxic pollution from motor vehicles, which is what makes up three-fourths of the total air pollution in the city.  The claim is that pollution levels regularly exceed European mandated levels of gases and particles.  Recent studies have shown that air pollution is linked to cancer and other diseases, so the residents of Madrid are often worried about their health.  In fact, a small increase in particles of air pollution results in an increase in the number of people admitted to the hospital for circulatory and respiratory illnesses.  Researchers are linking two types of particles in air pollution to the populations’ health as a whole and find that the effects of the particles are closely related to the size of the particles. 

Not surprisingly, people with asthma are at great risk living in Madrid.  Pollution is also linked to low birth weight in babies, which was presented in one of my blogs earlier this year.  According to the World Health Organization, air pollution shortens lives by an average of 8.6 months, where people are primarily affected by cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and lung cancer. 

To combat this social health issue, city officials of Madrid enacted an air-quality plan last year that calls for low-emission zones and promotion of electric cars, public transportation and bicycle usage.  This plan, if regulated and enforced, should reduce the air pollution in this beautiful Spanish city.   There is controversy over the statistics reporting Madrid’s success in reducing pollution.  They claim to have reduced the sulfur dioxide levels, but many people accuse the government of fixing the data.

Since I have started this blog, I have noticed that many mega cities around the globe suffer from poor air quality, and it is usually caused from the excessive amount of motor vehicles.  Beijing is experiencing toxic level of air pollution because of the overpopulation streets with vehicles letting off toxic omissions.  Madrid is experiencing the same effect.  The streets are becoming more populated with motor vehicles, which results in poorer air quality for the city.  Residents of air polluted cities such as these are put at a greater risk for diseases and cancer.  What are they to do?  The city provides jobs, and most people need to live in or near the city to commute to work.  They do not have the choice to get up and move to a more rural area, with fresh air and not as much pollution.  This would be my ideal solution for reducing my risk of cancer and disease caused by air pollution. 

Carly Taylor

April 12, 2013  3:20 PM

http://www.dw.de/madrid-air-pollution-reaches-alarming-levels/a-16739363

Croatia and Montenegro join to prevent sea pollution

Croatia and Montenegro join to prevent sea pollution

In this week blog, I chose a news article that reports on the efforts of Croatia and Montenegro to reduce sea pollution.  The two countries plan to come together in a joint effort of protecting the Adriatic Sea from pollution.  This project was approved by the European Commission, who granted the two countries 616,000 euros to finance the project, which will be split in half between the two countries. 

The main source of pollution in the Adriatic Sea comes from imporper sewage diosposal and sewage leakage. In Montenegro, the main areas of concern are the Bojana River, Bar Port, and Port of Montenegro.  In Croatia, the main area of concern is the Dubrovnok-Neretva municipality, which is close to the Montenegrin border. 

Environmental experts from both countries will bring their environmental protection ideas together to create new and modernized methods of assessing and cleaning up the water.   The local areas around the project sites will be places that receive direct benefits of the project, which include a better environment, cleaner water, and a better economy.  Another goal of the project is to create more awareness of the consequences of pollution, whether it is in the ground, air or water.  There is a need for awareness on how to properly dispose of waste and garbage, so the society can create a cleaner future. 

This sea protection project is a huge step forward in environmental protection.  Pollution in the waterways, including the seas and oceans, can and will have an impact on more than jsut the source country due to wind and currents carrying the pollution.  There is a rise in global awareness of pollution problems, and an increase in the number of people who are “living green”.  However, there are several countries that do not have a public news source or a way to inform people of the negative consequences that pollution has on the environment.  That is where the world needs to focus.  We need to inform people throughout the entire world on how to dispose of waste so we can prevent future pollution and create a cleaner world.   

A weakness of this article is that it does not report in detail on how the project will take action to reduce pollution in the Adriatic Sea.  It would be nice for the reader to know what implication the two countries plan to take in order to reduce and clean up the pollution of the Adriatic Sea. 

 Carly Taylor

April 5, 2013  2:14 PM

http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2013/02/28/feature-02

License plate restrictions in China to reduce air pollution

License plate restrictions in China to reduce air pollution

China is still in struggle to reduce the amount of air pollution caused by traffic congestion.  This week’s article is about reducing the number of license plates auctioned in order to reduce the amount of cars on the road.  License plate rationing was put into place in order to control and reduce traffic congestion.  The prices of license plates can be very high, with some going for as much as a cheap Chinese car.  This month’s auction contained 9,000 plates, with a cost of nearly $14,500. 

This high price will keep most of the population from gaining a license plate.  Chinese people are saying the time is now to get a license plate, because the price just keeps rising.  Several cities in China are considering ways to reduce air pollution, which include congestion fees, auctions or plate lotteries.  Limited license plates will reduce the number of cars on the road, and will contribute to fixing the terrible air quality in China. 

The root of this traffic congestion problem comes from weak enforcement of traffic laws, lack of parking, and inconvenient public transportation.  Even with Tokyo and New York having more cars per capita than Beijing, this city still has way more traffic congestion.

Reducing traffic congestion in busy cities will greatly help the air quality in China.  If people are limited from buying a license plate, wither because of the high price of the unavailability, there will be less acrs on the road, which contributes to less air pollution.  Peoples cars isn’t the only factor that contributes to the poor air quality.  Public transportation and poor city planning also affect the air quality of China.  If measures aren’t taken to better these factors, the air quality will continue to diminish.   

Carly Taylor

March 22, 2013  4:55 pm

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinese-ration-license-plates-in-effort-to-curb-traffic-congestion-air-pollution/2013/03/22/bd99ebe6-9313-11e2-8ea1-956c94b6b5b9_story.html

Wood burning in Bay Area causes pollution

Spare the Air in Bay Area, San Jose

In Bay Area, San Jose, the federal government has set a fine particle health standard that restricts how much wood you can burn.  The government claims that this standard will help reduce air polluting particles which are related to triggering asthma and emphysema attacks that can lead to heart attack.  A program called Spare the Air has been set into place to promote the reduction of wood burning in Bay Area.  There is controversy over the rule of outlawing wood fires because many people use wood burning to heat their homes and they believe that burning wood doesn’t pollute the air.  The Spare the Air program attempts to inform these people that wood burning does pollute the air and wood burning should be restricted during declared Spare the Air days.  With the Spare the Air program in place, wood smoke has continued to decrease in the region.  This season, the district cited 178 burn violators.  This number is far lower than the previous seasons 234 violators, and the two seasons before that with 359 violations, showing successful outcomes of the program.    

Putting a regulated requirement on wood burning fires helps to reduce air pollution.  Bay Area’s Spare the Air program has taken a step forward in controlling air quality.  The program should try to focus on expanding across regions and hopefully gain national attention in order to spread the awareness of air pollution problems.  This article provides reader with a graph on the number of violators over the past few years in Bay Area, San Jose.  A graph helps the reader to become more familiar with and better understand the content of the article.  Most people probably do not consider that burning something as natural as wood would cause any danger in air quality.   That is why the Spare the Air program should expand across the country and spread their message. 

Carly Taylor

March 7, 2013  10:25 PM

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_22733386/how-much-smoke-pollution-did-we-create-during

China's polluted ground water

China’s pollution problem goes further than the air

Not only does China have a recent issue of extremely high air pollution, but there are now findings that report the water quality is just as bad, if not worse.  The latest data collected on water quality reports that 90-percent of China’s ground-water is polluted.  Additionally, a recent study of 118 cities across China finds that 64 percent of the cities have “severely-polluted” ground water, and only 3 percent of the cities studied had a measurement of “clean” water.  The main source of the water pollution comes from paper factories and their lack of proper disposal of chemical-rich, used water.  

Polluted drinking water is linked to higher rates of cancer, so it is a major societal issue that needs to be fixed.  Local governments throughout China are taking action to correct this severe health hazard.  They have begun to lock wells so people will not drink the contaminated water.  A biological clean-up system has been put into effect and so far they are seeing good results.  "After we treated the river water, our statistics show that cancer and congenital endocrine diseases fell by around 90 percent," says environmental activist Huo Daishan. 

When ground water becomes polluted, it affects several areas of the surrounding environment.  Polluted water is dangerous for human health because of its linkage to countless cases of cancer.  Polluted ground water also becomes useless for the watering of crops, which has a major impact on the economics of the surrounding areas.  If farmers cannot use the water for watering their crops, they have to seek elsewhere or lose their crop, which is most likely the case because of minimal finances.    

Another cause of this high water pollution is due to the weak quality requirements that are not being enforced.  There are requirements of how you are to dispose and transfer waste residues, but they are not implemented.  However, it is still illegal to allow waste to seep into the ground water. 

Carly Taylor

February 22, 2013  3:09 PM

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/water-02182013150415.html

Deadly Air Pollution in India

Deadly Air Pollution in India

The article I found for this week’s blog is about the pollution problem in India.  Air quality in India has decreased drastically over the past decade and is continuing to get worse while causing major health problems to India’s people.  More than a million people in India die each year from indoor air pollution and around 620,000 people because of outdoor pollution.  An additional study found that air pollution causes 20% of lung cancers and 6% of high blood pressure cases.  The air quality of homes in rural India is ten times worse than the indoor air quality guidelines of the United States Environment Protection Agency.

The article reports that poor indoor air quality is due to tobacco smoking in the home and to the solid fuels used for cooking.  "Around one million lives, especially of women, can be saved every year in India, if all solid fuels used for cooking in rural India is replaced with LPG.”  Rising particle matter in outdoor air pollution has made this a hazard for human health, and air pollution is now ranked the fifth biggest cause of deaths in India.  The Central Pollution Control Board in India claims that only two cities monitored by them have an air quality worth breathing.  These cities are Malapuram and Pathanamthitta.

This article is missing some important information to guide the reader in knowing what the causes of the pollution problem are.  The article gives a couple of examples, like indoor tobacco smoking and the solid fuels used for cooking, but that doesn’t tell the reader anything about outdoor pollution factors. 

The pollution problem in India is a major social problem.  Just in the past decade, the air quality in India has decreased exponentially compared to the decades prior.  Could this increase in pollution be a product of globalization?  The fact that India has a worse indoor air quality than many other countries outdoor air quality is a new idea to me.  This is the first time I have considered indoor air quality when thinking about air quality and pollution problems. 

Carly Taylor

February 14, 2013 9:03 PM

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Indoor-air-pollution-kills-a-million-people-every-year-in-India/Article1-1015749.aspx

Pollution Linked to Low Birth Weight

Pollution Linked to Low Birth Weight

A recent study has indicated that pregnant mothers who are exposed to pollution are more likely to have babies who are born underweight.  This international study collected data from over three million births across 14 sites around the world.  The study concluded that there is correlation between amount of air polluting particles in the outdoor air and birth weight of children.  This correlation takes into consideration the mother’s socio-economic status and her occupation.

 The main cause of these harmful air particles come from the burning of fossil fuels.  Policy makers are being urged to change their pollution level regulations.  The particles that are causing this health problem are 5 times smaller than the width of a human hair.  The small size allows the particles to penetrate human airways and make it more difficult to expel them from the body.  They also contain various chemicals on their surfaces. 

 Children born with a low birth weight are more likely to have chronic health problems later on in life, including heart disease and stroke.  The article from health.india.com claims that 1 in every 4 babies born in India have a low birth weight.

 This pollution issue is a global social problem.  Indicated in the international study, pollution is affecting almost every corner of the globe, and the effects are detrimental to all humans.  It is a serious matter when pollution is harmful enough to affect the birth weight of babies.  If pollution can affect a person before they are even born, imagine what it is doing to a person throughout their life. 

Policy makers are being urged to change pollution level regulations, but not quickly enough.  Regulations should have been in place at the time the issue of pollution first arose.  When population levels are high enough to cause 1 in 4 births to be underweight, you can be assured this will have a great impact on society and the economy.  There will be a greater need for health care and other factors that come with low birth weight.  I don’t know if pollution regulation is a trial-and-error situation where law and policy makers weren’t aware of the harmful effects pollution can have before they allowed high pollution levels.  Or if the law makers did know that pollution can be very harmful, but they are trying to make as much money for their economy as possible, so they let these high levels of pollution slide.  Either way you put it, pollution is a BAD thing and it is harmful at ANY level. 

Carly Taylor

February 8, 2013  3:43 PM

 

Sources:

http://health.india.com/news/pollution-to-blame-for-low-birth-weight-among-babies/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9850358/Air-pollution-during-pregnancy-linked-to-low-birth-weight.html

Pollution: China's Pollution Debate

Smog Stokes China Pollution Debate – VOA news

 

This article is about the current pollution problem going on in China.  Already this year, the pollution levels in China have gone well above levels considered to be healthy.  During the last week of January, a long stretch of extremely high-level pollution brought up debate about this very unhealthy problem.  Smog consumed cities from the north all the way to southern China. 

The blame of this mass pollution problem is on the busy factories, the use of coal for heat during these winter months and also the high-sulfur fuel used in automobiles.  China has the largest automobile market, and the Chinese with cars use them as habit.  One solution to this pollution problem is to restrict the use of cars during high-pollution times.  One person who was interviewed said this restriction would hinder his way to work, and he doesn’t think it will solve the problem.  Another man claims that yes, the cars are a problem, but not the biggest problem.  He thinks it is the easiest way to start the cleaning of China’s air.

The fuel quality in China is very poor and contains high amounts of sulfur.  Pan Xiaochuan, a professor from the Beijing University School of Public Health says improving the quality of fuel would improve the quality of air, but it would also raise the prices of fuel.  This would not go over easily with Chinese citizens who as of now purchase cheap gasoline.  Traffic congestion is also an issue.  When the cars are backed up and moving slower, they create five to ten times more pollution.

China is well on the way to the industry of carbon trading, which will help to reduce pollution.  The platform for carbon trading is to offer companies to earn credits for lowering green house gas emission.  Experts claim that the Chinese carbon trading program will become the largest in the world, and it will reduce pollution in China by 45% in only 7 years. 

When you consider the large population in China, it’s large producing industry, and the quality of gasoline, you would think that pollution would be more of a problem for the country than others.  Pollution is so harmful to the environment and to people health.  There need to be strict regulations on the big factories on their toxic emissions, and the quality of fuel needs to be increased. 

 

Carly Taylor

2/1/2013  3:54 PM

 

http://www.voanews.com/content/smog-stokes-china-pollution-debate/1595200.html

Pollution

I chose pollution as my blog topic because I am interested in learning about pollution problems around the globe. I know that the United States has several pollution problems that we are working towards eliminating. But, I have little knowledge about what factors contribute to pollution in other countries.  So I am interested in finding out these problems and what the countries are doing, if anything, to reduce pollution.


Carly Taylor
1/17/13  2:48 PM