This article from the 21 June New York Times describes new research linking atmospheric ozone to death rates, especially amongst older people. Interestingly, the effect reported on is a short-term one-- elevated ozone rates lead to an immediate increase in death rates, primarily due to cardio and pulmonary issues.
It makes you almost *want* the rest of the oil to be gone. Happy summer solstice anyway, folks. -- Three teams of researchers conducting separate studies have concluded that high ozone pollution is linked to higher death rates. The studies, which appear in the July issue of Epidemiology, "point to the urgent need to reduce public exposures to ambient ozone by all possible means," an accompanying editorial argues. The studies, by researchers from Yale, Harvard and New York University, among other places, drew their conclusions based on dozens of earlier studies that tried to find a link between mortality and daily ground-level ozone levels in cities around the world. Two of the new studies came to a very similar finding. For every 10 parts per billion the daily ozone level goes up, they said, the death rate over the next three days goes up about 0.85 percent. One study reported finding "strong evidence of a short-term association between ozone and mortality, with larger effects for cardiovascular and respiratory mortality." Older people were especially at risk, the researchers said. The biggest increase in mortality was seen in the summer. And cities that had more air-conditioning had fewer health problems. The third study also found an association, though a somewhat smaller one, between ozone levels and death rates. Ozone, part of smog, is formed when pollutants like those given off by power plants, mix with heat and sunlight in the air. Dr. Steven N. Goodman of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who wrote an editorial about the studies, said even though their methodology was imperfect, the consistency of their findings was striking. _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
