And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 23:42:23 EST >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 226 >Mailing-List: list [EMAIL PROTECTED]; contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Delivered-To: mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: [DOEWatch] Air pollution---particulates, ozone adversely affect health > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Acute exposure to ambient air pollution confirmed to affect health adversely > >WESTPORT, Dec 29 (Reuters Health) - Short-term exposure to outdoor air >pollution can cause adverse health effects, three papers published in the >January issue of Epidemiology confirm. >In the first paper, Dr. Diane Gold, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, >Boston, Massachusetts, and a multicenter team report that exposure to >particulate pollution and ozone reduced lung function among schoolchildren >in Mexico City. > >During three seasons in 1991, Dr. Gold's team conducted twice-daily peak >expiratory flow testing in 40 children, 8 to 11 years of age. Twenty-one of >the children had a history of chronic cough, chronic phlegm, wheezing or >asthma. Along with 224 additional children, the subjects were participating >in a study of the effects of air pollution on lung function in children >during exercise. > >Even brief outdoor exposure to particulate matter or ozone within the >previous 1 to 2 weeks reduced lung function in the exercise study, the >investigators report. In this substudy, they found that "...only exposures >of longer duration (6 hours) were associated with measurable [ozone] >effects on peak flow." > >Separately, Dr. Joel Schwartz, of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, >Massachusetts, detected an association between outdoor air pollution and >hospital admissions for cardiovascular events among the elderly. > >For a 3-year period, Dr. Schwartz compared Medicare records of hospital >admissions in eight US metropolitan counties with air pollution data >provided by the Environmental Protection Agency. He found associations >between hospital admissions and both carbon monoxide and particulate >matter, with no evidence that the results were confounded by weather, >sulfur dioxide or ozone. > >"Overall, these results suggest that air pollution may be responsible for >on the order of 5% of hospital admissions for heart disease," Dr. Schwartz >estimates. "This is a nontrivial public health burden." > >Dr. Lianne Sheppard and colleagues, of the University of Washington in >Seattle, determined in the third study that exposure to outdoor air >pollution is associated with asthma attacks among adults younger than 65 >years of age. > >The study group examined 7,837 nonelderly hospital admissions for asthma >attacks and 6,437 admissions for appendicitis in Washington State over 8 >years. The researchers also analyzed the levels of all pollutants regularly >monitored in that region: particulate matter, ozone, sulfur dioxide and >carbon monoxide. > >The frequency of admissions for asthma attacks was significantly correlated >with exposure to particulate matter, and a correlation with exposure to >carbon monoxide was even more pronounced, Dr. Sheppard's group calculated. >The authors note that these are "...highly intercorrelated copollutants >that are more realistically considered to be simultaneous rather than >independent effects." > >In an editorial, Dr. Anthony J. McMichael, of London School of Hygiene and >Tropical Medicine, and Dr. Kirk R. Smith, of the University of California >at Berkeley, question whether the studies take "...a sufficiently broad >approach to the complex, worldwide, public health problem of air pollution." > >"Viewed globally...air pollution epidemiology has often been done on an >opportunistic basis according to data availability rather than to where the >major public health problems lie," Drs. McMichael and Smith charge. > >The editorialists suggest that, for example, "...if rural- and >urban-underclass poverty persists in poor countries, then domestic >exposures to indoor air pollution [attributable to the use of unprocessed >solid fuel in household cooking and heating] will remain a major global >health hazard." > >Epidemiology 1999;10:1-3,8-30. > >========================================================== >Comments: > > These particulate and ozone effects are easy to see in an area like >Oak Ridge. We have had way too much uranium particulates in air and too much >ozone as well. Even the last line of the above is important. Coal fired >steam plants need lower emission of heavy metals. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >To unsubscribe from this mailing list, or to change your subscription >to digest, go to the ONElist web site, at http://www.onelist.com and >select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left. > <<<<=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER=-=-=>>>> If you think you are too small to make a difference; try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.... African Proverb <<<<=-=http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ =-=>>>> IF it says: "PASS THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW...." Please Check it before you send it at: http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blhoax.htm
