The Air We Breathe

Day 12, Chapters 17 and 18: Environmental Hazards and Human Health & Air Pollution

We face health hazards from biological, chemical, physical, and cultural factors in general, however with changing times it’s becoming increasingly evident that our lifestyle choices are Whether we’re conscious of it or not, we’re facing risks and hazards every day. With sensational news coverage of certain hazards, our awareness of real problems can be seen to be somewhat bottlenecked into what we learn about from the media. There are five major types of hazards: biological hazards, in the form of pathogens that can infect the body, chemical hazards, like harmful chemicals in the air, food, water, soil, and products we come in counter with every day, natural hazards, like fire, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, and storms, cultural hazards, like unsafe working conditions, crime, and poverty, and lifestyle choices, such as smoking, eating poorly, and consuming drugs and alcohol.

In the case of biological hazards, the most serious are infectious diseases like flu, AIDS, tuberculosis, diarrheal disease, and malaria. It used to be that infectious diseases were the leading cause of death in the world and in the United States, however, midway through the 20th century with developments of medicine and sanitation these disease and death rates in general have been reduced (leading to overpopulation no doubt). Although we’re experiencing a general increase in living standards and quality, our susceptibility to infectious disease is still threatened with the new problem of genetic resistance. The antibiotics we put in our meats end up in our bodies, causing any other microbes to develop genetic resistances to them since they divide and evolve so quickly. Viruses also evolve quickly but are not affected by antibiotics. The biggest viral killer is the flu virus, the second biggest is HIV, and third biggest is hepatitis B. Exposure to bodily fluids and airborne emissions are how these viruses find hosts. We acquire infectious diseases through a multitude of mediums, such as through pets, livestock, wild animals, insects, food, water, air, other humans, and from mother to fetus. The study of ecological medicine has helped us find out information about the spread of various diseases, such as the suburban development of communities into nearby wooded lands increasing the amount of human cases of Lyme disease. Over the course of human history, malarial protozoa probably have killed more people than all the wars ever fought. During this century, climate change as projected by scientists is likely to spread cases of malaria across a wider area of the globe. As the average atmospheric temperature increases  populations of malaria-carrying mosquitoes will likely spread from tropical areas to warmer temperate areas of the earth. According to the WHO, the global death rate from infectious diseases decreased by more than two-thirds between 1970 and 2006 and is projected to continue dropping. However, the next threatening pandemic-level disease we could be facing is the bird flu, which is already causing problems in the Far East.

There is growing concern about chemicals in the environment that can cause cancers and birth defects, and disrupt the human immune, nervous, and endocrine systems. There are three major types of potentially toxic agents. Carcinogens are chemicals, types of radiation, or certain viruses that can cause or promote cancer. Some examples are arsenic, benzene, formaldehyde, gamma radiation, PCBs, radon, certain chemicals in tobacco smoke, ultraviolet radiation, and vinyl chloride. Mutagens are chemicals or forms of radiation that cause or increase the frequency of mutations in the DNA molecules found in cells. Some of these changes can lead to cancer and other disorders, like how nitrous acid forms from the digestion of nitrite preservatives in foods and can cause mutations linked to increases in stomach cancer in people who consume large amounts of processed foods and wine that contain this preservative. And when these mutations occur in DNA molecules in our reproductive cells, the effect is suffered by the offspring. Teratogens are chemicals that cause harm or birth defects to a fetus or embryo. Examples of these are ethyl alcohol, angel dust, benzene, formaldehyde, lead, mercury, phthalates, thalidomide, and vinyl chloride. PCBs are a class of about 200 chlorine-containing organic compounds that are very stable and nonflammable. Between 1929 and 1977 they were used widely as lubricants, hydraulic fluids, and insulators in electrical transformers and capacitors, as well as part of the ingredients in products like paints, fire retardants in fabrics, preservatives, adhesives, and pesticides. This would go on until Congress banned the domestic production of PCBs after research showed that they could cause liver and other cancers in test animals and, according to the EPA, probably can cause cancers in humans. A 1996 study related fetal exposure to PCBs in the womb to learning disabilities in children. For decades PCBs entered the air, water, and soil during their manufacture, use, and disposal, not to mention accidental leaks and spills. They’re also fat soluble, so they can be biologically magnified in food chains in ecosystems, eventually aggregating in the highest levels to the prime apex predator on the planet – us. They’ve even been found in the bodies of polar bears. PCBs and other persistent toxic chemicals can move through the living and nonliving environment on a number of pathways. This means they basically travel along the water cycle, finding themselves in ground water, air, surface water, crops, people, animals and vegetation. Some natural and synthetic chemicals in the environment are neurotoxins, like PCBs, arsenic, lead, and certain pesticides, that can harm the human nervous system. Effects can include behavioral changes, learning disabilities, retardation, attention deficit disorder, paralysis, and death. Mercury particles, which are elemental and therefore cannot be broken down or degraded, emitted from active volcanoes and coal-burning power plants are transported through the atmosphere to arctic regions where they can get trapped in arctic ice. Scientists are concerned that as more arctic ice melts as a result of climate change, more of these mercury particles will flow into the oceans and into food chains. Evidence shows that in some arctic seals and beluga whales, mercury levels have increased fourfold since the early 1980s. According to the EPA, 75% of all human exposure to mercury comes from eating fish. In 2003, the UN Environment Programme lead a report recommending phasing out coal-burning power plants and waste incinerators throughout the world as rapidly as possible, as well as use a substitute for mercury in the products it’s found in most. There are other molecules called hormonally active agents (HAAs) that attach to the molecules of natural homones and disrupt the endocrine systems in people and some other animals. Bisphenol A (BPA) is a once-widely produced agent of this kind that was used in plastics. Phthalates are another agent used to soften polyvinyl chloride (PVC plastics) and are used in numerous other products like adult and baby shampoos, children’s’ toys, deodorants, hairsprays, baby powders, body lotions, and nail polishes. Now we know that most exposure comes from our diet, which is too heavily dependent for too many people on the effects of the industrial food system. Phthalates have been found to induce a strange feminization effect in some species of animals, and in some that can change gender, it made them turn from male to female. This could be because some of these chemicals are chemically shaped similarly to sex hormone receptors in animal bodies, causing early onset of puberty in humans. The European Union and at least 14 other countries banned the chemical after studies have shown that phthalates cause liver cancer, kidney and liver damage, premature breast development, immune sustem suppression, and abnormal sexual development. However, the U.S. is home of controversial economic and scientific studies, and bans on substances that would cause huge economic loss to the companies that produce these chemicals have successfully stalled policies with their own “scientific” studies. I particularly feel like this is becoming a very threateningly silent problem, because my brother has diabetes and we believe he has ADHD. He acquired diabetes when he was 11, and doctors said it was from an auto-immune disease and they’re still not completely sure what causes this. We also have convincing evidence to suggest that he and my dad have attention deficit (probably hyperactive) disorder, which we as a family have recently sympathized with and do no believe that it is a mere lack of will or sign of laziness. For whatever reason, they act this way and such information from the textbook, and general observation in the people we interact with every day, show that these chemicals that we have penetrated our environment with are unmistakably the cause of these seemingly recent mysterious afflictions.

Many health scientists call for much greater emphasis on pollution prevention to reduce our exposure to potentially harmful chemicals. Toxicity is a measure of the harmfulness of a substance – its ability to cause injury, illness, or death to a living organism. A basic principle of toxicology is that any synthetic or natural chemical can be harmful if ingested in a large enough quantity, but the critical question is at what level of exposure to a particular toxic chemical will the chemical cause harm? “The dose makes the poison.” Toxicity also depends on the thing that is doing the poisoning and the thing that is being poisoned, so all the variations of the organism being acted upon go into determining how toxic the substance will be for that particular organism. All the variables that go into a substances toxicity are air pollutant levels, water pollutant levels, soil/dust levels, food pesticide levels, nutritional health, overall health, lifestyle, personal habits, genetic predisposition, lung, intestine, and skin absorption rates, metabolism, accumulations, and excretion. Solubility and persistance are important too. Fat soluble chemicals and chemicals that aren’t easily broken down do more damage because they remain in the biotic and nonbiotic systems and last longer, doing more damage; whereas water-soluble chemicals and chemicals that break down easily usually do less. In 2005, the Environmental Working Group analyzed umbilical chord blood from 10 randomly selected newborns in U.S. hospitals. Of the 287 chemicals detected, 180 have been shown to cause cancers in humans or animals, and 208 have caused birth defects or abnormal development in test animals. Taken from the link above, Shanna Swan says, “Whenever food is processed through a tube, whether it’s milk in a milking machine, or tomato sauce going into the bottle, it’s going to pick up phthalates. We see that very dramatically in the neonatal intensive care nursery.” Recent scientific findings have caused some experts to suggest that exposure to chemical pollutants in the womb may be related to increasing rates of autism, childhood asthma, and learning disorders. Perhaps even more alarming is the effect that our pharmaceutical companies’ commercial grip has on the environment. Trace amounts of estrogen-containing birth control pills, blood pressure medicines, antibiotics, and a host of other chemicals with largely unknown effects on human health are being released into waterways from sewage treatment plants or are leaching into groundwater from home septic systems. Never before have we created these synthetic chemicals to treat various bodily ailments, but now we’re producing them at rapid rates for consumers but they all end up being excreted. And what happens in the grand ecological scheme of life? It comes back. The U.S. Geological Survey found that 80% of the U.S. streams and almost 1/4 of the groundwater that it sampled was contaminated with trace amounts of a variety of medications. With the gradual buildup of these synthetic and bodily impactful chemicals floating freely in the world’s waterways, what kind of effect can that have on humanity? It can no doubt be messing with our evolution as we expose ourselves to chemicals that our bodies either aren’t meant to interact with, or aren’t meant to interact with until the delicate time-sensitive structures set up by nature (in the case of sex hormones). I’m not a fan of messing with our entire species’ body chemistry on a global scale, and I feel this might become a very grave global problem in our more distant future that will be flying right under the radar. Not to get over dramatic, but anything that literally causes us to grow up faster is the work of the devil.

Because of insufficient data and the high costs of regulation, federal and state governments do not supervise the use of nearly 99.5% of the commercially used chemicals in the United States. The deplorable lack of any precautionary principle is despicable. But we can use two methods to ensure our approach in regulating what chemicals we tamper with. First, we would assume that new chemicals and technologies are harmful until scientific studies show otherwise. Second, we would remove existing chemicals and technologies that appear to have a strong chance of causing significant harm from the market until we could establish their safety. We have already done with with lead-based paints in much of the developed world. A pollution prevention system or approach, one that is beefed up and given teeth to handle the Disinformation campaign, is needed. An example of what was much needed pollution prevention was many of the world’s nations’ phasing out of chlorofluorocarbons, the chemicals known to deplete the ozone layer that protects all life on earth from damaging levels of UV radiation.

Question: How can we better educate the public about all the chemicals they’re unknowingly consuming through the industrial food (and various other manufacturing) systems?

While we need to be cautious about the industrialized world we construct and live in, the threat is also airborne. Air pollution is a problem because, like water pollution, it’s global. The two innermost layers of the atmosphere are the troposphere, which supports life, and the stratosphere, which contains the protective ozone layer – our global sunscreen. Rising and falling air currents, winds, and concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the troposphere play a major role in the planet’s weather (short-term) and climate (long-term). The problem is that pollutants mix in the air to form industrial smog, primarily as a result of burning coal, and photochemical smog, caused by emissions from motor vehicles, industrial facilities, and power plants. Air pollution is the presence of chemicals in the atmosphere in concentrations high enough to harm organisms, ecosystems, or human-made materials, or to alter climate. Any chemical in the atmosphere can become a pollutant in high enough quantities. And of course there can be natural forms of air pollution, like the pollutants from wildfires and volcanoes. However, it’s the rate and amount of pollutants that humans are emitting into the atmosphere that is what’s causing the problems modern humanity is facing today. Most human inputs of outdoor air pollutants occur in industrialized and urban areas with their higher concentrations of people, cars, and factories. Primary pollutants are chemicals or substances emitted directly into the air from natural processes and human activities at concentrations high enough to cause harm, while secondary pollutants are the results of the mixture when primary pollutants react with one another and with other natural components of air to form new harmful chemicals. Global winds then carry these stagnant concentrations of pollution to other areas. However, over the past 30 years the quality of outdoor air in most more-developed countries has improved greatly thanks to pressure from grassroots organizations and citizens that have led governments to pass and enforce air pollution control laws. Yet, there are areas where the outdoor air pollution is still so unhealthy that it endangers 1.1 billion people. Indoor ai pollution is probably a bigger threat, and it’s caused by the burning of wood, charcoal, coal, or fun in open fires or poorly designed stoves to heat their dwellings and cook their food; along with the annoyingly ever-present threat that is cigarette smoking. Indoor air pollution kills an estimates 4,400 people every day. There is no place on the plant that has not been affected by air pollution. Pollutants emitted in China and India have found their way across the Pacific where they affect the west coast of North America. There is even “arctic haze” collecting from the flow of air pollutants over northern Europe, Asia, and North America.

Carbon monoxide is a highly toxic gas that forms from the incomplete combustion of carbon-containing materials. It comes from car exhaust, burning of forests and grasslands, smokestacks of fossil fuel-burning power plants and industries, tobacco smoke, and open fires and inefficient stoves used for cooking. Carbon dioxide is the main culprit of climate change in leading the greenhouse effect. Other gases like volatile organic compounds, such as methane are more potent at this (20x more effective at warming the atmosphere), but the sheer amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere before the carbon cycle can remove it is what makes this the leading GHG. Nitrogen oxides from from various natural and anthropogenically combustive sources and reacts with water vapor in the air to form nitric acid and nitrite salts, components of acid deposition. They also play a role in the formation of photochemical smog. Two-thirds of the sulfur dioxide in the air comes from human sources, mostly the combustion of sulfur-containing coal in power and industrial plants, oil refining, and smelting of sulfide cores. It’s converted into aerosols in the atmosphere, while consist of microscopic droplets of sulfuric acid and sulfate salts that return to earth in acid rain. This creates breathing problems, kills water ecosystems, ruins crops, and corrodes stone and metal statues. They’ve also had a major part in the formation of the South Asia Brown Clouds, and concentrations of sulfur dioxide have increased by more than a third in the past decade. Ozone is good for us when it’s in the stratosphere, but when it’s in the troposphere it can cause severe breathing problems and disfunction in much of our infrastructure, like corroding tires, fabrics, paints, and damage plants. Significant evidence suggests that we’re decreasing the amount of “good” ozone and increasing the amount of “bad” ozone. Lead is another hugely devastating pollutant, and it has lead to many deaths of children, and those who survive lead poisoning are left with blindness, palsy, partial paralysis, and mental retardation. Leaded gasoline was a major factor in this spread of lead poisoning, but since 1970 it was banned in the U.S. and levels of lead poisoning have dropped.

Smog is gross. People in cities exposed to industrial smog are threatened, particularly in the winter months, with an unhealthy mix of sulfur dioxide, sulfuric acid, and particulates. When burned, most of the carbon in coal and oil is converted to carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Unburned carbon in coal also ends up in the atmosphere as suspended particulate matter, or soot. When coal and oil are burned, the sulfur compounds they contain react with oxygen to produce sulfur dioxide gas, some of which is converted to tiny suspended droplets of sulfuric acid. Some of these droplets react with ammonia in the atmosphere to form solid particles of ammonium sulfate. This is what gives suspended particles of such salts and soot their gray color. Because of its heavy reliance on coal, China has 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities. The World Bank puts the annual death toll from air pollution in China at 750,000. But our and Europe’s history shows that we can reduce industrial smog fairly quickly by setting standards for coal-burning industries and utilities, and by shifting from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas in urban industries and dwellings (or even better, renewables!). Photochemical smog is another urban problem. It starts forming when morning when exhaust from morning commuter traffic releases large amounts of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds into the air, reacting in a complex way with UV light and heat from the sun to produce ground level ozone, nitric acid, aldehydes, peroxyacyl nitrates, and other secondary pollutants. Collectively they form a brew of reddish-brown photochemical oxidants that react with and damage compounds in the atmosphere and in our lungs. This occurs in urban cities with lots of mobile emitters, heat, and dry air – so Los Angeles, Mexico City, and much of the Southwest. Some natural factors can decrease air pollution, like heavier particles being gravitated toward earth, rain, snow, and salty sea spray partially cleansing the air and washing pollutants out, wind sweeps that bring in new, cleaner air, and other chemical reactions that bring airborne pollutants to the ground. However, some factors can increase air pollution buildup. These are urban building that reduce wind speed through an area, hills and mountains that reduce the flow of air in valleys, high temperatures that promote chemical reactions leading to photochemical smog, and emissions fo volatile organic compounds, like some trees and plants in heavily wooded areas. The grasshopper effect is when air pollutants transported at high altitudes reach the earth’s polar areas.

Acid deposition is caused mainly by coal-burning power plants and motor vehicle emissions, and in come regions it threatens human health, aquatic life and ecosystems, forests, and human-built structures. Coal burning power plants and smelters reduce local pollution by using tall smokestacks that inject the pollution high into the atmosphere, but end up attributing to regional pollution downwind. This trade-off carries pollution up to 600 miles away. The acidic compounds emitted react in the atmosphere to create acid deposition, aka acid rain. Dry deposition occurs within 2-3 days of emission, so it falls closer to the source, and wet deposition occurs 4-14 days after emission, occurring in areas far away from the source. Acid rain can be naturally buffered by soils that contain limestone or calcium bicarbonate, neutralizing the deposition. However, thin and already acidic soils are at the greatest risk and can fall into a downward spiral of becoming more and more acidic. The worst acid deposition occurs in China, which gets 70% of its total energy and 80% of its electricity from burning coal. The air in Beijing has 40 times above the limit of the level of air pollution set by the Chinese government. China is also the top emitter of sulfur dioxide, threatening food security in many areas within and outside of China.  Acid deposition can be very harmful to crops, especially is soil pH is below 5.1. Forests can be affected by either having their soil’s magnesium and calcium depleted or by the release of lead, cadmium, aluminum, and mercury into the soil that damages roots and weakens trees. Mountaintop forests are particularly vulnerable because of the thinner soil and continuous exposure to tainted precipitation. Thankfully, the U.S. Clean Air Act in 1990 established stronger air pollution regulations for key pollutants in the United States, and saved our country’s and Canada’s vegetation and soil from weakening emissions. However, we’ll need an 80% decrease in sulfur dioxide emissions to recover rivers, streams, lakes, and forests to past states before acidification. According to most scientists studying the problem, the best solutions are preventive approaches that reduce or eliminate emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates. The problems are that the people and ecosystems who are affected by air pollution are often downstream or downwind of the source, so immediate results after political actions won’t often be seen by those who make the decision. This is a central problem for getting most environmental policies into action. And countries that have coal are never willing to not use it as a fuel source because it’s so cheap and abundant; they also resist extracting the sulfur from the coal before burning it or using low-sulfur coal and argue that this would increase electricity prices for consumers. However, this is no excuse because there are certainly always other methods of energy production that can and should be implemented that don’t have such negative external costs. Raising gas mileage standards with efficiency mandates can also limit the amount of emissions. Between 1980 and 2008, air pollution laws in this country have reduced sulfur dioxide emissions from all sources by 56% and nitrogen oxide emissions by 40%. Despite these achievements, much of the rainwater in the eastern U.S. is still between 2.5 and 8 times more acidic than it should be.

The most threatening indoor air pollutants are smoke and soot from the burning of wood and coal in cooking fires (mostly in less-developed countries), cigarette smoke, and chemicals used in building materials and cleaning products. According to the World Health Organization and the World Bank, indoor air pollution is the world’s most serious air pollution problem, especially for poor people. This is one of the more prominent examples of environmental injustice. A prolific example is in Sub-Saharan Africa where thousands of people, mostly women and children, die of lung disease from breathing in toxic smoke from carbon-based fuel sources for cooking and lighting.  The EPA reveals that levels of 11 common pollutants are generally 2 to 5 times higher inside U.S. homes and commercial buildings than they are outdoors, in some cases 100 times higher, that pollution levels inside cars n traffic-clogged urban areas can be up to 18 times higher than outside levels. Our modern life that keeps us indoors more than outdoors increases our health risks from exposures to these pollutants by 70-98%. It’s at the top of the EPA’s list of 18 sources of cancer. Airborne spores of fungal growths like molds and mildew can grow inside the walls of buildings and cause allergic reactions and asthma. Danish and U.S. EPA studies have led to the coining of the term “sick building syndrome,” where various air pollutants cause dizziness, headaches, coughing sneezing, shortness of breath, nausea, skin dryness and irritation, respiratory infections, flu-like symptoms, and depression. That’s a long list of ailments caused by a dirty house. The four most dangerous indoor air pollutants are tobacco smoke, formaldehyde, radioactive radon-222 gas, and very small particulates of various substances.  Formaldehyde causes the most difficulty for people in the more-developed countries, being that it’s in a lot of common household materials like plywood, particleboard, paneling, high-gloss wood, furniture, drapes, upholstery, adhesives used in carpeting and wallpaper, and urethane-formaldehyde foam insulation. Radon gas seeps upward from deposits into the soil and disperses quickly in the air. Buildings above these deposits can acquire it through cracks in the foundation and walls, openings in sump pumps and drains, and hollow concrete blocks.

Air pollution can contribute to asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, lung cancer, heart attack, and stroke. According to the WHO, at least 2.4 million people worldwide die prematurely each year from the effects of air pollution. Most of these deaths occur in Asia, and most of those in China. The EPA found that each year 125,000 Americans get cancer from breathing soot-laden diesel fumes emitted by buses and trucks, and 96% of the people are from urban areas. What’s shocking is that the world’s 100,000 or more diesel-powered oceangoing ships emit almost half as much particulate pollution as do the world’s 760 million cars, making the unregulated shipping industry one of the world’s largest polluters of the atmosphere. Legal, economic, and technological tools can help us to clean up air pollution, but the best solution is to prevent it. The U.S. Congress passed the Clean Air Acts in 1970, 1977, and 1990, providing a good step in the direction toward limiting what we emit. Congress also directed the EPA to establish air quality standards for six major outdoor air pollutants: carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, suspended particulate matter (SPM), ozone, and lead. Primary standards of a maximum allowable level are set to protect human health, and secondary limits are set to protect environmental and property damage. Many other emissions, like chlorinated hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, or compounds of toxic metals that cause serious health and ecological damage are also limited with standards set by the EPA. Those six major pollutants have decreased in quantity by about 54% between 1980 and 2008 while other economic factors, like GDP and energy consumption, have gone up. This proves that limiting externalities doesn’t always have to mean a negative side effect for business or the economy. It’s obviously good to practice safety; the good it does for the most part outweighs the “bad.”According to the EPA, in 2008 about 57% of Americans lived in an area where the air was unhealthy to breathe during part of the year due to ground level ozone and particulate matter. But we can make it better. Environmental scientists stress that prevention is key; don’t make a mess and you won’t have to clean it up. We made lead levels drop the most dramatically by banning it outright in gasoline. We need to update the 20,000 older coal-burning power plants and refineries that are not included in current Clean Air and Water Acts. Improving fuel efficiency lessens mobile sources of pollution. Those who think that reducing air pollution is too costly for commerce and would hinder economic growth clearly don’t care about their or their children’s respiratory health. Also, there’s money to be made by cleaning the air.

We can use the marketplace to reduce outdoor air pollution. Allowing producers of air pollution to buy and sell government air pollution allotments in the marketplace enables companies to make money while simultaneously being forced to innovate by agreeing to operate under capped emission levels. This is called a cap-and-trade system. This approach can be faster and more effective than government regulation, however it requires good government oversight to make sure companies don’t cheat. The ultimate success of any emissions trading approach depends on how low the initial cap is set and how often it is lowered in order to promote innovation in air pollution prevention and control, gotta keep them on their heels. Between 1990 and 2006, this method helped reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 53% across the country. This can lead to a problem, however, where multiple sources in one area buy more pollution credits and end up creating hot spots of pollution. Following the California model, the Northeastern states entered into a coalition to reduce their regional carbon dioxide emissions in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and so far has met good reductions in carbon dioxide levels while also using the money raised from carbon trading toward implementing better energy efficiency. But government oversight is very important in the functionality of carbon credit allocation and proper use.

In short, to reduce outdoor air pollution we need to burn low-sulfur coal or remove sulfur from coal, convert coal to a liquid or gaseous fuel before burning it, obviously phase out coal use altogether, disperse emissions with tall smokestacks (reducing local pollution), remove pollutants from smokestack gases, and tax each unit of pollution produced. We can reduce motor vehicle emissions by using healthier forms of travel, like walking, biking, or using mass transit, improve fuel efficiency, remove older cars from the roads, require emission control devices in vehicles, inspect car exhaust systems twice a year, and set strict emission standards. Because of the Clean Air Acts, a new car today in the U.S. emits 75% less pollution than cars did before 1970. Better technology such as with hybrid vehicles and looking more into the hydrogen cell can make even more improvements. Most of the world;s more-developed counties have enacted laws and regulations that have significantly reduced outdoor air pollution, emphasizing output approaches. The next step is emphasizing preventing air pollution, and will not work unless individual citizens and groups put political pressure on elected officials to enact appropriate regulations. Preventing indoor air pollution can be achieved by banning smoking indoors, set stricter formaldehyde emissions standards for carpet, furniture, and building materials, prevent radon infiltration, use less polluting cleaning agents, paints, and other products, use adjustable fresh air vents for work spaces, circulate air more frequently, circulate a building’s air through rooftop greenhouses, and use efficient ventilation systems for wood-burning stoves. We can also put economic pressure on companies through our purchases to get them to manufacture and sell products and services that do not add to pollution problems. They’re going to be making and selling stuff anyway, it might as well be good for every body. Margaret Mead once said, “The atmosphere is the key symbol of global interdependence. If we can’t solve some of our problems in the face of threats to this global commons, then I can’t be very optimistic about the future of the world.”

I guess my question for this chapter could be how can we make it more transparent how imminent the effects of air pollution are to our every day life and health? What is the best way to show people that the reason why they have repeating seasonal allergies and various respiratory afflictions is due to the air they breathe, and how they can be part of the change to stop this slowing down of caring since the first EArth Day movements?