Region at Risk: Can Higher Rates of Death Be Linked to Air Pollution?
By Don Hopey, Published December 12, 2010 by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
This photo shows a blanket of air pollution over a large city. Why is anyone letting it get this bad?
In the town of Shippingport, approximately 14,636 died from heart disease, respiratory disease or lung cancer. Chad Hysong and his family moved his family when pollution from all the smokestacks was causing an endless cycle of respiratory problems, even ash falling from the sky, pitting his car’s paint. This was caused by all the air pollution and smog filling the air of their once clean, upbeat town. This article is mostly about the link between air quality in an area and the amount of deaths. These air problems still remain in many towns today. The number of deaths in Shippingport were a 10% increase in mortality than what would be expected of a population of nearly 3 million people. The air still contains fine airborne particles, soot, and smog. This is raising costs to nearly $9.4 billion a year in damage to the community’s health. It is shown that if we improve the air quality, there will be less kids in the hospital for sure. For some, they wake up in the morning, go outside to drink their morning coffee, and are already blanketed in a cloud of air pollutants. This is taking deathly tolls.
Opinion/ Reflection:
I honestly do not understand this at all. Factories, industries, even little shops are all contributing to this. Every little bit counts. If we really put our minds to it, (it might have to take a tear-jerking documentary or maybe even some more deaths) we can stop this. Once we start realizing that humans and the earth are really being harmed by all of this, I hope that we can start to make a change. It can be done.
- What are some things you an do to raise awareness about air pollution in your community? How much of an impact could this make?
- What would have to happen to make people start acting upon this issue?
- What are the long-term consequences for air-pollution?
Opinion/Reflection
ReplyDeleteThis is so scary! To think that you could be killed by something as abundant and EVERYWHERE as air is completely terrifying, and you can't escape. The air is something that is very difficult to unpollute and so abundant that it affects every living thing on the planet. Everything uses oxygen in one way or another, which means that everything is at risk. The fact that there was a 10% increase in the mortality rate just proves how serious this is.
"What are the long-term consequences for air-pollution? "
Animals and humans could develope lung deficiencies and plants may start searching for nutrients in other gases instead of the polluted oxygen. It might not take thousands of years either- this could happen within the next century. With the current reproduction rate of our planet, it wouldn't be long before the next generation has been affected by the poor air quality.
Reflection:
ReplyDeleteJust like Perie, I don't understand how this could get so bad. Every store/ factory/ buisness must know that they are contributing to this awful disaster. Everytime they pollute the air, it is like killing off another person. The family that was mentioned in this summary was lucky enough to have the money to move out of these discusting conditions. Some families are not fortunate enough to be able to sell their house or be able to afford another house. If air is this polluted I think it is the government's job to lessen the smog or get people to safer areas so they do not suffer.
Question 1.
I think that more classes should learn about air quality. It should be taught at a young age so the children inform their parents. Young kids and even teens have dinner and other wuality time with their parents everyday. I know my parents always ask me what I learned in school that is worth sharing. This is an important topic to raise awarness because you never know where the next factory is going to open up. The next factory may affect Horsham's air quality. Signs are also affective. If you are sitting in a waiting room, chances are that your eyes wonder to a catchy poster. If the posters are flashy and informative many people will read them. If we raise awareness of the smog pollution, more people will protest for the government to get involved and stop the issue. The government will not make it a priority unless a huge amount of people care about it.
Opinion/Reflection
ReplyDeleteWhen people say "a picture's worth a thousand words" they must be talking about this photo. Some words that come to my mind when I see this picture are disgusting, horrifying, and depressing! I've never seen such dirty air. With the medical costs from all of the pollution, you would think the town's government would try to use money to fix the source of the damage instead of making their residents pay the price with their lives. I know my parents are always telling me to go outside and get some fresh air instead of sitting around, but these people living in Shippingport obviously shouldn't take this advice when their air is so dirty and polluted. It is absurd that there are articles after articles full of stories about polluted air and all of the negative affects it seems to have on communities, yet there is so little information about air cleanup.
2. What would have to happen to make people start acting upon this issue?
If this picture and article aren't enough to make people start acting and changing their polluting ways, I don't know what will. Really, this unit really makes me wonder about man-kind and our thoughts or sort of action (if you understand what i mean). It confuses me that such horrible things (such as increase in deaths) have been occurring in places around the world due to pollution, yet people don't seem to be too concerned (or at least not concerned enough to bring it to the attention of their local politicians, or pushed hard enough to make a change). If someone in their family happened to die due to this pollution, maybe people would worry more about the air they and their family are breathing in.
Opinion/Reflection:
ReplyDeleteWOW! Okay, well obviously we can't say that airpollution has caused this huge increase in deaths because there are so many factors, but they are obviously related. Honestly, all of these blogs about air pollution have really been scaring me. The thing that confuses me the most is if you ask any person about air pollution, the majority of people would say how bad it is and we need to reduce it....but then guess what?! Almost no one does anything!!! If you want something to change then act on what you preach! I personally don't do much to help air pollution (even though I did convince my dad to buy a prius-go me!). But, if we think about it, if every person who wants to help decrease air pollution (which should be the majority of people if not everyone) does at least one thing to help, we could make a great difference!
2. What would have to happen to make people start acting on this issue?
I think people would start acting if they were more aware. Everyone except little babies know what air pollution is but I don't think they know or understand the severity of the problem. I know I personally didn't know how badly people's organs were being affected by air pollution. Now that I have read all of these blogs and articles, air pollution really does scare me and I do want to help. Maybe if people were more aware like I am now, then they would want to help just like I do.
So, there are a lot of things going on here. What you are seeing are aerosols and soot. What is interesting is that it has been commonly known that aerosols cool the earth's surface by reflecting (visible) sunlight away. However, recently it is understood that soot contains black carbon that absorbs visible energy, and will therefore radiate infrared energy back to the surface to heat it up. So, the effects of cooling and warming counteract one another. Also present here is almost certainly ozone, though you cannot see it. Ozone is a greenhouse gas, which means it absorbs infrared energy (coming off the surface of the earth), and then emits its own infrared energy back towards the surface, heating it up. Ozone is not directly emitted by fossil fuel combustion, but rather is created by other emitted gases (NO2, hydrocarbons) and reactions with sunlight (photochemical).
ReplyDeleteThere is probably also some sort of temperature inversion in the atmosphere that is trapping the pollution near the surface. That means that, near the surface, instead of the temperature cooling as you go up, it actually get warmer. That creates a stable atmosphere, which prevents vertical mixing.
ReplyDelete