Coal miners ‘black lung’ and frackers ‘white lung’ are examples of such ailments

From an Article by Eglė Krištopaitytė, Health News, January 20, 2023

Climate change impacts all aspects of our lives, including our health. From inflammation caused by wildfire smoke to diseases-carrying vectors migrating to new areas, the threats associated with changing climate are here to stay. [It can get worse! See Paul Brown’s challenge.]

This past year 2022 was the world’s 6th-warmest year on record since 1880, according to the latest report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Millions of Americans have experienced the consequences of climate change firsthand, as the country endured 18 separate disasters, including hurricanes and droughts, damages of which exceeded $1 billion. Moreover, these disasters resulted in the deaths of 474 people.

In 2021, an international group of medical professionals suggested that rising temperatures due to climate change was the greatest threat to global public health. Scientists expect temperatures to continue increasing this year. In 2024, they could set a new global record.

In an interview with Healthnews, Juan Aguilera, MD, PhD, MPH, a director of Translational Environmental and Climate Health at Stanford University, explains how climate change damages our mental and physical health.

Wildfire smoke causes inflammation; wildfires also cause public displacement and property damages.

Aguilera says that climate change impacts different aspects of our lives. For example, rising temperatures prolong drought periods, leading to the drying of the forests’ soils. When weeds and bushes are not hydrated enough, the fires tend to expand and cover wider areas.

“Smoke contains many different particles that are harmful to human health, with some being small enough to go into the respiratory system and even to penetrate deeply into the circulation,” he told Healthnews.

Once in blood circulation, particles cause inflammation which, in the long term, could lead to heart diseases, stroke, hardening of the arteries, and even cancer. According to Aguilera, scientists are now learning that wildfire smoke may also affect the immune system, making people weaker against any other types of diseases.

The effects of climate change are also linked to mental health problems. For example, living in an area where wildfires may occur can be a source of anxiety. “You never know when a wildfire will occur, how big and wide it is going to be. You may be in danger and need to evacuate your home. Following the news also might be a source making anybody feel anxious,” Aguilera, MD, added.

Moreover, harmful particles from wildfire smoke may affect neurons and, therefore, mental health.

“As we learn more about how these smaller particles affect our entire bodies, we can also explain issues related to mental health,” he says.

Extreme climate events are more frequent now. Climate change also exacerbates extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and thunderstorms, eventually leading to flooding. This causes more humidity within the homes, which can result in mold, Aguilera explains. For some, mold may cause mild symptoms, such as sore throat, coughing, or wheezing. However, those with asthma or people allergic to mold may have severe reactions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In 2022, flooding caused by Hurricane Ian led to a spike in potentially deadly infections caused by Vibrio vulnificus, also known as “flesh-eating” bacteria. Over 60 cases of infections and 11 deaths were reported in Florida.

“Mosquitos and other vectors are getting adjusted to conditions where the climate is changing. They reach areas where there usually aren’t mosquitos, ticks, or any other vectors,” Aguilera added. Researcher says that as climate changes, the pollen season is expanding to up to ten months; therefore, pollen allergies will become more frequent.

How to protect yourself from pollution? Air pollution is one of the drivers of climate change. In 2021, about 67 million tons of pollution were emitted into the atmosphere in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, research reveals more or more harm of pollution to human health. For example, a study from last year found that unborn babies have black carbon particles in vital organs, such as the liver, lungs, and brain, as early as the first trimester.

Another study demonstrated that women in their late 40s and early 50s who were exposed long-term to air pollution with nitrogen dioxide and ozone saw increases in their body size and composition measures.

So how to protect ourselves from toxic pollutants? Aguilera says that while not everybody will be able to move out of regions that are exposed to air pollution, we can take some lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the steps is to follow the air quality index, which allows tracking of real-time air pollution conditions on a certain day.

“Vulnerable groups, such as pregnant, elderly people, children, and people with asthma, may want to consider some personal barriers, such as wearing a mask. Depending on your situation, it might be an N95 mask,” he says. In addition, air purifiers may help to trap these particles and reduce the amount of pollution inside the houses.

Aguilera explains that in the United States, some low-income communities live closer to freeways and roads, meaning that there are higher levels of air pollution coming from the traffic.

“Some homes don’t have proper insulation, and because of impending climate change, people who live there may suffer from heat stress or heat stroke. Measures to protect themselves, such as better cooling devices or air purifiers, cost money and are not necessarily accessible to everybody,” he adds.

Researcher says that the first step in achieving health equity is an awareness that our actions do affect not only ourselves but also people in other countries. “In Africa, they deal with severe droughts and shortages of food because of how climate changes make soils less fertile in some areas,” he says.

References & Sources ~

1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2022 was world’s 6th-warmest year on record.

2. The New England Journal of Medicine. Call for Emergency Action to Limit Global Temperature Increases, Restore Biodiversity, and Protect Health.

3. The University of Aberdeen. Babies have air pollution in their lungs and brains before they take their first breath.

4. The University of Michigan. Air pollution tips the scale for obesity in women.

5. Kaiser Family Foundation. Climate Change and Health Equity: Key Questions and Answers.

Fracking operations which take many acres are increasing in numbers

>>> From an Article by Reid Frazier, StateImpact Pennsylvania, October 1, 2022

The University of Pittsburgh and the Penna. Department of Health are no longer participating in a public forum next week to discuss a series of state-funded studies about fracking and public health. The forum will still take place on Wednesday, October 5th in Canonsburg.

The Center for Coalfield Justice, one of the environmental groups involved in the forum, said in a statement this week that Pitt and the department of health had pulled out of the public event. Both the university and the department of health were slated to take part in the event, “to explain the study process to the public and take questions from community members,” according to the center.

In a statement, Maureen Lichtveld, Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, said that the studies are still “ongoing” and that “no data are available to share publicly.” Licthveld said the school was “willing to answer questions from the community as the studies progress. When we are prepared to release the results of these studies, we will do so publicly in a timely manner.”

Pitt has set up a web site with more information on the studies’ methodologies.

Barry Ciccocioppo, a spokesperson for the department of health, said the agency pulled out of the event only after Pitt did. “(A)fter Pitt withdrew its participation in the meeting it became clear that the department would be unable to provide anything more than background information and an overview of what led to contracting for these two studies,” Ciccocioppo said, in an email. “We will be providing that information to the organizers before the meeting.”

Ciccocioppo said the department will try to answer questions and solicit feedback through an online questionnaire it has set up. This survey will be open for two weeks after the Oct. 5 meeting.

“Parents deserve to hear from these institutions,” said Heaven Sensky, organizing director at the Center for Coalfield Justice, in a written statement. “Participating in this public forum was the bare minimum these agencies and research institutions could do to provide information to grieving parents and concerned community members. But now, they won’t even do that.”

Sensky and three other community members have resigned from the studies’ external advisory board, over what they say are Pitt’s and the agency’s “resistance to accountability and transparency to community members.”

“It is reasonable for community residents and pediatricians like me to be concerned that fracking may be to blame for the spike in rare childhood cancers and other health impacts in Southwestern Pennsylvania,” said Ned Ketyer, one of the former advisory board members, and president of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania. “Community members are demanding answers. Unfortunately, the decision by the PA DOH and University of Pittsburgh to withdraw their commitment and not attend the public meeting on October 5 effectively silences those important voices and keeps the community in the dark.”

The forum will include perspectives from the former external review board members. The studies in question are examining the relationship between fracking and diseases like cancer, asthma, and poor birth outcomes. The state funded the studies after pressure from families of patients of a rare cancer in Washington County.

Dozens of children and young adults have been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma and other forms of cancer in a four-county area outside Pittsburgh, where energy companies have drilled more than 4,000 wells since 2008, according to state records. The cases were first reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Several of the cases included teenagers who died of Ewing sarcoma, who had all attended one school, Canon-McMillan High School in North Strabane Township, Washington County.

Ewing sarcoma has no known environmental cause. But the families nevertheless suspect that drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the method that energy companies use to extract natural gas from shale rock, played a role. A state study found there was no cancer cluster in Washington County, but that study did not include several newer cases of Ewing sarcoma.

In August, researchers at Yale School of Public Health found children living close to fracking sites in Pennsylvania have a higher risk for a common form of childhood cancer.

The health department says on its website that oil and gas “infrastructure may present potential exposure hazards to residents living nearby as well as to oil and gas workers.” The studies are expected to be completed by the end of the year, according to the Department of Health.

#######+++++++#######+++++++########

October 5 Community Meeting Scheduled to Update Residents on PA Health & Environment Studies and to Discuss Health Impacts of Shale Gas Development

September 29, 2022 — On October 5, a public meeting in Canonsburg, PA, will offer residents an opportunity to learn more about a pair of studies being conducted by the University of Pittsburgh titled the “PA Health and Environment Studies.” The studies are exploring potential health impacts of the shale gas industry on residents of Southwestern Pennsylvania, including potential connections between this heavy industry and a spike in childhood cancers in the region.

Members of the media are invited to attend. There will also be a virtual option.

Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2022 Time: 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Place: Town Park (Yoney Pavilion), VFW 191 Drive Canonsburg, PA 15317

Attendees will hear from persons who formerly participated as members of the studies’ External Advisory Board and who will discuss the studies and help to prepare the community to understand the scope and limitations of the results. Additionally, the Environmental Health Project will present information families can use to identify impacts and protect their health. The PA Health and Environment studies are ongoing, and results will not be shared at this meeting.

Representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health had originally committed to being on hand to explain the study process and to take questions from community members. However, the agency and the school have now decided to pull out of the meeting. Meeting organizers released a separate statement on this development, which can be viewed here.

In 2019, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s administration allocated $3 million to the studies, taking action after months of impassioned pleas by the families of childhood cancer patients who live in the most heavily drilled region of the state. The studies have been underway for two years.

The studies cover the entirety of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Region, including Allegheny County, Armstrong County, Beaver County, Butler County, Fayette County, Greene County, Washington County, and Westmoreland County.

To register for either the in-person or virtual option, please follow this link:

https://secure.everyaction.com/qLXO2p_7C0uyKwJJ_e3Iag2?ms=coalition

Methane emissions cause ozone pollution (near term) & climate change (long term)

From an Article by Michael Booth, Colorado Sun, July 25, 2022

DCP Operating Company LP settles with federal and state officials over allegations of failing to detect gases contributing to Front Range ozone. This Colorado natural gas processor will pay a $3.25 million fine in a settlement with federal and state air pollution officials, after allegations the company failed to detect and repair leaks that contributed to worsening ozone problems on the northern Front Range.

DCP Operating Company LP and five related subsidiaries will pay the fines and make repairs, in a consent decree announced by the regional Environmental Protection Agency office in Denver after allegations of leaks and failure to repair at gas processing locations in Greeley, Platteville and other Weld County locations. Weld County is part of the EPA’s northern Front Range nonattainment area for ongoing ozone violations, and state and local governments must come up with plans to cut emissions that contribute to the health-harming gas.

The decree says DCP does not admit to liability for the allegations, but will have to pay the fine and also invest millions of dollars in equipment and systems to prevent new leaks. The decree was negotiated with EPA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, part of the state health department.

“Enforcement actions like this are critical to improving air quality, particularly in places facing air quality challenges like Weld County,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement. Soon after the fine announcement, the state health department issued another Ozone Action Day Alert for the Front Range, one of many so far this summer, warning vulnerable residents to avoid too much outdoor activity for 24 hours.

“EPA continues to deliver cleaner air through the rigorous enforcement of the Clean Air Act,” EPA Regional Administrator KC Becker said in a statement. “This settlement will reduce emissions of over 288 tons of volatile organic compounds and 1,300 tons of methane from production areas near northern Colorado communities, a majority of which are disproportionately impacted by pollution.”

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Executive Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan credited state inspectors and enforcement personnel from the air division’s leak detection and repair program. She said the settlement will go to the state’s Community Impact Fund, which helps pay for local environmental justice projects.

DCP will now have to bolster leak detection and repair at facilities in the Greeley, Kersey/Mewbourne, Platteville, Roggen, Spindle, O’Connor and Lucerne processing plants, and the future Bighorn plant. The requirements include new equipment that leaks less, tightening compliance with rules, repairing leaks faster, and staff training. The decree says the company will also use optical imaging technology to find and repair leaks faster.

One repair on two turbines at the Kersey/Mewbourne plant will cost $1.15 million, and is expected to reduce VOCs there by 26 tons a year, and methane by 375 tons a year, according to the agreement. Natural gas processing facilities separate impurities and liquids from the gas. Methane also contributes to global warming, multiplying greenhouse gases by dozens of times the rate of carbon dioxide emissions.

Ground-level ozone causes respiratory illness, aggravates asthma, and can worsen existing heart disease.

A related company, DCP Midstream, was fined $5.3 million by New Mexico regulators in 2020 for alleged repeated violations of state air pollution emissions rules.

EPA and state officials say they are focusing tightly on northern Front Range oil and gas operations. The EPA last year reached a $1 million settlement with Noble Energy over alleged violations from oil tank batteries in Weld County floodplains.

DCP said in an email statement that the company started working on some of the fixes in the decree as early as 2019. “The settlement agreement resolves an administrative enforcement matter with the EPA and the State of Colorado and is also in line with our commitment to responsible environmental management and sustainability,” said DCP manager of public affairs Jeanette Alberg. The agreement “is consistent with our ongoing efforts to reduce emissions within our company footprint and is a positive outcome for all of our stakeholders,” she said. DCP is also upgrading Colorado facilities not mentioned in the settlement, the company said.

Environmental groups responded with skepticism, noting a recent hearing in front of the Air Quality Control Commission where northern Front Range cities said their own studies showed emissions are not down.

“This just continues to underscore the oil and gas industry’s rampant noncompliance with clean air laws and the terrible toll that continues to be taken on air quality along the Front Range,” said Jeremy Nichols of WildEarth Guardians. “Studies have basically confirmed that oil and gas industry emissions have not decreased over the years. It’s good that regulators are pressing DCP, Nichols said, “but it doesn’t seem like industry is truly changing its ways and doing everything it can and should to comply.”

#######+++++++#######+++++++#######

CLEAN AIR COUNCIL Recommendation ~

Tell the EPA to finalize the strongest air pollution regulations possible. This includes a ban on gas flaring or venting unless in absolute emergencies, consistent methane monitoring at all oil and gas facilities (including smaller, leak-prone wells), and requiring “no-bleed” pneumatic controllers and pumps at all gas wells and compressor stations.

We Need the Strongest Methane Rule Possible

>>> From the Clean Air Council, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Pittsburgh, June 10, 2022

Later this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be proposing the full version of its much anticipated rule limiting climate-changing methane and asthma-causing volatile organic compound (VOC) pollution from new and existing oil and gas facilities. In a draft rule published by the EPA in November 2021, the EPA specifically requested input about a variety of topics within the rule, such as lowering emissions from orphaned and abandoned wells as well as the logistics of community air monitoring networks.

We need the EPA to propose the strongest rule possible in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, reduce carcinogens like benzene, and reduce VOC pollution that reacts in heat to form dangerous ground-level-ozone (smog). Methane pollution has 87 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 20-year time period and, according to the EPA, is responsible for 30% of the increased temperatures and precipitation we are currently experiencing. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has predicted an “above average” hurricane season for the 7th consecutive year.

In addition to the oil and gas industry’s impact on the climate chaos we are currently experiencing, researchers continue to identify new public health issues related to ground-level ozone pollution, the main component of smog. Beyond the well-known effects of smog on your respiratory system leading to conditions like asthma, a recent study has also linked smog pollution to “cognitive decline.”

Please click here to tell the EPA to propose the strongest methane standard for oil and gas facilities possible.

>>> Sincerely, Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Executive Director and Chief Counsel, Clean Air Council

Pittsburgh can expect more smog and ozone

From an Article by Reid Frazier, Allegheny Front, September 1, 2020

Pollution levels in American cities have fallen in the decades since the passage of clean air laws in the 1970s. And even though cars and factories are emitting less, days with high smog might increase in the years to come. The reason: climate change.

David Michuk is 29 and suffers with asthma

He called his doctor and got medications to keep his breathing passageways open. Even with the medicines, breathing has been difficult, particularly on hot days.

“I walk out of my house and it’s like, you just walk into this wall of heat and humidity and it knocks the breath out of you,” said Michuk, who grew up near Johnstown, and lives in the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills. “It’s a scary thing to be out, especially to be younger and be out and trying to just live a normal active life, and you can’t because the air is just killing you.”

One reason why it might be hard for him and others with asthma to breathe? Hot days produce a type of air pollution called ozone, or smog.

High Smog Days Could Be Doubled By Climate Change

Pollution levels in American cities have fallen in the decades since the passage of clean air laws in the 1970s. And even though cars and factories are cleaner than they’ve ever been, scientists predict that the success the U.S. has had in lowering ozone pollution is in jeopardy simply because the world is getting hotter.

That success is because regulations have forced American industry to clean up, scientists say. “We have made a lot of progress,” said Edson Severnini, an associate professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. “You’ll see the graphs and you feel like, ‘Oh, my God, something good has happened.’ ”

But that progress could be upended by climate change, he said. Severnini said ozone starts to really spike above 30 degrees Celsius — or 86 degrees Fahrenheit. He said we’ve already seen the number of hot days increase since 1980. And the number of days when cities in the U.S. reach 86 degrees is anticipated to double by 2050 because of climate change.

“So you can imagine that by midcentury, which is not far from now, you’re going to have very large levels” of ozone, he said.

Asthma Increases When Ozone Increases

Ozone is an irritant inside the lungs and can trigger or worsen asthma attacks, said Deborah Gentile, an allergy and asthma specialist with East Suburban Pediatrics and Allergy and Asthma Wellness Centers in Pittsburgh. She is Michuk’s doctor.

When it contacts the inside of the airways, it causes inflammation and swelling, and the passageway constricts. “So it’s very difficult to move air in and out,” Gentile said. She’s had plenty of patients this summer with breathing problems, during what would be a normally quiet period between allergy seasons.

This coincides with a spike in bad air quality days, when pollution levels will make it hard to breathe for people in certain, vulnerable groups, like those with breathing conditions. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has had nearly the same number of air quality action days already this year as it had in all of 2019.

The agency says that’s because it’s been a hot summer — July was 4.7 degrees hotter than normal in Pittsburgh, according to the National Weather Service.

Heat and Air Pollution Creates Ozone

And heat is perfect for creating ozone, which doesn’t come right out of tailpipes or smokestacks. Instead, it’s formed in the atmosphere when sunlight hits two types of pollution — volatile organic compounds, emitted by things like paint and gasoline fumes, and nitrogen oxides, which are created by fossil fuel combustion in cars, factories and power plants.

Heat waves, which have been on the increase in the U.S., can speed up the process, said Ted Russell, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Georgia Tech.

One reason why is gasoline and other volatile materials will evaporate pollutants into the atmosphere faster on hot days.“Just like water evaporates faster. But gasoline (evaporates) even faster still,” he says. “And paints, on a hot day, they dry faster.”

Another reason why ozone formation increases in the heat: plants and bacteria release some of the volatile gases needed to form ozone. When it gets hot, they release more of them, Russell said. “You’ve also got microbes in the ground that become more active on hot days,” he said.

Urban Heat Islands Mean More Smog

To keep smog below dangerous levels in a hotter world, scientists say, we will probably have to reduce pollution from sources like cars and factories even further. A recent study found that unless climate change is slowed down, there will be an average of 5.7 extra high-ozone days in the U.S. by midcentury.

To make matters worse, cities around the world are growing, supercharging the creation of ozone through the “urban heat island,” said Chandana Mitra, associate professor of geosciences at Auburn University. During heat waves, concrete-packed cities can be 10 to 15 degrees hotter than their surrounding countrysides.

“So more heat, more human activity, more growth in urban areas equals more ozone being created,” Mitra says. There’s a way to limit climate change and the heat it brings, Mitra says, but it’s not going to be easy: lower our greenhouse gas emissions.

###############################

See also: Leader At Environmental Watchdog Group GASP Recommends People Stay Inside Amid Unhealthy Air In Allegheny Co. – Paul Martino, CBS News 2 (KDKA Pittsburgh), July 9, 2020

Respiratory diseases result from particulates in the air we breathe

Essay by Juan Cole, Common Dreams, April 12, 2020

Air pollution, producing medical conditions such as asthma and other lung problems as well as heart disease, is responsible for some of the thousands of coronavirus deaths in the United States. This, according to a just-published Harvard study, which is well summarized by Matthew Yglesias of Vox. Yglesias notes that Trump’s response to the pandemic has been to abolish clean air regulation, which is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing.

City-dwellers around the world are astonished to see how clean their air suddenly became once people stopped burning so many fossil fuels by driving gasoline vehicles for hours a day and powering stores with coal.

Clean air is not just a beautiful thing. It is necessary for our health. A study published last November in an open-access journal issued by the American Medical Association found that breathing polluted air full of small particulate matter kills some 200,000 people a year in the U.S. even where the level of pollution is below the limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency standards.

Particles or droplets less than 2.5 microns across, or thirty times smaller than a strand of hair, are implicated in a range of health disorders and even in declining intelligence in highly polluted environments.

In fact, the Guardian headline from 2018 was Air pollution causes ‘huge’ reduction in intelligence, study reveals. Damian Carrington and Lily Kuo wrote that breathing in polluted air so interferes with brain function that doing it regularly is like losing a year of education. I know people sometimes blow off their last semester of college, but apparently they lose both semesters if they live in a city with heavy air pollution. And that’s not counting full-blown dementia, in which dirty air caused by burning gasoline and coal is also implicated.

Rosie McCall at Newsweek pointed out that the JAMA Network study found that air pollution causes death from heart disease, obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, pneumonia, and type 2 diabetes, as well as brain damage caused by damaged blood vessels closing off oxygen to the brain. These six fatal diseases were known to be the result of breathing polluted air. But in addition, they were able to show that breathing in micro-particles over time also causes dementia, high blood pressure, and chronic kidney disease, all of which are also killing people.

Coal companies and Big Oil like ExxonMobil and all those fracking companies are thus killing off a million Americans every five years. For the past 20 years Americans have been freaking out about terrorism that might kill less than a hundred people a year, but they’ve been happy to have a fifth of a million of their fellow citizens polished off by the burning of fossil fuels annually.

The situation is, of course, much worse than this study shows. Because not only does driving gasoline cars and heating your home with coal make you stupid and sick, it is also wrecking the planet by spewing powerful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, where they trap the sun’s energy and won’t let it radiate back out into space, heating up the earth.

Global heating causes wildfires (which also throw up particulates into the air), drought, more severe hurricanes, and deadly sea rise and storm surges. Carbon dioxide is absorbed up to a certain limit by the sea, at the cost of making the sea acidic and threatening a huge kill-off of the fish on which 10% of humankind live.

The Scientific American reports that researchers estimate that some 150,000 people are being killed annually by the climate emergency around the world. The number is expected to double by 2030.

Proportionally speaking, the US is 4.2% of the world’s population, so a little over 6,000 Americans are already being killed annually by global heating. That number will mount exponentially through the 21st century.

The burden of all this disease and death is falling disproportionately on the poor and in the US on African-Americans, who are shunted by discrimination into the most polluted and least desirable housing. Who lives near a coal plant?

As huge numbers of new lines of affordable electric cars come online over the next five years, everyone who can afford one should go electric. As we green the electricity grid and phase out coal, the EVs will save the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of Americans a year, not to mention flattening the climate emergency curve for the next generation.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

See also: Exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 mortality in the United States (Updated April 5, 2020)

Xiao Wu MS, Rachel C. Nethery PhD, M. Benjamin Sabath MA, Danielle Braun PhD, Francesca Dominici PhD, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

Background: United States government scientists estimate that COVID-19 may kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans. The majority of the pre-existing conditions that increase the risk of death for COVID-19 are the same diseases that are affected by long-term exposure to air pollution. We investigate whether long-term average exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) increases the risk of COVID-19 deaths in the United States.

Conclusions: A small increase in long-term exposure to PM2.5 leads to a large increase in COVID-19 death rate, with the magnitude of increase 20 times that observed for PM2.5 and all-cause mortality. The study results underscore the importance of continuing to enforce existing air pollution regulations to protect human health both during and after the COVID-19 crisis.

#############################

See also: Fine particulate air pollution and human mortality: 25+ years of cohort studies – ScienceDirect by CA Pope III, Nov 14, 2019 ·

Much of the key epidemiological evidence that long-term exposure to fine particulate matter air pollution (PM2.5) contributes to increased risk of mortality comes from survival studies of cohorts of individuals.

industrial pollution from ethane cracker chemical plant

From an Article by Remy Samuels, The Pitt News, October 5, 2015

Despite the promise of creating 600 permanent jobs, the ethane cracker plant being built about 40 minutes northwest of Pittsburgh by car continues to face scrutiny from environmental groups.

Shell Chemical Appalachia decided in 2012 that Beaver County would be the site of a new $6 billion plant to manufacture plastics. Shell chose the Beaver County location because of its proximity to natural gas supplies and because the majority of North American polyethylene — the most common plastic — customers are in a 700-mile radius of Pittsburgh.

In a statement published on its website, Shell said it expects to employ around 6,000 people for the facility’s construction, support 600 permanent employees and create an economic boom in Southwestern PA.

The plan to build the plant — dubbed a cracker plant because it takes oil and gas and “cracks” it into smaller molecules to produce ethylene, a building block for plastic — concerns environmentalists who say this plant will emit excessive pollution, which will increase Pittsburgh’s already high pollution levels. In the American Lung Association’s 2017 report, Pittsburgh ranked eighth for annual particle pollution out of 184 metropolitan areas.

Junior Sarah Grguras — a sustainability program assistant in Pitt’s Student Office of Sustainability and an environmental studies and ecology and evolution double major — is familiar with current and historical air pollution issues in Pittsburgh. She said pollution from the plant is going to diminish Pittsburgh’s air quality.

“It’s going to turn Pittsburgh into cancer alley,” Grguras said. “It’s not a long-term help, and it’s not a sustainable industry.”

Following a lawsuit, the Clean Air Council and the Environmental Integrity Project — two environmental advocacy groups — made a deal with Shell to install four “fenceline” monitors, or pollution detectors, along the perimeter of the facility. This will allow the surrounding community to receive updates on a public website if the plant’s emissions are linked to air pollution and exceed a certain threshold.

Based in Philadelphia, Joseph Minott, 63, who is both the executive and chief counsel for Clean Air Council, said even though this deal was made and Shell will install monitors, pollution will still occur.

“What our lawsuit did was try to make sure that the technology they use at the plant is the best technology, so it will minimize the impact on the local citizenry,” Minott said. “But it does not ensure that the plant will not be emitting any pollution.”

When asked specifically about the precautions Shell Oil Company is taking in order to prevent pollution, Ray Fisher, a spokesperson for Shell Oil Company, wrote in an email that the plant will utilize the “best technology available to control emissions along with fenceline monitoring” and Shell will make the data available to the public.

“In addition, we worked with the Commonwealth to offset emissions in a manner that will create better air quality over time,” Fisher wrote in the email. Fisher did not answer specific questions regarding how Shell plans to prevent shale emissions.

Emeritus Professor of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health Bernard Goldstein, 78, is concerned about the impacts the plant will have on the environment and public health. Goldstein explained the plant utilizes the nearby wet gas from Marcellus Shale — a unit of sedimentary rock that contains untapped natural gas reserves — to convert methane and other gases into plastics.

Since the petrochemical plant is so large, it will be subject to both state and federal regulations, including those from the Environmental Protection Agency. Goldstein said he is not as concerned about the plant itself because of this oversight.

“The pollution that I’m most concerned about comes out of the drilling and obtaining the shale gas, which is then used as feedstock for this chemical plant,” Goldstein said.

Goldstein said the construction of the cracker plant will create more sources of shale gas emissions. Goldstein and Evelyn Talbott, an epidemiology professor at Pitt, agree that, because the drill sites are small — but numerous — these sites are not regulated as well.

“When you’ve got 20,000 sites, how could you possibly check them everyday?” Talbott said.

Shell did not respond to questions about the specific types of pollution detectors it will use around the plant and whether these small drilling sites can produce additional shale emissions.

The EPA has standards that regulate six different air pollutants. Talbott said ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are two pollutants that the plant could potentially emit, which could lead to health problems.

“Ozone … is bad for your lungs and is related to asthma. Nitrogen dioxide is also a pulmonary irritant that can cause pulmonary and respiratory disease,” Talbott said. “If you boil water and turn on your gas stove, there is a certain amount of NO2 that is a fossil fuel emission, so in the Marcellus Shale industry there’s bound to be nitrogen dioxide.”

From an economic standpoint, companies such as Marcellus Shale Coalition see this project as a game changer. President of Marcellus Shale Coalition, David Spigelmyer, released a statement June 7, 2016, saying that Shell’s decision to build the plant is “welcomed news.” The Pitt News called the Marcellus Shale Coalition several times and did not receive a response over the course of four business days.

However, environmentalists Grguras and Minott said there are other ways to create jobs without harming the earth. They said evidence supports more long-term jobs will be with green energy — such as solar, wind and geothermal.

“The green economy, where other countries are way ahead of us, produces far less pollution, employs more people and is more sustainable,” Minott said. “We seem stuck on fossil fuels in Pennsylvania.”

Many are worried about the fate of Pittsburgh’s air, but at the same time, many see the promise of jobs as a positive outcome.

“It’s a trade-off,” Talbott said. “Everyone wants jobs and for our economy to flourish, but I think there’s a lot of concern by environmental groups that the pollution is not going to be curbed and it could be a problem.”

Wide Concern About Fracking

From an Article by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams Blog, August 29, 2016

Fracking opponents vowed to keep up the fight in Colorado on Monday after it was announced that measures seeking to restrict fracking in the state had failed to make the 2016 ballot.

Secretary of State Wayne Williams said Monday that supporters failed to collect enough “valid voter signatures” for Initiatives 75 and 78, which would have given local authorities more power to regulate fracking and implemented mandatory setbacks for oil and gas activity around schools, playgrounds, and hospitals, respectively. 

As Denverite explains:

The state office looked over roughly 5,000 signatures for each of the measures, per normal procedure, and rejected about a quarter of them for being “invalid.”

The state then took that rejection rate and applied it to the total number of signatures collected, essentially knocking out a quarter of the submitted signatures and putting them below the requirement.

The state identified “several potentially forged signature lines” on Initiative 78. 

According to the secretary of state’s office, proponents have 30 days to appeal the decision to the Denver District Court.

A statement from anti-fracking groups distributed Monday suggested organizers were still deciding whether to appeal.

“As we review the ruling, we want to assure our volunteers and supporters that we are as committed as ever to giving the residents of Colorado a say this November on whether their communities can regulate fracking,” said Tricia Olson, executive director of Yes for Health and Safety Over Fracking.

“That fracking is dangerous to the health and safety of the state’s residents resonated loudly in every corner of the state,” she said. “Today’s announcement is not the final action on this issue as countless residents are now committed to protecting their children’s schools, parks, and homes.”

“We will not be cowed by the anti-democratic efforts of the oil and gas industry,” added Suzanne Spiegel of Frack Free Colorado.

The Colorado Independent reports:

The failure of both measures to make the ballot comes after months of a costly, contentious and occasionally disorganized grassroots campaign. Industry groups poured money into a “decline to sign” effort, and anti-fracking activists say they faced harassment from opponents while trying to gather signatures to qualify the measures for the ballot.

Furthermore, the Coloradoan reported this month, opponents raked in more than 35 times the contributions of groups backing the measures, with about 90 percent of the anti-ballot measure donations coming from energy companies.

“The ‘Decline to Sign’ campaign only served to highlight the industry’s stranglehold on the state government,” said Spiegel. “The actions of the industry have only served to galvanize supporters and we intend to fight the destructive and dangerous fracking practices that harm our health and destroy our environment.”

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a fracking supporter, was among those opposing the initiatives. He predicted last week that the measures would not make the November ballot.

Earlier this month, the New York Times wrote that if either measure should pass, “it would represent the most serious political effort yet in the United States” to stop fracking. 

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Homes Very Near Drill/Frack Pad

Health Dangers of Fracking Revealed in Johns Hopkins Study

From an Article by  Wenonah Hauter, EcoWatch.com, August 25, 2016

A new study out today from Johns Hopkins in Environmental Health Perspectives revealed associations between fracking and various health symptoms including nasal and sinus problems, migraines and fatigue in Pennsylvanians living near areas of natural gas development. The study suggests that residents with the highest exposure to active fracking wells are nearly twice as likely to suffer from the symptoms.

This is the third study released by Hopkins in the past year that connects proximity to fracking sites with adverse health outcomes. Last fall, researchers found an association between fracking and premature births and high-risk pregnancies, and last month, found ties between fracking and asthma.

What’s more, a 2014 investigation revealed how health workers in Pennsylvania were silenced by the state Department of Health (PA-DOH) and told not to respond to health inquiries that used certain fracking “buzzwords.” Documents obtained by Food & Water Watch last year indicate the PA-DOH was inundated with fracking-related health concerns ranging from shortness of breath and skin problems to asthma, nose and throat irritation, which were ignored or pushed aside.

While the industry will no doubt continue to refute the expanding science about the dangers of fracking, we can’t afford to ignore it. The public health and climate impacts of extreme fossil fuel extraction requires bold leadership to keep fossil fuels in the ground and transition swiftly to renewable energy.

Photo: A natural gas rig side by side with homes in Washington County, Pennsylvania. 

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

=

Fracking fumes linked to resident asthma

Bolstered by New Proof of Asthma Link, Anti-Fracking Groups Plan March at DNC

From an Article by Nika Knight, Common Dreams, July 19, 2016

Summary — Our country’s leaders ‘must take a hard look at the data, acknowledge the harms of drilling and fracking, and stop it before other people become ill’

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have conclusively shown that living close to fracking operations significantly increases asthma sufferers’ risks of attacks, adding urgency to the battle against fracking within the Democratic Party as it prepares to convene in Philadelphia next week.

“Fracking threatens the basic necessities of life: our food, our water, our air.”
—Karuna Jaggar, Breast Cancer Action

The study, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, looked at 35,000 medical records in Pennsylvania from 2005 to 2012. The state has long been host to a controversial fracking boom, and many have clamored for politicians to pay attention to the industry’s irreversible damage to the land and human health.

“This study’s findings confirm what we have known for years—that fracking is an inherently hazardous process that threatens human health and safety every day. More than 17 million Americans live within a mile of a fracking site, and they are all at risk,” said Wenonah Hauter, founder and executive director of Food and Water Watch.

Indeed, this latest research joins more than 480 peer-reviewed studies that have shown increased health risks and harm from the fracking industry, noted Larysa Dyrszka, a medical doctor and co-founder of Concerned Health Professionals of New York, during a press call Tuesday.

These results were thus “alarming but not surprising,” Dyrszka said.

Locally and nationwide, leaders “must take a hard look at the data, acknowledge the harms of drilling and fracking, and stop it before other people become ill,” Dyrszka added.

And so a large coalition of groups—including environmentalists, labor organizers, peace activists, protesters against nuclear power and “free trade” agreements, public health advocates, and representatives from local communities—are preparing a massive “March for a Clean Energy Revolution” to converge on the eve of the Democratic National Convention on July 24. Organizers predict that thousands will participate.

“As the national spotlight shines on Pennsylvania, it’s important to recognize that this state is one of the most fracked in the U.S. and has faced some of the most devastating impacts,” said Hauter.

And fracking is “not just a threat to the millions who live within one mile of an active well—the majority of whom are people of color,” said Karuna Jaggar, executive director of public health advocacy group Breast Cancer Action, pointing out that dangerous chemicals used in fracking seep into soil, taint water supplies, and are dispersed by the wind.

“Fracking threatens the basic necessities of life: our food, our water, our air,” Jaggar said. “For women’s health advocates and environmental activists alike, the time to act is now.”

“Climate change discriminates. It impacts poor communities and communities of color, and those are the communities with fewest resources to recover.”
—Jon Forster, AFSCME

Russell Greene, a prominent climate activist behind the declaration of a climate emergency that was included in the Democratic Party platform earlier this month, argued that the declaration is “a moment for us to build upon,” and hopes the march will provoke real, tangible action from Democratic leaders.

Labor, too, is joining the battle: “Unions are deeply concerned with environmental justice,” said Jon Forster, vice president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council 37, based in New York City.

“Climate change discriminates. It impacts poor communities and communities of color, and those are the communities with fewest resources to recover,” Forster said, adding that the march next week will push “against the unbridled greed that is leading to this disaster.”

Margaret Flowers, an organizer with the anti-”free trade” advocacy group Stop the TPP, explained that her organization is taking part in the march to raise awareness of the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (TPP) Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) process in which corporations are able to sue countries in private tribunals for passing laws they dislike. The ISDS provision will have “a chilling affect on [climate] laws,” Flowers argued.

Stop the TPP is also staging a “No Lame Duck Uprising” during the march, Flowers said, to protest President Obama’s plan to submit the TPP for congressional approval after the November election.

The Democratic Party platform committee refused to include language against the TPP in the platform, angering many activists. “Our message is that the TPP represents climate catastrophe,” Flowers explained.

“We cannot stand by and accept a political system in which both candidates support the toxic fracking industry, and one candidate freely uses violent racialized language against immigrant communities.”
—Shane Davis, anti-fracking activist

Meanwhile, fracktivists also took their fight to the Republican National Convention (RNC) currently happening in Cleveland, scaling the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Tuesday morning to hang a banner demanding the RNC not “Trump” local communities.

“We must remember that fracking often targets low income communities of color, often many of which are immigrants such as the Central Valley of California, where over 95% of fracking occurs in California,” said Shane Davis, an activist who was forced from his home in Colorado after being exposed to the harmful impacts of fracking, in a press statement.

“We cannot stand by and accept a political system in which both candidates support the toxic fracking industry, and one candidate freely uses violent racialized language against immigrant communities,” Davis added.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net