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.

Photo by Nikki Burch: "Dog gone"

Your pets could be in trouble in the shale region if they: breathe air, drink water, or enjoy being alive

From an Article by Amelia Urry, Grist Magazine, May 5, 2014

Fracking can ruin a lot of things: landscapes, rivers, ecosystems, the climate, your health and safety and that of your family. But have you thought about how it could hurt that other great American institution — the household pet?

Humans love their domesticated animals so much that the cumulative weight of the beasties overwhelms that of Earth’s other land mammals by several orders of magnitude, including humans. (Granted, cows make up a hefty chunk of that poundage, but dogs and their ilk are undeniably popular in the U.S.)

In an upcoming book called The Real Cost of Fracking, veterinarian Michelle Bamberger and Cornell professor Robert Oswald take on the question of how fracked our pets are, as well as the wider effects of natural gas extraction. To keep from hyperventilating with panic (and/or respiratory distress resulting from fracked-up air quality), let’s focus on Fido for now.

Disclaimer: While it’s difficult to prove that fracking causes any of the mysterious, unprecedented, terrible things that happen in rural America exactly when gas companies comes to town, Bamberger and Oswald do just fine with correlation, gathering sad anecdotes of frack-adjacent people and their ailing pets around the U.S.

Hold on to your gerbils, folks, this is going to be a bumpy ride.

Your pets have the most exposure time. Spot may run, but he rarely runs into town for groceries or a movie. He is there, in your house in downtown Fracktown, day in and day out. If methane or hydrogen sulfide or other nasties seep into the air, your pup is probably going to breathe more of it than you are.

What about your pet canary? No need to head to a coal mine to start measuring your toxic environment!

Your pets better get used to diesel fumes. When gas operations move into a town, trucks fume up and down the formerly quiet country roads that your golden retriever frequents. Those diesel belches are full of benzene, a carcinogen that is dangerous for dog AND his best friend.

Your pets are smaller than you, therefore weaker. Less body mass means a smaller dose of pollution packs more wallop. If you like to cry, you can find videos online that claim to show cats and other animals with apparent neurological damage from airborne fracking. (All right, here’s one — but don’t say I didn’t warn you.) Even larger animals can accumulate poisons quickly; Bamberger reports on healthy dogs and horses whose kidneys failed, a possible result of ingesting heavy metals or radioactive materials. Hear that, Misty of Chincoteague? You and Black Beauty better stay away from that aerosoled, irradiated wastewater.

I hope you don’t like puppies or kittens. Baby animals are even more vulnerable to environmental toxins. In some fracking towns, people have reported stillbirths and infant mortality among pets — as well as other cutesy farm critters, like calves, foals, and baby goats. Oh yeah: This may apply to baby humans, too.

Your pets are probably not drinking bottled water. Although we’re normally not big fans of bottled water, if your backyard well is within reach of fracking operations, you’re probably better off with the stuff. But does Kitty get to drink Dasani, too? Does Kitty occasionally lap water from puddles outside, where surface spills or intentional wastewater dispersal have taken place? Does Kitty have a death wish?

Your pet fish are screwed. Unless you’re likely to fill a 50-gallon tank with Poland Spring, your tropical fish hobby could take a hit when your tapwater comes laced with fracking fluid. Ditto that koi pond you carefully stocked last year. In fact, wild fish kills in rivers near fracking operations are also frequent, the result of spills or toxic algal blooms or even just low water levels after creeks are drained to power the thirsty industry.

You can’t prove anything. You may not know what is in the air or the water near fracking sites, thanks to proprietary secrets and poor monitoring. Of course, you can test your own water or air if you have a cool coupla Gs to shell out, but most people rely on industry to police itself. Even if you find the presence of a toxic substance in your tap, it could be hard to prove how it got there. So if your cats and dogs start dropping, good luck with that smoking gun.

Some hazards may include: hydrogen sulfide released during well-drilling; methane that escapes from equipment during extraction; mysterious fracking fluid that seeps into the water table; or the wastewater that flows back to the surface with whatever it happened to absorb from the underworld, and is often spread on roads or left to evaporate in ponds.

So, to sum up, if your pets perform any of the following activities in a shale-rich region, they could be in trouble: breathe air, drink water, enjoy being alive.

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

Reference:  Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald, “The Real Cost of Fracking: How America’s Shale Boom is Threatening Our Families, Pets, and Food,” Beacon Press, August 5, 2014, 256 pages.  Cloth bound, $26.95.  www.beacon.org