The answer to the title of today’s post is in 177countries of the world, but not in United States, Canada, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, among 16 “laggards”, according to the report reviewed today. Why not? Those few countries that do not have substantive protection apparently are influenced by a series of concerns including the fear of the court taking precedence over legislators, a fear of a “flood of litigation” or “too vague to be useful”. Makes you wonder, especially if you are a Canadian, especially at a time when full government action is needed (and absent) to take on the challenge of climate change and air pollution.
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Today we review a report that calls for an end to coal powered plants in the EU by 2040, although the same reasons for doing so apply elsewhere, particularly in the United States, because of the impact of coal power emissions not only on human health, but also on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from carbon sources as soon as possible to mitigate climate change. Over 18,000 premature deaths/year in the EU can be linked to coal emissions which make up 20% of the GHG emissions for Europe. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology, touted as the vanguard of “clean coal”, is found to have even more emissions of NO2 with lower SO2.
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Today we review a draft plan prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency to deal with the known and likely impacts associated with climate change in the USA. The document is comprehensive, touching on such diverse areas as air pollution-health issues, the impact of more extremes of temperature and rainfall on flooding in communities, the impact on waste disposal and the challenges all this means to the regulation and enforcement side of EPA’s mandate. As one commentator opined “Too bad we didn’t do more a few decades ago to keep all of this from happening.”
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Today we review an analysis of four policy scenarios for four European cities at increasing levels of pressure aimed at reducing carbon emissions from transportation over the next 30 years. The greatest impact comes from a combination of land use policies (such as densification) combined with congestion charges which in one city produced a 40% reduction in GHGs. It is clear as the report summarizes that such strategies need to be tailored to a given city, its population and degree of sprawl.
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Today we review a conference in Montreal aimed at developing a former racecourse (the “Hippodrome”) in the urban core into an area that promotes the environment and a healthy life for its residents. Above all, this would promote active forms of transportation and lots of trees with a canopy objective of at least 25%. The keynote address by Francois Reeves analyzed the historical link between the growth of heart disease and the industrial era and urban living which gave rise to the very high cardiovascular mortality rates there. He suggests that with a healthier diet and reduction of air pollutants, Montreal could reduce the incidence of cardiac disease by 25 to 75%.
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Today we review a call for action to the London Assembly (or city council) to improve the level of air quality found indoors where people live and breathe most of the time. While many believe that poor indoor air quality (IAQ) is caused by moulds and volatile gases emitted by furniture and curtains, there is recent evidence that outdoor pollutants such as particulate matter emitted by vehicles can be responsible for up to half the pollution found indoors. Part of the solution is to install very fine filters. Another solution, being pursued in Canada, is to require developers to build homes for the vulnerable populations of children and the elderly at least 30 m away from major roads or 150 m from highways (or provide air quality evidence that it is safe)- as municipal authorities in Halton Region have done recently.
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We review today a look at recent trends and the next 20 years for the world and in particular at what this means for urban centres. Some the key trends are the shift in middle class consumption and manufacturing from North America to the developing world, especially to mega-cities in China and India, the improvements coming from technology that range from smart city infrastructure to self driving cars. Much more is said about diplomacy, military power and security but for this review we concentrated on the urban aspects.
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Today we review the annual report from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO) to the provincial legislature. The 2012 report questions the government’s commitment to meet the goals it proposed in 2007, after assessing progress to date toward those goals. It is unfortunate that the role of cities which make up by far the greatest population of Ontario- the two largest cities, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and the City of Ottawa make up over 50% of the total. Most of the increased emissions in the transportation sector, a key emissions component, come from road traffic, an area where cities have most mandate and ability to control – with cooperation from the province. Road pricing comes to mind and here the ECO is only thinking of improved public transit without looking at revenue and air quality benefits.
English: GHG emission per capita in metric tons per person for each country in 2005. Data is from the CAIT 8.0 dataset. CO2 equivalent emissions from land use change and emissions of CO2,CH4,N2O,PFC,HFC, and SF6 are included. Bunker fuel (aka ships) is not. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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At year end, bloggers sometimes look back at their posts to see which ones were the most popular- and I did just that with the list of links clipped below, in case you want to revisit any of them. There continues to be interest in pollution free cities such as Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates and advances being made to reduce or eliminate energy consumption, traffic congestion, pollution (including noise) in cities, along with an ongoing interest in the health impacts of all this. Perhaps surprising is that only one post in the last year was as popular as the older posts- the one on GEO Medicine and accumulated exposure to air pollution over a lifetime.
(Andres Duany, Jeff Speck, Mike Lydon, McGraw Hill, Oct. 15, 2009)
Today we review a ten things cities can do to make them more walkable and not as attractive for driving. Extracts are listed below but seem to boil down to making streets more attractive (more trees and interesting things to look at) and safer for pedestrians – and for cyclists –by slowing traffic and overall create a more enjoyable place to live.
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Today we review an assessment of national air quality standards for PM10 and SO2 for over 80% of the population of the world compared to guidelines issued by the United Nations through the World Health Organization. Results indicate that average national standards in place exceed those of the WHO. Also, the degree of national compliance is inversely proportional to energy use and directly proportional to observed national PM levels i.e. standards are less applied in high energy use countries and more applied where the pollution is poorer. An interesting observation when it comes to health impacts fro air pollution is that countries tend to restrict their use of these studies tot hose conducted within their country rather than extrapolate findings from other countries.
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Today we review a recent report from the World Bank, assessing the impacts of unrestrained greenhouse gas emissions leading to a 4 degree warmer planet. The impacts are many but tend to occur more often among developing countries near the equator rather than in mid-latitude developed countries who have been (and are) responsible for most of the emissions over the last century and these have accelerated in the last decade or two. The World Bank with a direct interest in promoting the economies of the developing world urges world leaders to begin to take serious measures to reduce emissions and as far as possible these impacts, even though the tipping point for an unstable climate was reached at 350 ppm (now close to 390 ppm).
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Reduction of flood and associated extreme weather costs is the primary benefit of climate change mitigation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today we review a paper that looks at lessons learned from recent disasters in New York City (storm surge) and Wellington, New Zealand (earthquake) where each city suffered because of damage to their urban infrastructures and exceeding the limits that had been built into them. Although controversial among urban planners, the conclusion drawn is both to upgrade building codes to meet the greater range of possibilities being brought by climate change and to decentralize as much as possible to create more independent and self-sufficient communities rather than a centralized core vulnerable to disruption. Urban intensification can reduce sprawl and costs of services, particularly public transit and emergency services. However, there needs to be consideration given as well to the degree of vulnerability to infrastructural failure that this could entail. This is true not only for the more severe and more frequent impacts that come with climate change but also to meet the challenges of the variability of today’s climate.
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Today we review a paper authored by Prof Buehler and John Pucher who have also published a book very recently about safer cycling in cities. The paper compares the degree of sustainable transportation in Germany to the USA and other countries and notes that “The USA is perhaps the best known example of unsustainable transport” for a number of reasons, ranging from much greater support for public transit as well as progressive land use and taxation policies in Germany that result in much less use of cars for commuting (5 times greater use of transit), as well as 2-3 times fewer traffic casualties and 80% fewer cycling casualties. Virtually all German cities have car-free zones and few have motorways that penetrate into the city core (unlike 99% of the large urban areas in the USA and Canada).
It is somewhat telling that shortly after an evening presentation on sustainable transportation by Prof Buehler at Carleton University in Ottawa, a student cycling home was killed by a car on a 6 lane roadway that links the airport with the city core and lacks a safe bike lane (noting that a segregated bike lane is being piloted downtown and Ottawa currently has over 541 km of bike lanes including 258 km off road and is planning for 2,500 km, more than any other Canadian city).
There are many lessons to learn here.
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In today’s review article, a leading environmental lawyer, Diane Saxe provides, a very useful overview of how the law at the federal, provincial and municipal levels is applied to noise with many examples of how this is enforced and regulated in Canada. A key aspect is the definition of noise as a “nuisance”.
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Today we review a report that assesses the state of toxic waste sites around the world and how much waste from ten industries affect human health and mortality- excluding the contributions from urban emissions from traffic and poor sanitation but including the impact of landfills and such items as electronic waste. The results, in terms of years of healthy life lost, indicate that these sources of pollution have a similar impact (17M) as malaria (14M), tuberculosis(25M) or HIV (29M) in the 49 countries examined.
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Today we review a policy discussion paper from California, already a leader for reduction of vehicle emissions in the USA and internationally, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and hazardous air pollution by 85% over the next 40 years. Scenarios are presented for discussion toward making decisions that would integrate efforts at the state and federal level and among private and public agencies to achieve the targets along the way to 2050. What is different about this plan is that it goes beyond incremental tailpipe emissions at the manufacturing level, commonly used in many states and countries, to try to get to zero emissions in the long run, making use of evolving technology and integrated planning.
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Today we review a broadcast on the BBC that includes interviews with leading British scientists involved with monitoring air quality, vehicle emissions and their impacts on health. Among several startling assertions is the observation that 40 out of 43 assessment zones fail to meet Euro 5 standards. Also, despite attempts by manufacturers to reduce diesel exhaust tail pipe emissions by improved filters, nitrogen dioxide emissions have increased five times due to start and stop driving and idling in increasingly congested urban areas.
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Today an interesting paper is reviewed that describes a physical-mathematical urban wind model that showed how the shape and form of the urban structure affect where pollutants tend to accumulate or gather. This is doubly important – first, as a clue on where to locate pollution monitors and, second, where to expect higher levels of pollutants with health impacts. The implications for urban design and planning are obvious.
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As one of the most vulnerable to air pollution impacts, school children may be exposed to levels of pollution that present a health hazard. Today we review a new portable monitor that can be used to monitor these levels and if they are elevated, take measures to control or reduce them. The device provides for up to three weeks without recharging.
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Today we flag a press release from Singapore’s environmental agency which announced new targets for air quality as part of their long term plan to reduce annual means for SO2 and PM2.5 (to 15-20 ug/m3 respectively) by 2020. This is relevant for several reasons. Singapore is a major urban state that has to cope with local pollution from industry and mobile sources as well as ambient air quality affected by pollution from its neighbours, including, notably, China. Secondly, because it was the first city in the world to implement congestion charges using electronic toll gates in 1975 and has been a world leader in this field since along with Stockholm and London- indicating a progressive (and successful) approach to addressing the challenges of urban traffic congestion and vehicle emissions.
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Today we review a publication from the US Dept of Energy that compares the emissions, both tail pipe and well to wheels, of hybrid vehicles to those running on conventional gasoline. The results indicate not surprisingly that hybrids use 40-60% less gas. One very important point though is the source of the electricity used to power the plug-in hybrids where some regions (such as Ontario) drawing its power from non-pulluting sources from carbon fuel emissions, such as hydro and nuclear, while others depend almost entirely on coal, natural gas or oil.
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Are compact cities a desirable planning goal?(14 page pdf, Gordon, Peter; Richardson, Harry W, American Planning Association. Journal of the American Planning Association, Winter 1997)
Today we review a paper written more than a decade ago that presents arguments and some factual evidence in favour of sprawl (or “growth” as the authors term it) and against the trend toward more and more concentrated populations in the urban area. This is an important debate because of the economic and environmental issues involved. Readers of this post are invited to examine some of the measures presented in the paper as general indicators, as they apply to individual cities to see if they apply there.
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Today we review a paper that looks at the state of air quality globally for the next 40 years, using an index that represents the five major pollutants and a global circulation model to produce scenarios into the future if we continue with “business as usual” policies. These scenarios show that countries and large cities with the worst widespread pollution (in Indo-Asia, the Middle East and North Africa) will not surprisingly deteriorate. The rest of the world’s state of pollution will worsen on average to what we see today in East Asia with the negative health results and enhanced anthropogenic climate change that this implies. Clearly improved atmospheric environmental policy is called for in almost all countries.
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From New Zealand comes an updated report on the health impacts of air pollution based on an expanded monitoring of air pollution sources both natural and man made. The impacts are consistent with those in other developed countries where, for example, the number of premature deaths for Canada’s capital region, (Ottawa and Gatineau), with a population of just over 1.3 million and 530 deaths per year (reference: Illness Costs of Air Pollution for Ontario, 2008) compared to New Zealand’s capital, Auckland, with population of 1.4 million and 436 deaths, with over half coming from motor vehicle emissions. The report also flags impacts on children, specifically during the neonatal period.
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From China comes a revealing article that explores how people react to pollution and environmental degradation around them and in particular what action they take. The research indicates that people are more apt to act in a way that directly controls or affects the pollution and this includes taking legal action. The unfortunate link between economic development and harm to the environment also suggests that continued economic growth in China will inspire more and more public reaction. The question we are left with is how closely does the action of people in other countries follow those in China. If it does, from a public policy standpoint in times of environmental crises, cities in other countries need to have ready plans to make major advances on environmental protection and improvement.
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The American Society of Landscape Architects has proposed a 20 year plan for the US capital that could bring that city from the 8th place out of 27 in ranking (by the Economist Intelligence Unit) of greenest cities #1 – the top two in 2011 were San Francisco and Toronto. Many of the goals are both achievable and applicable to many other cities, given the political will, and include such targets as zero waste, all waterways fishable and swimmable and to cut energy use and CO2 emissions by 50%.
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The question posed in the title of this post seems to be the one to ask as more and more people in Europe and North America chose other forms of transportation than the car.While one is tempted (with reason) to link the lowered demand for car travel to increasing fuel (and oil) costs, the increase in the number of commuting cyclists and the demand for Light Rail is seen in many cities which, for too long, have catered to the needs of drivers and suburban sprawl. Policy makers continue to count on fuel taxes for road and highway building when this has to be a diminishing resource and need.
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Parking lots have existed since the days of the Roman empire but have multiplied in the last century with the rapid growth of cars that accompanied urban sprawl. We review a summary of a recent book by Eran Ben-Joseh who examines the history of parking lots and the way that they have evolved, pointing out the large environmental impact they have on urban landscapes as well as the possibilities for creative uses of them.
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Today we review a report from Phoenix that examines the links between congestion and land use and how the latter affects the former in terms of trip and mode selection. Some of the conclusions are surprising – that most congestion results from non work travel and that congestion of local roads comes from both through traffic and local trips. The 3D’s are the rule for compact urban communities: density, diversity and design.
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Today we review the 2012 report from the American Lung Association which showed that many if not most cities are making progress in cleaning up their urban air quality, notably New York and Detroit which the list of most polluted cities. Looking at the cities with the highest levels of short term particulate pollution, it is striking how many are in California with 6 out of the ten worse in that state. The cleanest cities are less clustered in one state but many are on or near the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastlines. That said, over 40% of Americans live in counties with unhealthy levels of ozone or particulate pollution and 30-45% live close (300-500m) to busy roads.
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Today, we review a report that develops a method of assessing exposure to air pollution over several decades, based on the exposure of residents to air pollution from industrial and mobile sources, as deduced from the conventional national air pollution network and from vehicle emissions, updated using space based sensors on the OMI satellite. The approach used will likely be very useful for then assessing the lifetime risk of cancer from accumulated exposure to air pollution.
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Under review today is a report that looks at the safety issues on local streets that the growing older population either drives on (80% of them do) or uses on foot. These include: the higher risks for seniors making left turns at intersections and the window available for them to avoid heavy traffic, becoming shorter because of the increased congestion from noon on. Combining these issues with the poor design of many city streets that borrow from highway design and fail to achieve either mobility or efficiency- the “STROAD”. The future will see twice as many seniors so that all these problems will amplify in the absence of corrections.
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The focus today is on a major conference held in London at the end of March 2012 where the topic was the impact humanity is increasingly having on the world’s environment, a process now referred to, in geological terms, as “the Anthropocene”. Urbanization world-wide is expected to grow over the next 20 years to an area greater than Germany, Spain and France combined. How prepared is society for these changes?
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The research article of interest today is an update of the famous 1993 Six Cities Study (in the USA) that established links between long term exposure to fine PM and mortality. The newer research continued to showed a significant relationship between PM 2.5 and both lung and cardiovacular mortality, without any lower safe threshold and points to the public health benefits of further reductions in PM 2.5 levels.
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Domestic airborne black carbon and exhaled nitric oxide in children in NYC (Abstract, Alexandra G Cornell, Steven N Chillrud, Robert B Mellins, Luis M Acosta, Rachel L Miller, James W Quinn, Beizhan Yan, Adnan Divjan, Omar E Olmedo, Sara Lopez-Pintado, Patrick L Kinney, Frederica P Perera, Judith S Jacobson, Inge F Goldstein, Andrew G Rundle, Matthew S Perzanowski, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, Feb. 29, 2012)
Today’s review deals with the health of children in New York City who live near diesel truck traffic. Results show up to three times greater risk for asthma and the need for further reductions in emissions from buildings burning low grade heating oil and from diesel trucks whose routes take them near homes.
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Today we review some leading edge research into the make-up of particulate pollution from the aspect of what associated chemicals are found with PM 2.5 and how do they affect their impact on human health. Results indicate higher concentrations of PM 2.5 in winter than summer when rain cleans the atmosphere and higher in late morning and evening because of vehicle emissions. Magnesium (Mg) was found to increase mortality rates at least in South Korea where the data were gathered.
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Although it is considered still a “draft”, the guide reviewed today for assessing air quality and greenhouse gas emissions near roads in the province of Ontario is a major step forward. It defines when roadside vehicle emissions need to be dealt with and what standards or models should be applied. It is clear that many of the criteria take into account health impacts, such as the flagging of transportation projects where residences, schools, day cares, etc are located within 100-500 m of major roads and highways.
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Today, we review the plans for mitigating Climate Change over the next 40 years, developed by the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau that make up the National Capital Region of Canada. While the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions is from heating and cooling and energy for buildings, the largest emission increases come from transportation and commuting by private vehicles in this urban area, one of the country’s cities at over 2,700 km2 (for Ottawa). Using best practices, emissions could be reduced by 27% from transportation, 95% from electricity and 100% from waste to meet the long term goal of 80% reductions by 2060. A number of potential targets for transportation, buildings, energy and waste are included. We look forward to a year by year funded action plan by each of the three jurisdictions (two cities, two provincial governments, and the federal government) to reach these targets.
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Today, we review a thoughtful article and the need to stabilize climate change by reducing carbon fuel use, in the context of a global look at the future for the personal vehicle. The author concludes that the only approach likely to take effect in the short time remaining is one based on capping carbon emissions globally on a per capita basis. The alternative is to run out of oil in less than four decades, not just for cars but for all the other uses.
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The focus today is on a study which ranked 50 US cities in terms of quality of life for seniors who are rising to the top priority in many countries for several reasons, the most pertinent being sheer numbers- in 20 years, there will be more people over 60 than under 20 and they will make up double what they do now- and they all can vote and health care is uppermost in their minds, although the criteria used go well beyond health care. The chosen criteria, for people who live outside the US are perhaps the most significant aspect as the same ones probably could be applied to assess other cities with altered weighting. The quality of the air and its link to mortality seems to be an underlying, if not explicit, factor affecting several criteria. The top rated US city was Minneapolis and the lowest, Riverside California.
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As more and more countries fail to meet the international agreements to reduce carbon emissions in a timely manner – either in terms of absolute emissions (China, USA and others) or per capita (Canada, Australia and others)- attention now needs to turn to adapting to climate change coming in the next few decades and especially to cities. The article under review today looks at an important aspect for Norwegian cities and their buildings – and how increased CO2 and other air pollutants would cause corrosion of building surfaces equivalent to 50% more air pollution- or to put it another way, the need to reduce air pollution by 50% in order to compensate for the expected impacts of climate change.
Atmospheric corrosion of Sagene Folkebad, public baths in Oslo, May 2007 (left) and after maintenance, September 2008 (right)
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The fastest growing part of our population and for many cities the most vulnerable are our seniors- and many cities are not taking steps to ensure they are both safe and healthy and have access to municipal transportation systems. Today’s review of several articles on this topic points out some of the transportation challenges and solutions without getting into social housing and land use policies which also have large impacts on quality of life for seniors.
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As we reach the depth of winter’s cold in northern climates, today’s focus is on some timely research from Norway that examines the combustion conditions of wood burning stoves that affect emissions and the resulting health impacts. Recommendations include using dry (not wet) wood and modern stoves that ensure complete combustion.
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The focus today is on a new branch of environmental health called GEO Medicine that looks at geography applied to environmental health and epidemiology, using various new tools including Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and tracking tools such as those found on smart phones. The speaker points out that while lifestyle and genetics are often included on one’s medical history file, rarely is there a record of where one lived and what was the environment . By extension to his own “place history”, he shows how this can help to identify in advance what diseases to expect in old age.
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Credit for the surprisingly good air quality at the 2008 Beijing Olympics has been given to the Chinese government for various steps taken to reduce pollution sources, especially vehicle emissions, during and before the games- as they had been, with equally good health results, at the Atlanta, USA Games in 1996. A more detailed analysis of the added effect of meteorology, summarized in the article under review, shows that favourable winds and well-timed rainfall had at least as much to do with the results. The lesson to be learned from this, especially for those cities with unhealthy air, with or without Olympic fever, is that major reductions in pollution and improvements in health are possible with enough government will to engage public support.
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Today’s review article looks at the link between traffic-related particulate matter on the blood pressure of truck drivers, using both personal and ambient measurements. The ambient levels are as much as an order of magnitude greater in Beijing than in average American cities. Results indicate that the greatest impact in blood pressure occurs about a week after exposure rather than in one or a few days for those examined, noting that they already have higher than average blood pressure levels due to diet, obesity and exercise (or lack)- perhaps indicating that PM pollution has its greatest impact on those already suffering from high blood pressure.
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Built Environment and Public Health: A Syndemic Perspective (17 page pdf, Michael McGeehin, 4th annual summit of the Research Triangle Environmental Health Collaborative, “Incorporating Public and Environmental Health into Sustainable Solutions”, Nov. 8, 2010)
The focus of today’s review is on a recent urban summit linking the built environment to health and a presentation that shows how a syndemic approach is useful one to identify the links between diseases or ill health and their causes and remedies. Examples from transportation include road design, traffic management and removing barriers for pedestrians and cyclists.
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Today, the focus is on a study of the impacts of railway noise on residents of a city in Switzerland. Differences with noise and air pollution from vehicle traffic are noted as well as the distinguishing characteristic of railway noise being more variable in volume and in being intermittent. While no association with hypertension was found, clear links with blood pressure were found in patients with diabetes. There would seem to be a need to consider similar health effects from electric rail systems (LRTs) being constructed for public urban transit in highly populated areas of many medium to large cities in the USA and Canada.
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While many countries have very modest plans to decarbonize in the short term (e.g. Canada and the US with a 17% reduction target by 2020), few countries have serious plans beyond this. The EU recently released a plan, or rather a series of scenarios, to achieve the required reduction of carbon fuels and a stable global climate by 2050 – if that is not too late for the atmosphere to recover, a question being debated between the carbon energy proponents on the one hand and serious climate researchers on the other who would see the target moved to much earlier. Whatever reductions occur, there will be significant improvements also in air pollution and the health benefits that come from that which is the prime focus of this blog, so that we follow the development of decarbonization plans such as this with much interest. Some of the implications of this roadmap are noted including the need to engage the public and the role of nuclear energy, energy efficiency, and managing energy demand.
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