47 replies to this topic

[Hayden]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who have never smoked, but who live in areas with higher air pollution levels, are roughly 20 percent more likely to die from lung cancer than people who live with cleaner air, researchers conclude in a new study.

View the full article

[kat74]

Since the level of air pollution is getting higher and higher everyday and people don't seem to care, the percentage of people who will die of lung cancer due to the pollution will be higher every year. This world is no longer safe and no one is listening and doing anything. All they want is to make more money at the expense of the environment.

[ConservativeGreen]

Where I grew up there was a steel mill and ship yard close together.  It seemed like everyone around had cancer or had family with it.  Had a chemical plant down at the harbor also, had to excavate the entire site 50 feet deep the soil was so contaminated with heavy metals.  Think that got into the harbor less than 100 feet from the gate?  We have definitely had a jobs program going on for the medical industry with heavy industry killing us off slowly.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

"The Environmental Protection Agency has taken tough enforcement action against a copper smelter in Arizona that has drawn complaints about toxic pollution for years.

The unpublicized "finding of violation" issued against the Asarco copper smelter in Hayden, Ariz., claims the company
has been continuously emitting illegal amounts of
lead, arsenic, and eight other dangerous compounds for 6 years.

The finding also suggests that the state of Arizona, which has primary responsibility for federal Clean Air Act enforcement in the state, has failed to take meaningful action.

"Our smelter is in compliance with its air permit," writes Tom Aldrich, an Asarco spokesman.
"Asarco works closely with its regulators and proactively seeks innovations as science evolves and environmental laws and rules are updated."
In a letter provided to NPR and CPI, the EPA says its monitors detected
lead at two to three times federal limits on some days during 2011.

"This is a question of whether a large facility that smelts copper has the controls necessary to deal with lead emissions."
The company faces millions of dollars in fines, which are typically reduced if the company agrees to comply. Legal action is also possible if Asarco does not take steps to limit its toxic emissions."
http://www.npr.org/b...na-copper-plant

And people wonder why we're dropping like flies from not only lung cancer, but all types of cancers.
Gas fracking, smelters, heavy industry.
Oh, and don't forget, gentle readers, the gop wants to gut the EPA.

[gangandealer]

We live in a weird world. People are going after money and not considering to help others and make this a better place to live for generations to come.

[thordylan]

I am at risk then. We are just meters away from a national road. But to date, none of our neighbors have been diagnosed with lung cancer yet.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

thordylan, on 06 December 2011 - 03:29 AM, said:

I am at risk then. We are just meters away from a national road. But to date, none of our neighbors have been diagnosed with lung cancer yet.

Highways are an issue, but we're all breathing coal pollution from plants, here, and in China=jet stream.

[zararina]

I actually have asthma before since we live near a road where there are lots of tricycles that produces smoke. Although we are not smoking in our household, we have some light health issues concerning our lungs because of the pollution. Good thing now that most vehicles had good maintenance to emit lesser smoke and that the trees around our communities are being save to at least make the air we breathe here even a little safer.

[mariaandrea]

Asarco has flouted regulations everywhere they operate for decades. I grew up on an island a few miles across the water from an Asarco smelter (that was put out of commission many years ago) and they found soil contamination from the smelter miles away. Not to mention the city it was actually located in. When things get too difficult for these companies because of people and a political climate that won't tolerate their pollution they just pick up and move to places that are less regulated where people put jobs before their health. It's understandable, we need jobs to live, but it's outrageous that those jobs are spewing crap into the air and ground that will eventually kill them.

[ConservativeGreen]

While I really don't like the excess of laws we have to endure, it would perhaps be helpful if when moving a company would have to restore the site left behind to clean and healthy.  And in a reasonabley short time, not the twenty years or more some sites are given.  Maybe that would motivate them to be a little more careful while they are there

[Green Thumb]

That is why I rarely travel in the city. The smoke is at the ground level. There are just too much cars and no darn anti smoke belcher check.

[artistry]

Gees, you do the right thing you feel for your health, by not smoking, and then you find that your nice healthy lungs are more susceptable to lung cancer from air pollution, because of the awful air you are subjected to breathing. Who would ever believe it?.

[Pushhyarag2000]

While it is good to access one more research report, I note that there is not enough material or analysis which concludes the OP part of the research topic. Not to underestimate the harmful effect of air pollution due to various causative factors, which is for real. But consider these parts of the study report for example:

In this study, Turner and her colleagues followed more than 180,000 non-smokers for 26 years. Throughout the study period, 1,100 people died from lung cancer....

And the study team didn't prove that the pollution caused the cancer cases, but "there's lots of evidence that exposure to fine particles increases cardiopulmonary mortality...

That's an indecisive conclusion on the relation between pollution and cancer. In fact, the effect is only indicated as risk of cancer.

It may merely help emphasize the importance of measures to reduce pollution, nevertheless.

[joeldgreat]

Had experienced a "smog" in our city just recently. At first we taught that its simply is a mog and is very amazed by it as it rarely happens to our environment. But eventually, health officials tells us that it is a "smog" which is a new pollution develop with the combination of smoke and moisture in the air. Its much dangerous than the normal smoke because the level of toxic is much more concentrated. This is only an example of man-made pollution develop over the past decades and are now beginning to take its toll.

[sculptor]

air pollution tied to respiratory disease and cancer

duh


and indoor air pollution from common cleaning chemicals

may make the air in your home many times more toxic than the air right out your door

as long as multinational corporations can skirt environmental regulations by outsourcing the dirtier aspects of production the world will suffer from their unrepentant greed-------a love of money trumps a love of our mother earth-----and we all have a hand in their ill conceived actions---------------try and do the right thing, and the rare earth elements used in everything from wind turbines to computers to photo voltaic systems, are made in some of the worst polluting factories

whistling past the graveyard anyone?

[artistry]

Well put! You have to try to believe that somehow, someway, this will all be straightened out. How, I have no reality based idea. But to not believe it will, is all too depressing and quite dark in scope.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

The new epa standards will help.

[Alli]

This is not good news for me- I live in a place with very bad air pollution! I think it's a good idea to wear a protective mask on days when the pollution is especially bad and to have an indoor filter or many indoor plants to keep things fresh and safe inside the home.

[thordylan]

Alli, on 22 December 2011 - 06:35 AM, said:

This is not good news for me- I live in a place with very bad air pollution! I think it's a good idea to wear a protective mask on days when the pollution is especially bad and to have an indoor filter or many indoor plants to keep things fresh and safe inside the home.

Indoor plants work. We have one in every room.

[joeldgreat]

Speaking og lung cancer, would it be more approiate to relate it to smoking rather than air pollution? I think the risk of lung cancer for non-smoker comes with passive smoking rather than air pollution. If this study shows a direct link, then they should change all the medical books saying the all are not safe with lung cancer. If it is true, then all of us are not safe of lung cancer anymore.