Bolivia’s National Pedestrian Day was hailed as a huge success by environmentalists.
Bolivians breathed a huge sigh of relief Sunday as the streets in major cities were cleared of all motorized vehicles. The air they were breathing was significantly cleaner thanks to the annual car ban.
Air pollution in La Paz fell by 72 percent on National Pedestrian Day, according to the office of Environmental Services. ‘’Noise pollution dropped to just 22 decibels which is significant considering the average is around 65 decibels,’’ said Nadiezna Godoy, administrator of Environmental Services in La Paz.
More than two million cars were taken off the streets in nine major Bolivian cities, with tens of thousands of people reclaiming the normally congested roads by taking part in more than 200 different activities ranging from gymnastics to tai-chi as well as dance competitions.
‘’It’s a great idea’’ Diego Hurtado told teleSUR. ‘’You can breathe much better and they should have it more often, every six months would be ideal.’’
Bolivia’s socialist government introduced car-free days in 2011 to get people thinking about the effects of air and noise pollution. Marking the event, President Evo Morales said it is the collective responsibility of everyone to care for Mother Earth.
“We call on everyone to continue to take care of our common home, so that future generations do not suffer the consequences,” wrote Morales on his official Twitter account.
According to President Morales, “The National Pedestrian Day is a day for Mother Earth,” asking Bolivians to “liberate it from pollution.”
A report released by the World Health Organization in May confirmed that outdoor air pollution has grown 8 percent globally in the past five years.
According to a WHO database compiled from more than 3,000 cities, billions of people are exposed to dangerous air particles. The study said outdoor air pollution is responsible for more than three million deaths every year and is thought to be the biggest single killer in the world.
Tiny particles of pollution have been discovered inside samples of brain tissue, according to new research.
Suspected of toxicity, the particles of iron oxide could conceivably contribute to diseases like Alzheimer’s – though evidence for this is lacking.
The finding – described as “dreadfully shocking” by the researchers – raises a host of new questions about the health risks of air pollution.
Many studies have focused on the impact of dirty air on the lungs and heart.
Now this new research provides the first evidence that minute particles of what is called magnetite, which can be derived from pollution, can find their way into the brain.
Earlier this year the World Health Organisation warned that air pollution was leading to as many as three million premature deaths every year.
Tracing origins
The estimate for the UK is that 50,000 people die every year with conditions linked to polluted air.
The research was led by scientists at Lancaster University and is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The team analysed samples of brain tissue from 37 people – 29 who had lived and died in Mexico City, a notorious pollution hotspot, and who were aged from 3 to 85.
The other 8 came from Manchester, were aged 62-92 and some had died with varying severities of neurodegenerative disease.
The lead author of the research paper, Prof Barbara Maher, has previously identified magnetite particles in samples of air gathered beside a busy road in Lancaster and outside a power station.
She suspected that similar particles may be found in the brain samples, and that is what happened.
“It’s dreadfully shocking. When you study the tissue you see the particles distributed between the cells and when you do a magnetic extraction there are millions of particles, millions in a single gram of brain tissue – that’s a million opportunities to do damage.”
Further study revealed that the particles have a distinctive shape which provides a crucial clue to their origin.
Magnetite can occur naturally in the brain in tiny quantities but the particles formed that way are distinctively jagged.
By contrast, the particles found in the study were not only far more numerous but also smooth and rounded – characteristics that can only be created in the high temperatures of a vehicle engine or braking systems.
Prof Maher said: “They are spherical shapes and they have little crystallites around their surfaces, and they occur with other metals like platinum which comes from catalytic converters.
“So for the first time we saw these pollution particles inside the human brain.
“It’s a discovery finding. It’s a whole new area to investigate to understand if these magnetite particles are causing or accelerating neurodegenerative disease.”
For every one natural magnetite particle identified, the researchers found about 100 of the pollution-derived ones.
The results did not show a straightforward pattern. While the Manchester donors, especially those with neurodegenerative conditions, had elevated levels of magnetite, the same or higher levels were found in the Mexico City victims.
The highest level was found in a 32-year-old Mexican man who had been killed in a traffic accident.
Disease risk?
Dubbed “nanospheres”, the particles are less than 200 nanometres in diameter – by comparison, a human hair is at least 50,000 nanometres thick.
While large particles of pollution such as soot can be trapped inside the nose, smaller types can enter the lungs and even smaller ones can cross into the bloodstream.
But nanoscale particles of magnetite are believed to be small enough to pass from the nose into the olfactory bulb and then via the nervous system into the frontal cortex of the brain.
Prof David Allsop, a specialist in Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, is a co-author of the study and also at Lancaster University.
He said that pollution particles “could be an important risk factor” for these conditions.
“There is no absolutely proven link at the moment but there are lots of suggestive observations – other people have found these pollution particles in the middle of the plaques that accumulate in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease so they could well be a contributor to plaque formation.
“These particles are made out of iron and iron is very reactive so it’s almost certainly going to do some damage to the brain. It’s involved in producing very reactive molecules called reaction oxygen species which produce oxidative damage and that’s very well defined.
“We already know oxidative damage contributes to brain damage in Alzheimer’s patients so if you’ve got iron in the brain it’s very likely to do some damage. It can’t be benign.”
Other experts in the field are more cautious about a possible link.
Dr Clare Walton, research manager at the Alzheimer’s Society, said there was no strong evidence that magnetite causes Alzheimer’s disease or makes it worse.
“This study offers convincing evidence that magnetite from air pollution can get into the brain, but it doesn’t tell us what effect this has on brain health or conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease,” she said.
“The causes of dementia are complex and so far there hasn’t been enough research to say whether living in cities and polluted areas raises the risk of dementia. Further work in this area is important, but until we have more information people should not be unduly worried.”
She said that in the meantime more practical ways of lowering the chances of developing dementia include regular exercise, eating a healthy diet and avoiding smoking.
Thank God for Central Park, because everywhere else in the city is pretty damn polluted. According to a new study from MIT Senseable City Lab, most New Yorkers are breathing toxic air.
If you thought the air in your office was bad, you won’t believe how bad it is in your neighborhood. The MIT team used cellphone data to determine the air-quality conditions and exposure hazards of different areas of the city. They found that those who live and work in Manhattan are exposed to more toxic pollution than residents who commute into the city from the outer boroughs, according to Metro.
“Exposure indices are vastly different during the day and night in New York City. This is due to the people moving in and out of the urban center for work and other activities,” the study reports.
The study found that the highest concentrations of dangerous PM2.5 particles in NYC are in Manhattan and areas directly across the East River in Brooklyn and Queens It also found that most of the Bronx has high levels of PM2.5.
“PM2.5 is a fine particulate matter of diameter less than 2.5 micrometers. These tiny dust particles, when inhaled, lead to numerous health conditions including early death, and heart and lung related illnesses,” they study said.
Quitting the EU could make our air pollution problem even worse, it’s been claimed
Attempts to clean up Birmingham’s filthy air are failing.
And the problem could get even worse once the UK leaves the European Union.
That’s the claim from a House of Commons inquiry, which called on the Government to launch a major campaign to encourage people to drive electric cars.
In a new report, the inquiry named 38 out of 43 areas across the UK that are in break of legal air pollution limits, including the West Midlands.
The European Union set limits for the level of air pollution which were supposed to be met by 2010.
But the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has admitted that the target was missed in the West Midlands. Instead, it said in a recent report: “We expect this zone to be compliant by 2020.”
And a study by Public Health England warned that in air pollution was responsible for an estimated 520 deaths a year in Birmingham alone.
Now, a new report by MPs has warned that the problem is not being dealt with quickly enough.
In particular, they say that the Government is failing in its attempts to encourage people to start using low-pollution vehicles such as electric cars.
And they say they are worried about the effect of leaving the EU, because at the moment it’s the European Union that imposes air pollution targets.
MP Mary Creagh, chair of the Commons Environmental Audit Committee, said: “We need 9% of all new cars to be ultra-low emission vehicles by 2020 if we’re going to meet our climate change targets at the lowest cost to the public.
“But the Department’s forecasts show it will get only around half way to this target.”
She added: “The Department should also aim for almost two thirds of new cars and vans to be ultra-low emission vehicles by 2030. With no strategy, we have no confidence that The Department for Transport will meet this target.”
And she warned: “With the vote to leave the EU, there’s a material risk to our air quality targets. At the very least, the Government should commit to keeping existing European air quality standards.”
MPs said regions where air pollution breaches legal air quality limits include Coventry and Bedworth; The Potteries; the West Midlands urban area, including Birmingham and the Black Country, and the wider West Midlands region.
Public Health England has previously revealed that almost 1,500 people in the West Midlands are dying from pollution each year.
This includes 520 excess deaths in Birmingham, 168 in Coventry, 173 in Dudley, 198 in Sandwell, 107 in Solihull, 155 in Walsall and 139 in Wolverhampton.
The pollution figures refer to levels of nitrogen dioxide in the air. This is a gas released when fuels are burned, including petrol or diesel in a car engine, and it can affect the way lungs work over long periods of time.
The European Union’s Air Quality Directive states that on average over the course of a year there should be no more than 40 micrograms – a millionth of a gram – of nitrogen dioxide per cubic metre of air. The EU target states that there should never be more than 200 micrograms of the gas per cubic metre of air even in the worst conditions.
A government spokesman said: “The Government is firmly committed to improving the UK’s air quality and cutting harmful emissions. That’s why we have committed more than £2 billion to greener transport schemes since 2011 and set out a national plan to tackle pollution in our towns and cities.
“We have some of the safest roads in the world and are committed to making sure that record continues.”
A recent comprehensive study has concluded that coal combustion is the single largest source of air pollution-related health impact in China, contributing to 366,000 premature deaths in China in 2013 alone.
Published mid-August, the new study was led by Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, and the Health Effects Institute: Burden of Disease Attributable to Coal-Burning and Other Air Pollution Sources in China. The study, available in both Chinese and English, is said to provide “the first comprehensive assessment at national and provincial levels of current and future burdens of disease attributable to coal-burning and other major sources of particular matter air pollution.” It is also the first report of the Global Burden of Disease — Major Air Pollution Sources (GBD MAPS), a multi-year, international collaboration of Tsinghua University, HEI, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), and the University of British Columbia.
“The GBD is the largest and most comprehensive effort to date to measure epidemiological levels and trends worldwide” said Zhou Maigeng, Deputy Director of the National Center for Chronic and Non-communicable Disease Control and Prevention of the China Center for Disease Control and lead author of the GBD 2013 Chinese analysis published in the British medical journal The Lancet in October 2015. “Based on Chinese data, we found that outdoor air pollution was the 5th leading cause of premature death in China in 2013.”
Estimates of causes of premature death from 20 top risk factors in 2013
The new study is part of the GBD MAPS Working Group, and took advantage of enhanced satellite data and China’s ever-expanding network of air pollution monitors. The study was also the first to estimate the impact of different air pollution sources by province.
“Coal-burning was the most important contributor to ambient PM2.5, causing an estimated 366,000 premature deaths in 2013,” said Professor Wang Shuxiao of Tsinghua University, a lead investigator for the study. “Industrial sources and household solid fuel combustion, from both coal and non-coal emissions, were the largest sectoral contributors to disease burden attributable to ambient PM2.5 in China, responsible for 250,000 and 177,000 premature deaths, respectively.”
The study also pursued an estimate of future health burdens into 2030, based on four air pollution control and energy efficiency scenarios. Though in each of the scenarios exposure to PM2.5 will decrease, the growth of Chinese populations and their likelihood of extended lifespans will only increase the number of deaths from cardiovascular and lung diseases. Specifically, the GBD MAPS analysis forecasts as many as 1.3 million annual deaths as attributable to air pollution.
“Air pollution health burdens will continue to be a challenge, but the potential for future health benefits from further control is enormous,” added Robert O’Keefe, Vice President of the Health Effects Institute.
It’s been linked to everything from age to weight and smoking and booze. But research now suggests snoring – as well as tiredness – could be down to traffic pollution.
A study has shown those living close to busy roads or whose bedrooms are nearer highways are more likely to snore.
And the noise from vehicles rattling by is also believed to disrupt sleeping patterns, leaving us tired and restless.
The toxic gases and particles released by engines, particularly those powered by diesel, are said to be the cause.
A study of 12 000 people found 25 percent of men snored heavily at least three nights a week, with those exposed to traffic pollution being at the highest risk.
Around a quarter of woman admitted feeling sleepy during the day, which increased if exposed to traffic pollution.
Ane Johannessen, an epidemiologist at Bergen University in Norway, said: “We know that people exposed to secondary cigarette smoking are more likely to snore, so we wondered if the toxins from traffic pollution might also be linked to snoring.”
Men and women affected differently
Scientists at the university also discovered sexes were affected differently. Men who slept in bedrooms near to traffic-heavy roads, leaving them more exposed to airborne pollutants and noise had an increased chance of snoring. But women with similar sleeping arrangements were more susceptible to daytime sleepiness. The findings, based on data collected in cities across northern Europe, will be revealed to doctors and researchers at this week’s annual meeting in London of the European Respiratory Society.
Johannessen saidthe study showed how traffic pollution could disrupt lives and health but more research was needed to understand how it exerted such effects and to what extent.
Traffic pollution levels now needed to be measured in different areas to determine how they related to sleep disturbance for those living close by.
The study said:“It is likely that air pollution can cause snoring through airway inflammation … One could speculate whether women who have husbands who snore experience more daytime sleepiness but the key is understanding the impact of pollution.”
It’s like smoking cigarettes
Professor Stephen Holgate, the ERS’s science council chairman, added that living by a main road had the same impact as smoking ten cigarettes a day on a person’s lungs.
He demanded that Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom introduce a ‘Clean Air Act’ to force the motor industry to minimise vehicle emissions. He said: “Diesel in particular is the No 1 source of toxic air pollutants. Diesel particulates are carcinogenic and highly damaging to human organs.”
Professor Jorgen Vestbo, president of the ERS, said the UK government should issue guidance on how to reduce exposure to air pollution, which should include avoiding walking near main roads. He said: “We cannot stop breathing polluted air but we can limit our exposure.”
West Africa is changing rapidly. An explosively growing population, massive urbanization, and unregulated deforestation modify the composition of the atmosphere, thus affecting weather and climate. How exactly these emissions are changing the region in the long term is not clear. The EU-funded project DACCIWA coordinated by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) therefore studied the air over the coastal region of West Africa with the help of research aircraft and ground stations.
“The air over the coastal region of West Africa is a unique mixture of various trace gases, liquids, and particles,” explains Professor Peter Knippertz of KIT’s Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, who coordinates DACCIWA. The sources of these particles and gases are monsoon winds with sea salt from the south, Sahara winds with dust from the north, charcoal fires and burning rubbish in cities as well as power plants, ship traffic, oil rigs, and outdated engines. “At the same time, multi-layered cloud covers frequently form in the atmosphere and strongly influence local weather and climate.” The composition of the particles in the air and what impacts they have on the formation and breakup of clouds has not yet been studied in detail. This information is not included in the weather and climate models presently used.
The EU-funded project DACCIWA (Dynamics-aerosol-chemistry-cloud Interactions in West Africa) investigates the relationship between weather, climate, and air pollution in West Africa. For the first time, a coordinated measurement campaign was launched recently to study the entire chain of impacts of natural and anthropogenic emissions on the West African atmosphere. In June and July, three research aircraft, the Falcon of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Twin Otter propeller plane “Ice Cold Katy” of the British Antarctic Survey, and the ATR of the Service des Avions Français Instrumentés pour la Recherche en Environnement (SAFIRE) of the French research institution CNRS, Météo France, and CNES, flew targeted missions over West Africa. The different aircraft were used in different ways based on their strengths, but all three had a comparable instrumentation generating a rich set of reference data.
Air pollution does not stay where it is produced, but extends inland by up to 300 km. For this reason, the aircraft followed the plumes of the big coastal cities of Accra, Abidjan, Lomé, and Cotonou on their way from the coast towards the inland forests, savannahs, and the Sahara. For the campaign, the scientists also set up three highly instrumented measuring sites inland. They measured urban emissions and evaluated health data. KIT climate researchers under the direction of Dr. Norbert Kalthoff were mainly active in Savé, Benin, where they used the “KITcube” measurement platform. The observation system integrates instruments for all relevant meteorological parameters and can measure a “cube” with an edge length of about ten kilometers as a part of the atmosphere. In parallel, a large weather balloon campaign was coordinated by Professor Andreas H. Fink, KIT expert for the African climate, in four West African countries. Optimal planning of the measurement flights and balloon launches was based on special forecasts with the COSMO-ART model developed by KIT. The project that has a duration of five years lays the foundation for new and more precise climate, weather, and air quality models for a more sustainable development of the region.
“Surprisingly, first results show that the plumes contain large fractions of organic materials,” Knippertz says. This finding points towards burning of charcoal, rubbish, and agricultural waste at low temperature. The particles from these fires lead to a considerable haziness in the atmosphere. Less sunshine reaches the ground, thereby changing the daily patterns of temperature, wind, and clouds. “For the first time, the measurements show an enormous complexity in the different cloud layers, the causes of which are still unclear.” Moreover, the air particles modify the formation of clouds and raindrops in the clouds.
Until 2018, the researchers will continue to study the impacts of atmospheric composition on cloud formation and air quality in West Africa, to evaluate the data measured, and to develop a new generation of climate and weather models. Work is also aimed at making more precise prognoses for West Africa, as strong impacts of climate change, such as water scarcity, heat waves or floods, are to be expected. Better prognoses will also be of benefit to other regions. “We know, for instance, that West African monsoon interacts with the Indian monsoon and it is an important factor influencing Atlantic hurricanes,” Knippertz says.
New diesel cars are still emitting many times the official limit for polluting nitrogen oxides when driven on the road, almost a year after the Volkswagen emissions scandal broke.
Renault, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda and Hyundai have all launched diesel models in 2016 with NOx emissions that are far higher than the official lab-based test when driven in real-world conditions, according to tests by Emissions Analytics (EA), a company whose data is used by the manufacturers of most cars sold in Europe.
Ironically, the only new model to meet the limit when on the road was a Volkswagen Tiguan.
Diesel cars must pass lab-based tests for NOx emissions but most cars perform far worse in the real world and in 2015 Volkswagen was caught using software to cheat the tests. Previous EA analysis showed 97% of diesels launched since 2009 exceeded the lab limit.
NOx pollution is a serious public health problem, causing the early deaths of 23,500 people a year in the UK alone. New research presented on Tuesday suggests the air pollution crisis in UK cities has not been tackled because politicians prioritise economic growth and road safety instead.
The EU has tightened emissions regulations and, from September 2017, diesels that emit more than double the lab limit for NOx on the road will be banned from sale.
The Emissions Analytics’ road test is very similar to the new test the EU is implementing and it found that 2016 Renault Megane (1.5l engine) and Espace (1.6l) diesel models emitted more than 12 times the NOx lab limit in real-world driving.
A Mercedes Benz CLA (2.1l) diesel emitted 8-12 times the limit on the road, while a Mazda 3 (1.5l) and Hyundai Sante Fe (2.2l) emitted 6-8 times the limit. Until the testing regime changes in 2017, it is legal to sell such high emitters. In contrast to the other vehicles, the road emissions of the Volkswagen Tiguan (2.0l) met the lab limit for new cars.
“Diesels can be clean,” said Nick Molden, the EA’s chief executive. “It is about getting a [regulatory] system that forces deployment of the technology.”
Molden said the continued sale of highly polluting diesels reflected the struggle of some manufacturers to catch up and implement the emissions-reducing technology. Other carmakers, he said, have the technology in their cars already but are calibrating their engines to maximise fuel efficiency, at the expense of high NOx emissions.
But some, such as VW, had already delivered on the most recent standard, called Euro 6, Molden said. “There is a massive irony, given that VW are the ones that have been caught. But their Euro 6 cars from the get-go have been very clean and they came in before ‘dieselgate’ blew. It is an even bigger irony than it first looks – they had already cleaned themselves up before they got found out.”
Julia Poliscanova, from the campaign group Transport and Environment, said: “The current regulatory climate in Europe sees testing authorities protecting carmakers and allowing polluting vehicles to be sold, even after dieselgate.”
“New on-road tests after 2017 will help and are the only way to measure accurate real-world emissions,” she said. “But more action is necessary. In the short term governments must stand up for their citizens’ health and order mandatory recalls to bring illegally dirty cars in compliance.
“In the long term, more independent oversight, transparency and robust testing over vehicles’ lifetimes are necessary for Europeans to finally enjoy the cleaner air promised to them almost 10 years ago.”
Tamzen Isacsson, from the UK trade body The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said: “We can’t comment on results from non-official tests where the robustness or methodology is unclear. However, SMMT and industry acknowledge the need for reform of the EU test process.
“We support the introduction next year of a more onerous lab test that better reflects real world driving, together with an on-road Real Driving Emissions (RDE) test. This will be the world’s toughest emissions testing regime.”
A spokeswoman for Hyundai said: “Hyundai Motor vehicles on sale in the UK meet all the current regulatory standards. New Euro 6 cars are built using the best available technology and they produce less NOx emissions than their predecessors.
“Hyundai Motor takes environmental compliance extremely seriously and is committed to meeting forthcoming new targets and to significantly improving the environmental performance of its vehicles.”
Spokesmen for Mercedes-Benz and Mazda said they were unable to comment on unofficial tests. The spokesman for Mazda added: “In compliance with the law, Mazda works hard to ensure that every petrol and diesel engine it makes fully complies with the regulations of the countries in which they are sold.”
Renault did not respond to requests for comment.
Molden said the new regime in 2017 would probably mean diesels at the smaller end of the range would no longer be sold: “Some of these cars will be discontinued because the after-treatment system will just be too expensive as a proportion of the total price to work commercially. But from mid-sized cars upwards it can be done. We are talking about adding hundreds of pounds per [car], not thousands.”
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THE AIR WE BREATHE
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