A court dispute between Fraser Surrey Docks and Metro Vancouver over the regional district’s power to regulate air quality could have far-reaching implications beyond a proposed coal export terminal in Surrey.
Fraser Surrey Docks already has port authority approval to build the coal-handling facility, which would bring U.S. coal by train through White Rock and South Surrey and load it onto ocean-going ships.
Construction hasn’t yet begun and Fraser Surrey Docks hasn’t yet applied to Metro for a required air quality permit.
Instead, it is challenging Metro’s jurisdiction, delegated by the provincial government through the Environmental Management Act, to regulate industrial air emissions, arguing that power has no force on federal port lands.
The case, which goes to trial in provincial court next month, will see Fraser Surrey Docks contest a $1,000 fine levied against it by Metro in 2013 for the discharge of soybean dust from its grain handling operations.
“The ramifications of a decision in favour of Fraser Surrey Docks would be profound,” Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver said.
Any new industry – not just the coal terminal – could open on federal lands without obeying Metro regulations to control air pollution, he said.
And Weaver suggested such a ruling might thwart the province’s power to control emissions on any federal lands in B.C., not just port land within Metro.
He said there are many proposed industrial port developments – from LNG terminals to oil refineries – that could end up on federal port lands and pollute airsheds as far north as Kitimat and Prince Rupert.
Weaver called on the province to take a stand.
“Why is this going to the court and why isn’t the province stepping up and playing a more outspoken role about what they believe the role of Metro Vancouver and their role is?”
Environment Minister Mary Polak was not available for an interview.
An emailed statement from her office said the province has an interest in the case but will wait for the court’s decision before commenting further.
“Sources of air pollution throughout B.C., including on federal lands, must be managed to appropriate levels,” it said.
The coal terminal proposal is the target of separate court challenges filed by project opponents.
Fraser Surrey Docks now intends to directly load the coal onto ships, rather than first to barges that would have had to be unloaded to ships at Texada Island.
A POLLUTION expert has warned lorry deliveries in Colchester could be affected following a ruling by the UK’s highest court to act over air pollution limits.
Supreme Court justices said the Government must prepare and consult on new air quality plans to submit to the European Commission.
ClientEarth has said under existing plans, some areas such as London, Birmingham and Leeds would not meet pollution limit targets until 2030, 20 years after the original deadline of 2010.
Essex University environmental science professor Ian Colbeck said: “I suspect Defra will have to come up with additional plans for reducing traffic.
“We may well see restrictions on traffic within Colchester to try to reduce levels.
“There could be impacts on deliveries. They might look at changing delivery times or limiting them to certain times of the day to stop traffic building up.
“Colchester is moving slowly.
“It has got the park and ride now which should help to some extent in reducing the number of cars, although it is some buses which are the major cause of nitrogen dioxide pollution.
“Osborne Street is one the worst places in the area as buses sit outside the bus station. Of all the places I would say Osborne Street is going to need changes.”
Colchester Council has been monitoring air quality for nitrogen dioxide for several years and has declared the town centre, East Street, the Harwich Road and St Andrew’s Avenue junction and Lucy Lane North, Stanway, as area quality management areas.
Air quality monitoring in Colchester revealed in 2013, 11 streets exceeded the recommended pollution limit levels of 40mcgs per cubic metre over a year.
The worst street was Mersea Road which had a reading of 65.9.
After the judges made their mandatory order, ClientEarth described the ruling as “historic”, saying it was “the culmination of a five-year legal battle fought by ClientEarth for the right of British people to breathe clean air”.
It says air pollution causes 29,000 early deaths a year in the UK, more than obesity and alcohol combined.
Among the measures the Government must consider are low emission zones and congestion charging.
Provisional results for air pollution readings for 2015 in Colchester can be found at essexair.org.uk
Alarm bells have started ringing over the increasing levels of air pollution in Mysuru, which was considered one of the least polluted cities a few years ago.
The particulate matter (PM) pollution has neared alarming proportions here following increase in its levels over the last five years. One of the prime reasons for this is unrestrained emission from vehicles.
The particulate matter pollution had once crossed the permissible limits (60 micrograms per meter cube of air) in the semi-industrial locality in 2013-14. And, the levels have been climbing in residential/commercial areas of the city.
Particulate matter (consists of airborne particles in solid and liquid forms) poses a serious health hazard and triggers respiratory diseases.
Also, sulphur dioxide (SO2) and Oxides of Nitrogen (Nox) pollution have been getting higher in last five years here, but not to such disquieting levels. The air quality is being monitored at two stations — at the KSPCB office in Hebbal (industrial) and another near the KSRTC city bus-stand at K.R. Circle (commercial/ residential).
The agricultural sector is the main source of ammonia (NH3) and methane (CH4) in the EU. Yet emissions reductions over the past thirty years for either of these pollutants have not been as impressive as reductions of pollutants from other sectors.
The EU is currently looking at tightening the pollution limits for each EU Member State between now and 2030 through a revision of the National Emissions Ceilings (NEC) Directive. It is important that the ceilings fixed for both ammonia and methane are ambitious and lead to real efforts from farmers to reduce the pollution they emit. If they are not, other sectors already contributing to emissions cuts will be under pressure to deliver even greater emissions reductions and EU citizens will be condemned to breathe dirty air well beyond 2030.
The infographic explains what the sources for agricultural emissions are, how they impact on our health and why it is important to regulate them.
You can view the infographic by clicking on the image below or click here to download our position paper ‘Clean Air from our Farms’.
A team of scientists drew a crowd Monday morning at the University of Utah, unveiling new tools that monitor air pollution.
“Today is the launch of the Hestia product. Hestia is an unprecedented look at the emission of carbon dioxide in Salt Lake valley,” professor at the University of Utah, John Lin, said.
Scientists at the University of Utah and Arizona State University collaborated on the project and say carbon dioxide monitoring will really help the understanding of pollution levels in Salt Lake.
“To use carbon dioxide as a proxy to get pollution emissions, so there’s where the connection to exposure and health and air quality comes in,” professor at the University of Utah, John Lin, said.
These new tools will work with other monitoring devices already in place. One of the Hestia machines is even mounted to a UTA trax train. These tools are monitoring emissions from anywhere in the county. Readings from these machines will help scientists pinpoint the who, what, when and where of air pollution. Many know our inversion season speaks for itself, and this team of scientists believe being able to actually see pollution levels, instead of hearing about them, could help spur change in our behavior.
“It’s a voluntary act, that sometimes is a reaction to seeing how things really are in your neighborhood and your city,” Kevin Gurney, professor at Arizona State University.
Other cities putting these machines to use include Los Angeles and Indianapolis. The scientists ABC 4 spoke to Monday say they believe Salt Lake City could see success and be the pioneer of this type of pollution monitoring.
Exposure to outdoor air pollution during the first year of life increases the risk of developing allergies to food, mould, pets and pests, new research concludes. The study showed that the sensitivity to allergens was associated with exposure to traffic-related air pollution during infancy.
New research from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) study shows that exposure to outdoor air pollution during the first year of life increases the risk of developing allergies to food, mould, pets and pests.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, showed that the sensitivity to allergens was associated with exposure to traffic-related air pollution during infancy.
“With the increasing rates of allergies amongst children in Canada and elsewhere, we were interested in determining if air pollution from traffic might be partially responsible,” said Michael Brauer, the study’s senior author and a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. “This is the first study to find a link between air pollution and measured allergic sensitization during the first year.”
While infants exposed to air pollution were at greater risk, researchers did not find a link between mothers exposed to air pollution during pregnancy and allergy risk in their children. Vancouver had the largest proportion of children to develop sensitivity to allergens (23.5 per cent), compared to Toronto and Edmonton (17 per cent each), and Manitoba (9 per cent). The study also found that children who live with furry pets and no attached garage were more likely to have no sensitivity to allergens.
“Understanding which environmental exposures in early life affect the development of allergies can help tailor preventative measures for children,” said Hind Sbihi, a PhD candidate at UBC and first author of the study. “We also found that children who attended daycare or with older siblings in the household were less likely to develop allergic sensitization, suggesting that exposure to other children can be protective.”
BACKGROUND
The CHILD Study, funded by AllerGen NCE and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), involves more than 3,500 families and their infants across Canada who are being closely monitored to determine how genetic and a wide range of environmental factors contribute to health outcomes, especially with regard to allergies and asthma.
The researchers used data from 2,477 children and assessed the children with skin allergy testing at approximately one year of age. They were tested for sensitivity to ten allergens, including cat, dog, dust mites, cockroach, fungus, milk, egg, soy and peanut. Of the participants, 16 per cent of infants were sensitive to at least one of the tested allergens; 12.5 per cent were sensitive to a food allergen; and 5.3 per cent were sensitive to an inhalant allergen.
Exposure to traffic-related air pollution was assessed by estimating nitrogen dioxide levels at each child’s home address. The researchers also evaluated the time each child spent away from home, including daycare attendance, and the use/type of the home’s ventilation system.
When I moved to Singapore in 2010, I knew little about haze and air pollution in general; I’d moved from London where the air wasn’t all that great either. In September 2010, we started to hear many residents of Singapore talking about the haze that would be coming our way soon, and sure enough few weeks later the thick choking wood smoke drifted in off the coast. After a little research, I learned that the farmers in Indonesia slash and burn their crops at this time of the year, because it is cheaper than buying the neccessary machinary to plow the fields in preparation for sowing next years crop. Depending on which way the wind is blowing Singapore and Malaysia may or may not be resigned to two months of smokey air, irritated eyes, throat irritations and worse if you already have some sort of respirtory condition like asthma. So very early on in Singapore, I got into the habit of checking the air pollution levels (PSI) on the government website each morning before I would go running. Below 100 PSI and I would run outside, above 100 and I would hit the treadmill.
Like many people in this part of the world, my job requires me to travel frequently within the Asia Pacific region, and I began to notice that many other cities also has bad air pollution; Hong Kong regulary has PSI reading above 150 (see left) and Beijing often has PSI readings above 200 and on occasions has had readings above 400 PSI. To cut a long story short, I just did a lot of running on treadmills.
I’m happy to say that the air quality in Singapore normally only suffers for a couple of months a year and is for the most part, a wonderful place to live. In my second year here there were no haze problems at all, mainly due to the wind direction, however in year 3 it was really bad, and at that time I decided to try to find a solution becuase I simply couldn’t bare to take another step on a treadmill, bored out of my mind staring at MTV or listening to the same playlist or audiobook. It was then that I remembered that whilst living in London, it wasn’t uncommon to see bicyle couriers and commuters wearing pollution masks to protect against the traffic fumes, so I started searching online to see if the same sort of mask could enable me to continue to run outside when the air pollution was bad and not impede my breathing too much. That was when I discovered Respro’s website; I reviewed all of the products on their site and finally emailed customer services to make sure I was ordering the right mask; I needed them to understand two things:
1. It is very hot and humid here all the time, 365 days a year.
2. I don’t do gentle jogging, I run.
They were very helpful and suggested that I try the Cinqro mask. When the mask arrived (free shipping worldwide) I went out with the intent of doing a 12-15km run. At first I was very pleased with how little the Cinqro impeded my breathing, until about 30 minutes into my run and the HEPA type filter inside the mask shell became saturated with the sweat pouring off my face (33 celcius 91 farenheit) and it became very hard to beathe. I removed the mask, gave it a good squeeze and a shake to get most of the moisture out, put the mask back on and continued with my run, only to find that 15 minutes later the filter was sweat-logged again. I reported the problem to Respro and they suggested that I try wearing a hat or headband to absorb the sweat which was a great solution and the Cinqro and I became unseparable during the rest of the haze season and whenever I traveled to one of the regions heavily polluted cities.
After about 2 weeks of wearing the Cinqro, the discolouration of the HEPA type filter was startling, it made me concerned about how much crap has been going into my lungs (and bloodstream) over the years.
A few months ago I was excited to see that the clever people a Respro had developed a new mask called the UltraLight; especially designed for hot and humid climates. I immediately emailed them and ask if they would allow me to test the mask against the Cinqro in a truly hot and humid climate – and they agreed.
The main difference between the two masks is that the Cinqro mask shell is made out of a thin neoprene fabric and the UltraLight shell is made of a lighter, stretchy, breathable mesh that should be more suitable to this hot climate. Both masks are fitted with Respro’s Powa Elite Valves that can be adjusted to increase/decrease max airflow, and a replaceable HEPA type sports filter. As you can see in the pictures below, there is a very slight difference in the dry weight of the two masks; The Cinqro weighs in at 45.4grams and the UltraLight at 39.7grams.
The Tests
I decided that I would test the masks under my normal running conditions, because when I was looking to buy the Cinqro I wasn’t sure if you could really run in one of these things and a review like this would have been useful. So I decided on two tests:
1. 400m tempo runs
2. A longer run on undulating hills
On the running track, I did a lap without a mask to provide a baseline for time and heart rate, and then I ran a lap at the same pace wearing each of the Masks to see if there was any difference. The video of the track test is below.
Test 1 – 400m Track Test
Test 2 – 9 KM Hill Run
The second test involved running up and over the highest point in the Singapore Botanical Gardens (not very high to be honest, Singapore is pretty flat) 5 times to get to 9k. The aim was to assess if there is any difference in my ability to breath between these two masks and secondly, to see which one wicks moisture away better and which one is the most comfortable in this climate. One important thing to point out at this stage is that the HEPA type filter is made out of Dynamic Activated Charcoal Cloth (DACC) which filters out the harmful pollutants in the air. Being made out of cloth means that you do need to try to keep it as dry possible when running or the filter eventually becomes saturated and then sucks inwards as you inhale, signifiacntly impeding airflow. During the second test I was wearing a headband to absorb as much sweat as possible.
22 April 2015 wearing the Cinqro, running at an average pace of 4:51 per KM (7:48 per mile), and with the Powa Elite valves set wide open breathing was easy even when running uphill. But unfortunately at the 6KM point the HEPA type filter was becoming saturated and I started to notice a litte bit of back-suction as I inhaled which made breathing a little tougher, but I was able to complete the full 9km distance without having to remove the mask to wring-out the filter.
23 April 2015 wearing the UltraLight, running at an average pace of 4:53 (7:52 per mile) and with the Powa Elite valves set fully open, again breathing was very easy. The UltraLight fabric, does definitely allow air to permeate better than the Cinqro keeping my face a cooler, which also allowed the HEPA type filter to stay dryer because over the exact same course, at the same time of day, and the same temperature, the filter didn’t become saturated at any stage during the run.
Conclusion
I want to be clear, both of these masks are excellent and only differ in the fabric used in the mask shell; and if I were living in a more temperate part of the world, either one would suffice to keep my lungs clear of all the harmful crap sadly floating around our inner cities. But in hot and humid Singapore the UltraLight is the winner, keeping my face cooler, the HEPA Type filter dryer and me comfortable.
Finally I would also like to point out that running with anything covering your mouth and nose will have an impact on your ability to breath, however once I saw the brown colouring of the HEPA type filter after only 8-10 runs, I knew that the slight compromise in breathing was worth it. Another positive is that this minor restriction on my breathing has actually made me fitter! So if you are a cyclist or runner, living and training in an inner city, do yourself a favour; check the air pollution levels regulary (www.aqicn.org) and look after your lungs, they’re kinda important.
Over one thousand activists and Haifa area residents reignited protests Sunday over Health Ministry findings that linked heightened cancer rates in the city with high levels of air pollution.
Carrying signs reading “we’re suffocating,” and wearing anti-pollution masks, protesters gathered in the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Haim demanding the government take responsibility.
“My children have a greater chance of getting cancer than children in the rest of the country,” Kiryat Haim resident Haim Segal told Hebrew-language site Walla.
“The risk we face is far too high. I demand the government and mayors take responsibility and care for the public.”
Lior Amitay, head of the Public Health Coalition, the environmental group that organized the protest, demanded a designated task force be set up to address the prolonged pollution, and that expansion plans for the local industrial zone be frozen.
Haifa is home to Israel’s largest seaport and a number of petrochemical factories.
Last month it was reported that Prof. Itamar Grotto, head of public health services in the Ministry of Health, had found that half of the cases of cancer among children in Haifa were due to the city’s air pollution.
Grotto’s study also found that from 1997-2008, in the Haifa metropolitan area in general, the rates of cancer were 16 percent higher than in the rest of the country in 16 of the 18 types of cancer checked. Certain types of cancer — lung cancer, for instance — were even more prevalent: 29% more in Haifa than in the rest of the country.
But the Health Ministry later denied that there was evidence linking cancer rates in the northern port city to air pollution. “There is no testimony toward an excessive incidence of cancer in children,” it said.
Pollution Masks since 1993 - The 'Original' and still the best - Made in the UK - respro.com
THE AIR WE BREATHE
The Respro® Bulletin Board is designed to keep you up to date with current views and issues relating to Air Pollution and its health implications in our daily lives.
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