Air pollution is bigger killer in China than smoking, says new Greenpeace study

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Study of 31 mainland cities finds people more likely to die from PM2.5 than tobacco use – and it didn’t even include the worst offending places

Air pollution kills more people than smoking in many cities on the mainland, a new study by Greenpeace and Peking University has found.

Tiny smog-inducing pollutants, known as PM2.5, led to about 257,000 premature deaths across the mainland’s 31 municipalities and provincial capitals in 2013, according to the study – an average of about 90 in every 100,000 deaths.

In 12 of the 31 cities, including Shijiazhuang , Nanjing , Tianjin and Chongqing , the mortality rate due to pollution was even worse. In these cities, at least 100 out of every 100,000 deaths were blamed on PM2.5.

Both these figures were higher than the official mortality rate of smoking – recorded in 2012 as about 70 in every 100,000, according to Greenpeace.

And the true scale of the problem could be even worse, because several of China’s most polluted cities, including those in Hebei province, were not included in the survey.

Fang Yuan, a Greenpeace spokesperson, said that despite many public complaints about Beijing’s smog problems, many other cities had performed much worse than the capital.

The study found that in Beijing, 79 out of every 100,000 people died prematurely as a result of air pollution – a lower rate than 21 of the other places featured.

Professor Pan Xiaochuan, of Peking University, said the survey team had tried to collect data for more than 100 cities. But they faced problems in some places, resulting in data that was incomplete or inconsistent.

Policies to tackle air pollution were based mainly on the concentration levels of PM2.5, but city officials placed too little emphasis on the impact of air pollution on public health, Pan said.

PM2.5 are tiny particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in size that can lodge deep inside a person’s lungs.

About 21 cities have introduced plans to tackle air pollution and have set themselves reduction targets to be met by 2017.

However, Greenpeace said that even if such targets were met, only 26,000 deaths could be avoided annually.

This showed that China needed to beef up its efforts to reduce pollution, Greenpeace said.

As yet, there are no official statistics regarding premature deaths caused by air pollution.

In 2013, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention launched a comprehensive study on the impact of smog on public health, but its results will not be ready until later this year.

Last year, former health minister Chen Zhu and three other authors estimated in The Lancet medical journal that air pollution caused 350,000 to 500,000 premature deaths a year. But an earlier study in the same journal said air pollution was responsible for 1.2 million premature deaths in 2010 alone.

via Air pollution is bigger killer in China than smoking, says new Greenpeace study | South China Morning Post.

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London’s pollution should trigger divestment

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Fossil fuel-related air pollution causes over 3,000 deaths in London every year. Campaigners say that should cause healthcare organisations to rethink investments

Air pollution is responsible for five per cent of all UK deaths every year, with 3,389 annual deaths in London alone being chalked up to man-made pollution, according to a new report. Fossil fuels are largely responsible for poor air quality.

‘The studies gathered together in the report were looking at early mortality,’ says Medact director Dr David McCoy. ‘For people with chronic respiratory disease in particular, poor air quality is going to be an aggravating factor in their death. We used London as an illustrative example.’ Five organisations for medical workers behind the report think this means professional bodies and organisations allied with the health sector should divest from fossil fuel companies.

The report, Unhealthy Investments, highlights the health impacts from fossil fuels  and possible divestment strategies. Medact, Healthy Planet UK, the Climate and Health Council, Medsin and the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare collaborated on the report.

‘These deaths are a direct consequence of air pollution. We’re calling on health organisations to divest from fossil fuel companies. We’re particularly campaigning for links to be broken with companies that extract fossil fuels, like the major oil producers,’  says McCoy.

“These deaths are a direct consequence of air pollution. We’re calling on health organisations to divest from fossil fuel companies”
Last year, the British Medical Association voted to divest in fossil fuels and invest in renewable energy due to concerns over air pollution.

‘We’re focusing on colleges and various health worker organisations. We also want to encourage organisations like the Wellcome Trust, which has £450million invested in fossil fuels, to divest,’ says Alistair Wardrope, national coordinator at Health Planet. ‘We’d like to see more shareholder activism over the issue.’

‘Our organisation can provide support in sorting out the legal and bureaucratic issues around divestment,’ says McCoy.

Medical divestment  is one strand in a wider campaign. ‘Oxford City Council, several US universities including Stanford and some UK local authorities have divested already,’ says Wardrope.

More UK health organisations are expected to make decisions on divestment later in the year.

via London’s pollution should trigger divestment – Geographical.

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Fossil fuel pollution kills 553 people in Northern Ireland every year, claims expert

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air pollution linked to fossil fuels is responsible for the deaths of 553 deaths across Northern Ireland every year, a shocking new report has revealed.

A Belfast medical expert has called on health organisations to phase out their investment in the fossil fuel industry as it emerged that such air pollution is also said to be responsible for more than 140 deaths across the city.

Dr Gary McFarlane, director of the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health, joined medical experts from across the UK in calling on health organisations to divest in the industry, as they have already done with tobacco.

For example, charitable foundation the Wellcome Trust has holdings of £450m in just four of the major fossil fuel extraction companies. Fossil fuels account for 29,000 early deaths in the UK each year.

Dr McFarlane said: “The science is telling us very clearly that continued reliance on fossil fuels is not only unsustainable but will have significant health implications across the globe.

“Indeed, we already have air quality issues and associated health impacts here in the UK as a result of their over-use. I welcome the debate that this report raises.

“To continue to invest in this sector in light of what the evidence is telling surely raises ethical issues for organisations that exist to improve health, wellbeing and quality of life”. The Unhealthy Investments report examines the need for a move towards renewable energy, both to reduce these short-term health impacts, and to safeguard the health of future generations.

Last year, representatives of the British Medical Association voted to end its investments in the fossil fuel industry and increase investment in renewable energy because of the serious health threat posed by air pollution from coal, oil and gas.

In the report, Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “The UK health profession led the way in the tobacco divestment movement two decades ago, putting the issue firmly on the political agenda, strengthening public understanding of the risks, and paving the way for stronger anti-tobacco legislation. This report shows why, in 2015, fossil fuels can no longer be considered an ethical investment.

“This is one of the defining challenges of our time.”

Dr David McCoy, director of health charity Medact, said: “This report sends an unequivocal message that the health sector should end its financial association with the fossil fuel industry.

“We need a radically different and more sustainable pattern of energy production and consumption. Shifting money away from fossil fuels is an important step in that direction.”

Quote

“Air pollution is responsible for over 500 early deaths in Northern Ireland every year. Health professionals have a responsibility to act on these risks and to make sure that organisations which are supposed to promote health aren’t… doing the opposite by investing in fossil fuels, the biggest cause of air pollution.”

via Fossil fuel pollution kills 553 people in Northern Ireland every year, claims expert – BelfastTelegraph.co.uk.

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Most China cities fail to meet air quality standards

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Only eight out of China’s 74 biggest cities passed the government’s basic air quality standards in 2014, the environment ministry has said.

The most polluted cities were in north-eastern Hebei, the province that surrounds the capital Beijing.

Beijing and Shanghai both failed the assessment, which was based on measurements of major pollutants.

China is attempting to cut pollution but the country still relies heavily on coal for its energy needs.

The government shut more than 8,000 coal-burning factories in Hebei last year.

But the BBC’s Celia Hatton in Beijing says like many places in China, the authorities are struggling to balance factory closures with the demands of the country’s slowing economy.

The environment ministry’s statement published on its website (in Chinese) noted that the 2014 result was an improvement over the previous year, where only three cities met the standards.

But it added that “presently, the country’s air pollution situation remains serious”.

The assessment was based on readings of pollutants such as PM2.5, PM10, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone.

The southern city of Haikou, in Hainan province, was found to have the cleanest air.

Most of the eight cities that made the grade were in the east of the country.

Meanwhile the northern industrial city of Baoding had the dirtiest air.

The statement did not give the rankings for Beijing and Shanghai, although it noted that Beijing’s air quality had improved slightly over the previous year.

The Chinese authorities announced a “war on air pollution” last year, and recently began publishing figures for the air quality in China’s cities. Officials have pledged to restrict consumption of coal, scrap millions of cars and rely more on clean energy sources.

At November’s Apec summit, China made a historic pledge that its carbon emissions would peak by 2030, but did not set a specific target.

It also attempted to improve the air quality in Beijing during the Apec summit, imposing tight limits on car use and ordering factories to close in the weeks leading up to the meeting.

The temporary improvement in air quality was termed “Apec Blue”, and the government has since promised to make it a permanent feature by improving air quality countrywide.

via BBC News – Most China cities fail to meet air quality standards.

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Decreases in short-term memory, IQ, and altered brain metabolic ratios in urban apolipoprotein ε4 children exposed to air pollution

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Anew study by researchers at the Universities of Montana, Carleton, and North Carolina, and the Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, heightens concerns over the detrimental impact of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele — the most prevalent genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease — upon cognition, olfaction, and metabolic brain indices in healthy urban children and teens. These findings are published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

These children have lifetime exposures to concentrations of air pollutants above the current USA standards, including fine particulate matter (PM 2.5). Metropolitan Mexico City is an example of extreme urban growth and serious environmental pollution and 8 million children are involuntarily exposed to harmful concentrations of PM 2.5 every day since conception.

The study focused on children’s and teens’ cognitive and olfaction responses using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R) and the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test. Researchers measured three major brain metabolites in hippocampus, pons and the white matter of the frontal and parietal lobes using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Carriers of the APOE ε4 versus ε3 children had a key metabolite NAA/Cr ratio reduced in the right frontal white matter and showed significant decrements on attention, and short-term memory.

A worrisome finding in this study was the below-average scores in Verbal and Full Scale IQ (>10 points) in the Mexico City carriers of the gene associated with the risk for Alzheimer. APOE4 children had problems with odor detection and failed to identify the smell of soap more often than ε3 carriers. Interestingly, this finding strongly correlated with the left hippocampus mI/Cr ratio, a ratio of key importance in Alzheimer’s patients.

“APOE ε4 is likely playing a role in Mexico City children’s response to their cumulative air pollution exposures. Of importance for health and educational issues, since Mexico City children mostly attend underprovided public schools that do not help in the development of executive function skills and do not build cognitive reserves, the >10 point IQ difference will likely have a negative impact on academic and social issues, including bullying and teen delinquency,” said investigators Lilian Calderon-Garcidueňas, MD, PhD, The Center for Structural and Functional Neurosciences, University of Montana, and Amedeo D’Angiulli, PhD, Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University.

“The results add to growing data suggesting APOE ε4 carriers could have a higher risk of developing early AD if they reside in a polluted urban environment,” added Dr. Calderon-Garcidueňas.

The authors argue that sustained exposures to urban air pollution result in cognitive underperformance and metabolic brain changes that reflect glial and neuronal alterations. The combined effects of residency in a highly polluted city and APOE ε4 could lead to an acceleration of neurodegenerative changes. Air pollution is a serious public health issue and exposures to concentrations of air pollutants at or above the current standards have been linked to neuroinflammation and neuropathology. In the US alone, 200 million people live in areas where pollutants such as ozone and fine particulate matter exceed the standards. There are significant associations between exposures to particulate matter and increased mortality due to stroke, cardiovascular, and respiratory events. The problem in children living in megacities like Mexico City is much worse.

There is an urgent need to have a broader focus on APOE ε4 and air pollution interactions impacting children’s brains and their responses could provide new avenues towards the unprecedented opportunity for Alzheimer’s disease prevention. The authors concluded: “We have a 50-year window of opportunity between the time urban children experience the detrimental effects we are describing here, and when they will present with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. APOE ε4, the most prevalent genetic risk factor for AD, has been understudied in children and teens. We need support for studying the current pediatric clinical and imaging evidence in highly exposed urban children. Our efforts should be aimed to identify and mitigate environmental factors influencing Alzheimer’s disease.”

via Decreases in short-term memory, IQ, and altered brain metabolic ratios in urban apolipoprotein ?4 children exposed to air pollution — ScienceDaily.

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Respro® Masks FAQ: Do the filters need replacing, if so, how often?

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Do the filters need replacing, if so, how often?

Yes the filters do need replacing.

1. The effective working life of the City™ filter depends on a number of factors, such as; the breathing rate of the user; ambient levels of pollution; the length of time the filter is actively working; hygiene levels. Taking these factors into account we recommend that the filter should be replaced every month or every 69 hours, whichever is sooner.

2. Replacement of the Sportsta™ filter should be carried out every month or when the filter becomes noticeably discoloured.

For more frequently asked questions,  go to Respro® Mask FAQs

Do you need to change the filter in your Respro® Face Mask? Watch this video to learn the correct procedure.

Posted in Air Quality | Tagged | 2 Comments

Cold facts of air pollution

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

The difference between a breath of cold air and a breath of warm air isn’t just the temperature. It’s also the pollutants they might contain.

Until now, wintertime air pollution hasn’t been studied in much detail. Scientists have focused more on warm air, partly because summertime’s stagnant atmospheric conditions and intense sunshine tend to worsen ozone pollution. But that’s about to change as researchers turn their attention to winter air quality in the eastern United States.

 

This month, a major air quality project known as WINTER (Wintertime Investigation of Transport, Emissions, and Reactivity) takes to the air to examine pollutants across the Northeast urban corridor, Ohio River Valley, and Southeast Mid-Atlantic. Scientists will home in on wintertime emissions from urban areas, power plants, and farmland, and seek to better understand the chemical processes that take place as pollutants move through an atmosphere that is not only colder but also darker than in summer.

The field campaign, which runs from February 1 to March 15, is being led by scientists at the University of Washington, NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of New Hampshire. The research team will use the NSF/NCAR C-130, a flying laboratory equipped with more than 20 instruments to measure gases and particles.

The aircraft is owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by NCAR. NCAR is also managing the project, including coordinating research flights and providing data services. Flight operations will be based at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

“Aircraft missions will occur at different times during the campaign so that the pollutant gases and reactions can be observed during the day, at night, from night into day, and day into night,” said NCAR project manager Cory Wolff.

A number of factors affect wintertime air: colder temperatures, snow cover, lower absolute humidity, and fewer hours of sunlight. Plants tend to emit fewer chemicals, while people may emit more as they burn heating oil and other fuels to heat their homes. In addition, pollutants may travel farther because chemical reactions take place more slowly in cold air.

By flying over several regions, the WINTER research team will better understand the atmospheric impacts created by different types of emissions from major cities in the Northeast and coal-fired power plants in the Ohio River Valley. The scientists will compare those emissions with data they gather in the Southeast, where winters are milder, plants have a more pronounced influence on the atmosphere, and emissions come from agricultural burning.

The project’s findings will be used to provide more detailed information to decision makers and improve computer models of the atmosphere.

“Wintertime pollution has not been the focus of many campaigns—most are during the spring and summer months when the Sun has maximum impact,” said Wolff. “By sampling the air in the cold and darkness of winter, the science team can get a better sense of the atmospheric chemistry of the eastern United States and compare that to other times of year. ”

via Cold facts of air pollution | UCAR – University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

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Review: Mask Is A Good Fit For City Cyclists

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air pollution may be a global problem, but its effects are all too apparent closer to  home. Those most at risk are those living in UK cities where exposure to pollution can have serious implications to good health.

People who are frequently exposed to environments which include gases and vapours from car pollution – such as urban cyclists and runners – should take appropriate precautions by wearing a correctly fitted mask as this will provide some protection for the lungs.

Respro® masks have been used by cyclists, runners, couriers, allergy sufferers and the fire and rescue services for more than 20 years. The company is a technological pioneer and market leader in this field and continuously develops new products to protect people against air borne pollution.

The new Respro® Skins™ range is the company’s most fashionable range to date, which enables the wearer to match their style and complement their active wardrobe.

There are three main parts to the mask, the outer shell material with nose clip and Velcro fasteners, the valve system and the filter. The Skins™ range is unique as it enables customers to customise their own look and style. A choice of valves can be matched to a design on the Respro® website.

To see the new Skins™ range and how they can now be personalised, go to respro.com/pollution-masks/skins.

Respro® has created an animation to bring awareness to dangers of air pollution and how wearing a Respro® mask can help protect people against air borne pollution. Search “The Air We Breathe” on Youtube.

via Cambridge News

Screen Shot 2015-02-02 at 13.40.59

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