Respro® Bulletin Board

A new study by an Australian researcher underscores the fact that, when it comes to air pollution, there are no safe levels.

The research by Adrian Barnett, of theQueensland University of Technology, shows that the Australian government’s standards for key outdoor air pollutants are misleading, as many authorities wrongly assume them to be ‘safe’ thresholds for health.

But Barnett’s modeling shows that, if levels of those pollutants were all to rise to just below the government-set limit, it would result in 6,000 additional deaths and more then 20,000 hospital visits.

“I’ve found that increasing pollution levels to just below the NEPM standards would cause the deaths of an extra 6000 people each year – 2,600 in both Melbourne and Sydney and 800 in Brisbane,” said Professor Barnett, a health statistician with theInstitute of Health and Biomedical Innovation.

“The increase would hospitalise a further 20,700 people per year across those cities. “Study after study has shown there simply is no safe level of air pollution – health problems in the population rise in line with increases in average pollution levels,” Barnett said.

The World Health Organization has estimated outdoor air pollution causes 3.7 million deaths every year, 3000 of those in Australia.

“It’s understandable that the public could misinterpret the NEPM standards to mean anything below those levels is safe – but it’s inexcusable for authorities to use this safe-or-dangerous interpretation,” he added. “I have lost count of the number of government-commissioned environmental reports that have used this fallacy. This practice should have ended years ago.”

In a commentary published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Professor Barnett cited recent environmental reports for the East-West road link in Melbourne and trains carrying coal in Queensland concluding that predicted pollution increases were ‘safe’ levels.

“Locals concerned about the potential health effects have found it difficult to get past the argument that the increases are below the standards and therefore everything is fine,” he said. “But any new project that increases air pollution will always mean an increase in illness.”

Professor Barnett is calling on Australian authorities to instead use thorough cost-benefit analyses of increased pollution levels in future environmental studies. He said the increased health problems could then be balanced against the economic and societal benefit of the new infrastructure or industry.

“Such cost-benefit analyses are not difficult to do and they will allow policy makers to make better-informed decisions based on the merits and costs of the project,” Professor Barnett said.

“Changes also need to be made to the National Environment Protection Measures (NEPM) documentation and web site to prominently state that the standards should not be used to judge whether individual projects are safe or dangerous.”

The health statistician has also recommended authorities better communicate the risks of air pollution to the public, including stating the estimated health impacts of existing pollution level categories.

“For example, the Victorian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gives hourly updates on air quality for 16 sites across the state,” Professor Barnett said.

“This was clear during the recent fire at Morwell where the particulate matter numbers peaked at over 550 µg/m3.

“To help interpret the numbers, the Victorian EPA has categorized and colour-coded the results into five categories from “very good” to “very poor”.

“However, these categories still do not have enough meaning for lay people, particularly when people want to know if they should change their behaviour in order to reduce their exposure.”

Professor Barnett’s analysis of death rates in Morwell following the 45-day Hazelwood coal fire revealed the resulting pollution caused an estimated 15 per cent increase in the local death rate, which translates to 11 to 14 premature deaths.

via Air pollution: There is no ‘safe’ level | Summit County Citizens Voice.

Emissions produced by human activity over the past 50 years have caused decline of the annual monsoon rainfall, on which billions of people – including in India – depend, a new study suggests.

Scientists found that emissions of tiny air particles from man-made sources, known as anthropogenic aerosols, were the cause. High levels of aerosols in the atmosphere cause heat from the Sun to be reflected back into space, lowering temperatures on the Earth’s surface and reducing rainfall. Levels of aerosol emissions have soared since the 1950s, with the most common sources being power stations and cars.In the second half of the 20th century, the levels of rain recorded during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer monsoon fell by as much as 10 percent, researchers said. Changes to global rainfall patterns can have serious consequences for human health and agriculture, they said.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh said their work provides clear evidence of human-induced rainfall change. Alterations to summer monsoon rainfall affect the lives of billions of people, mostly those living in India, South East Asia and parts of Africa.

The team calculated the average summer monsoon rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere between 1951 and 2005. They used computer-based climate models to quantify the impact of increasing aerosol emissions and greenhouse gases over the same period. They also took account of natural factors such as volcanic eruptions and climate variability to gauge the impact of human activity on the amount of monsoon rainfall.

Researchers say levels of man-made aerosols are expected to decline during the 21st century as countries begin adopting cleaner methods of power generation.

“This study shows for the first time that the drying of the monsoon over the past 50 years cannot be explained by natural climate variability and that human activity has played a significant role in altering the seasonal monsoon rainfall on which billions of people depend,” lead author Dr Debbie Polson, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, said.

The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

via Air pollution caused fall in monsoon rains, says study – Firstpost.