WEATHER | DISEASE | WATER | HUNGER | AIR POLLUTION | ALLERGIES
Exposure to air pollution can aggravate chronic respiratory and cardiovascular disease, damage lung tissue, lead to premature death, and may even contribute to cancer. Global warming may exacerbate these problems by affecting the concentration, distribution, and type of both manmade and natural air pollutants.
Ozone levels, for example, are likely to rise because increased temperatures accelerate the rate at which ground-level ozone (the main component of smog) is formed. While long-term exposure to ozone is linked to the development and exacerbation of chronic lung diseases, even short-term exposure to relatively low ozone concentrations can cause lung inflammation, decreased lung function, and respiratory impairment. A 2004 study using global warming and air quality models in the 31-county New York metropolitan region projected a median increase of ozone-related acute mortality across the region by mid-century. While both air pollutant emissions and ambient pollutant concentrations have generally fallen since passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act, as recently as 2002 approximately 146 million people in the United States lived in counties that did not meet air quality standards for at least one regulated pollutant.
The byproducts of fossil fuel combustion, including airborne particulate matter, sulfur oxides, and nitrogen oxides, are associated with a number of well-established health risks. Consequently, the continued use of fossil fuels would not only increase CO2 emissions and global warming, but would be mirrored by a rise in the harmful effects of these combustion byproducts.
Exposure to pollution from coal-fired power plants can lead to a number of serious health problems. Short-term exposures irritate the airways, cause difficulty breathing, and aggravate cardiopulmonary diseases such as asthma, coronary artery and cerebrovascular diseases, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Long-term exposure is associated with reduced lung function, the development of chronic bronchitis, and premature mortality.
Nationally, coal-fired power plant pollution causes 24,000 deaths each year, which is more than the number killed by drunk drivers. The pollution also causes 38,200 heart attacks and an additional number of strokes each year. In a 1997 study by the World Health Organization and the World Resources Institute, it was estimated that 700,000 avoidable deaths worldwide will occur annually due to particulate matter pollution by 2020.
In recognizing the link between CO2 emissions and particulate matter pollution, researchers have estimated that adoption of existing, readily acquirable global warming mitigation technologies would reduce particulate matter concentrations by 10 percent, thus avoiding 64,000 premature deaths and 65,000 chronic bronchitis cases through 2020 in four cities alone—New York City, Santiago, Mexico City, and São Paulo. These studies demonstrate that actions aimed at mitigating the atmospheric accumulation of global warming gases would have the additional benefit of reducing the adverse health effects associated with a range of air pollutants.
In addition to CO2, coal-burning power plants are the single largest source of mercury pollution in the United States. When coal is burned at a power plant, mercury is released from the smoke stack and is ultimately deposited on land and in our rivers, streams, and marine environment. Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about human exposure to mercury. Most human exposure to mercury is through dietary intake of contaminated fish, such as tuna, swordfish, bass, trout, walleye, pike, catfish, yellow perch, and other sport fish. Mercury accumulates in fish in a severely toxic form known as methyl mercury.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that as many as seven million adults and children are regularly eating mercury-contaminated fish at levels above those considered safe by health experts. Mercury exposure at toxic levels can cause damage to vision, coordination, nervous system and brain function in adults and children. In addition, fetuses are particularly vulnerable to mercury poisoning, which can inhibit development and cause severe birth defects. Pregnant women are advised against eating fish with elevated levels of mercury both before and during gestation.
Over 40 states, including the State of New Mexico, are now issuing fish consumption advisories warning consumers not to eat fish caught in certain lakes, streams, and other bodies of water. The last decade has shown a steady, nationwide increase in the percentage of bodies of water under fish consumption advisories for mercury. New coal-fired power plants that do not incorporate rigorous mercury reduction technologies could exacerbate the problem.
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