Daily Dose of Air Pollution: October 2013

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Air Pollution Causes Lung Cancer and Kills 223,000 People Every Year (WHO)

The air many of us breathe poses serious health risks, the World Health Organization says. On Thursday, it added cancer to the list.

Full article on CNN.

Air pollution is a now officially a carcinogen, and there are no caveats about the new classification.

"We know that it is causing cancer in humans," said spokesman Kurt Straif.

In 2010, lung cancer resulting from air pollution took the lives of 223,000 people worldwide. As pollution levels climb, so will the rate of cancer, the WHO said.

And there is only one way to stop it: Clean up the air.

"We can't treat ourselves out of this cancer problem," said Chris Wild, who heads the WHO's cancer research wing, the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Cleaner air would also have other health benefits. Air pollution increases the risk of bladder cancer, the IARC said. It has been known for a while that it contributes to heart disease and respiratory ailments.

The problem is global, but people in developing countries with large populations and booming manufacturing sectors with few pollution controls are said to be particularly at risk.

"The predominant sources of outdoor air pollution are transportation, stationary power generation, industrial and agricultural emissions, and residential heating and cooking," the IARC said.

Outdoor dust can also contribute to cancer.

The agency decided upon the official classification of outdoor air pollution as carcinogenic after reviewing the latest scientific writings and coming to the conclusion that the evidence was ample.

The classification is an important step, said Dr. Christopher Wild, director of the IARC.

"There are effective ways to reduce air pollution and, given the scale of the exposure affecting people worldwide, this report should send a strong signal to the international community to take action without further delay."

The IARC called air pollution the most widespread environmental carcinogen and the worst.

Air Pollution News and Alerts - October 17th, 2013

Last on September 13th, 2013

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Congestion Problems on the Road - Commuter Pain Survey

The survey results reflect an increased willingness to use public transportation and technology to improve the commute. Overall, 41 percent believe improved public transit would help reduce traffic congestion. Consider that even though globally only 35 percent of people changed the way that they get to work or school in the last year, 45 percent of those who have are opting for public transit. An astonishing 70 percent of Nairobi residents report taking public transit more often in the last year on their daily commute. The biggest movement to public transit is in emerging cities including Nairobi, Mexico City, Shenzhen, Buenos Aires and Beijing. If this continues, it could help mitigate increasing traffic due to population growth and urbanization. Interestingly, the desire for more accurate and timely information about road conditions as a way to reduce stress was shared across a number of cities from Los Angeles and Chicago to Moscow and Bangalore.

Poisonous Air in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

If you live in Ulaanbaatar, take a whiff. Do you smell that? The smell of winter – the smoke that chokes your throat and hurts your nasal cavity. “Winter is coming,” – literally.

Full article from UB Post, October 8th, 2013

Mongolia’s winter is one of the deadliest in the world. The smoke and fumes caused by ger district residents burning raw coal in century-old stoves, fuming cars, and power plants struggling to keep heating and energy in place, are responsible for one in ten deaths in Ulaanbaatar, according to a study conducted by Simon Fraser University’s Ryan Allen in 2011.

“Ulaanbaatar hasn’t received as much attention as some of Asia’s mega-cities, but the air pollution there is as bad as anywhere in the world,” says Allen, an assistant environmental health professor with Canada’s Simon Fraser University. Ulaanbaatar’s “harmful dust” is six to seven times higher than the most lenient World Health Organization standards, making it one of the most polluted capital cities in the world today.

When breathing, the lungs of Ulaanbaatar citizens, especially those living in ger districts act like air filters, catching and storing the harmful dust which scientists call “particulate matter” (PM). PM smaller than 2.5 microns or “PM2.5” can cause severe respiratory illnesses.

“The environment’s impacts on health are often overlooked, but we found that one in 10 deaths in Ulaanbaatar can be attributed to air pollution. That far exceeds the number of deaths in the city caused by things that people may be more familiar with, such as traffic accidents.”

That was two years ago, and official statistical data says that around 15 thousand people move in to the steaming capital every year from provincial areas and foreign countries. But another study also showed that one in four people moving to Ulaanbaatar from rural areas change their addresses frequently, so the actual number of people moving into the capital city is probably much higher.

Why is this relevant? Because people moving from rural areas, more often than not, set up residence in the ger districts, which have no access to central heating, water and sanitation. Ger districts produce as much as 70 to 90 percent of the air pollution in the winter. There are many other contributing factors though, such as the number of cars on the streets, and Soviet era power plants still limping along to supply power to the capital.

So just how bad is Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution rate? A newly-published report by the World Bank presents findings on Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution and its impact on health. Air pollution was monitored year round in Ulaanbaatar’s ger areas for the first time during the study. The calculated exposure of the population to PM2.5 was found to be, on average throughout the year, 10 times higher than Mongolian Air Quality Standards and six to seven times higher than the most lenient World Health Organization targets.

According to the World Bank report, Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution comes from many sources – dust from the desert, unpaved roads and open soil surfaces, lack of vegetation, ash and emissions from coal stoves, power plants, boilers, and vehicles… But coal and wood burning by the 175,000 households in ger areas, used for cooking and heating, contributes to the severity of air pollution in wintertime – summer air pollution is much lower than in winter.

Thankfully, the air pollution issue has been getting some attention from international organizations and the government alike. The government spends billions and billions of MNT to fight pollution by making “clean” stoves, supporting renewable energy, funding construction of “affordable” apartments (which backfired badly by increasing demands for construction material which resulted in even higher housing prices), and developing medical programs for respiratory diseases in infants and children, who are most vulnerable to poor air quality.

International organizations, including Millennium Challenge Corporation, Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, along with donor funds from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, UNDP/UNEP, the Netherlands, France, Korea as well as the World Bank, are working with the Mongolian government to find solutions to reduce pollution.

An immediate solution has never been found for this particular issue. Even as far back as the early ’90s, the air pollution rate was still a concern. It’s been more than 20 years, and yet the situation is getting worse every year. Air pollution is responsible for one in ten deaths in Ulaanbaatar. It is the worst killer in town, and it’s free to roam the city to find fresh victims. It kills slowly and painfully, and there’s little to protect against it, so long as you are in Ulaanbaatar. It’s a formidable foe working against the capital, and drastic measures are required to fight it off.

In the foreseeable future, this issue will remain. Until ger districts are gone, cars run on smokeless engines, and power plants are green, grab a gas mask and get ready for winter.