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from the you-can-breathe-as-long-as-you-don't-inhale dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Air pollution remains a silent killer in Massachusetts, responsible for an estimated 2,780 deaths a year and for measurable cognitive loss in Bay State children exposed to fine particulate pollutants in the air they breathe, according to a new study by researchers at Boston College's Global Observatory on Planetary Health.
The study was supported by the Barr Foundation and is the first to examine far-reaching public health consequences of air pollution in the state on a town-by-town basis. The study found air-pollution-related disease, death and IQ loss occur in every city and town regardless of demographics or income level. Highest rates were in the most economically disadvantaged and socially underserved cities and towns.
The Boston College team estimates the cumulative impact on childhood cognitive development in Massachusetts in 2019 was a loss of almost 2 million Performance IQ points, or more than 2 IQ points for the average child, according to the report, published today in the journal Environmental Health. IQ loss impairs children's school performance and reduces graduation rates, the team noted.
"We are talking about the impacts of air pollution at a very local level in Massachusetts—not just statewide," said lead author Boston College Professor of Biology Philip J. Landrigan, MD, director of the Observatory. "This report gives the people in every city and town the opportunity to see for themselves the quality of the air they and their families are breathing and the dangerous health implications for both adults and children as a consequence of air pollution."
"All of these health effects occurred at pollution levels below current EPA standards," Landrigan noted.
The average level of fine particulate pollution across Massachusetts in 2019 was 6.3 micrograms per cubic meter, and levels ranged from a low of 2.77 micrograms per cubic meter in Worcester County to a high of 8.26 in Suffolk County. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard is 12 micrograms per cubic meter, and the World Health Organization's recommended guideline is 5.
"Clearly, current EPA air pollution standards are not adequately protecting public health," Landrigan said.
Journal Reference:
Philip J. Landrigan, Samantha Fisher, Maureen E. Kenny, et al., A replicable strategy for mapping air pollution's community-level health impacts and catalyzing prevention [open], Environmental Health, 21, 2022. DOI: 10.1186/s12940-022-00879-3
(Score: 2, Funny) by ikanreed on Tuesday July 19 2022, @07:17PM (4 children)
How would you tell?
(Score: 5, Touché) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday July 19 2022, @08:04PM
Massachusetts isn't Mississippi, where you can't lose what you don't have.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday July 19 2022, @09:27PM (2 children)
We're slowly losing the gains we made by banning leaded gasoline.
There was already a mortality gap between red and blue counties BEFORE covid nuttiness! [scientificamerican.com]
Deregulation is literally killing people and damaging their brains and somehow the voters there love it!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 20 2022, @12:54AM (1 child)
Freedumbs!
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 20 2022, @12:47PM
> Freedumbs!
Thanks, it's good to be reminded of Freedom every now and then,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rynxqdNMry4 [youtube.com]
Crank it up, Richie is playing to a quarter of a million people.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday July 19 2022, @08:46PM (2 children)
Which is more concerning for the future of society: death, or significant IQ loss in our children?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 19 2022, @09:15PM (1 child)
Considering those who run society now came of age before about 1975 where they grew up in a developmental environment where they had high levels of lead in their system from leaded gasoline, how's their IQs working out for the rest of us?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday July 19 2022, @10:10PM
>how's their IQs working out for the rest of us?
Well, at least the violent streak didn't completely take over and start a Global Thermonuclear War... other than that, I can't think of too many good macro decisions that have been made lately.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 19 2022, @09:59PM (2 children)
Good News Everyone!
People would pay good money for fresh clean air.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 19 2022, @10:49PM (1 child)
Some Canuks started doing that a few years ago, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-vitality-air-sales-update-bottled-air-1.5073762 [www.cbc.ca]
Somehow I don't think they were the first...or the last.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday July 20 2022, @07:46PM
And coke sells tap water (branded as dasani iirc).
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday July 19 2022, @11:32PM
I'd like to see how the estimates changed if they went back and ran them for the last 50 years. My guess is we should be able to see a marked decrease in harm as a function of time. If it doesn't show that then I'd suspect something is squirrely with either the data or the model.
I say this as a person old enough to still instinctively ask for a non-smoking table at restaurants, and clearly remember when you'd need a gas mask if you drove on the interstate with the windows down. In the summer the NOx was bad enough that the city would be tinged yellow on the way down into the bowl. As a child there was a bridge I'd hold my breath as we crossed because the rendering plant stunk so bad. We've made astounding progress in air quality.