Air Quality

Air pollution kills around 7 million people every year, accounting for one in eight deaths worldwide, according to a report from the World Heath Organization (WHO) released March 25. Thankfully, the problem is getting more media attention.

The EPA tightened the PM2.5 standard because health experts keep finding impacts at lower levels than previously thought. “For health effects, the big one now is premature mortality,” said Scott Fruin, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California who studies PM2.5’s health impacts. “We see reduced life expectancy and higher chances of developing cardiovascular disease in places where the standard isn’t met.”

A recent study conducted by the Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles has found that people who commute by road inhale more pollution while driving than during the entire day. The research was conducted in Los Angeles, where an average driver spends 1.5 hours behind the wheel. This 90 minute period is responsible for the person’s intake of 33 to 45 percent of his total exposure to diesel fumes and ultrafine particles (UFP), said the study report.

This reference resource, in atlas format, is an online-only compendium of maps and data sets accompanied by multimedia elements designed to illustrate key concepts in green issues and environmentalism graphically and interactively. Topics for the maps presented in this work were selected from articles in the 12-volume SAGE Reference Series on Green Society: Toward a Sustainable Future. Each map includes links to one or more of the series articles. Maps include interactive components, with clickable icons to deliver the data and statistics that make up each map.

“If you’re 100 meters from the freeway or 500 meters from the freeway, there’s a total difference in your level of exposure,” said Suzanne Paulson, a professor of atmospheric chemistry and director of the Center for Clean Air at UCLA. Read more

We believe that the process of unconventional fossil fuel development including shale tight oil and gas development in the Monterey Shale formation using hydraulic fracturing, acidization, and other forms of well stimulation will exacerbate many of these environmental threats, particularly climate disruption, local air and water pollution, and resource consumption. Thus, the decisions you make about the development of unconventional oil and gas production from shale in California will hold important consequences for California and the state’s future.

Most likely the items in your home or office came from overseas. Today's report focuses on the question how those products got to you, and what is the impact on the environment and workers?

Abstract: Current literature is insufficient to make causal inferences or establish dose-response relationships for traffic-related ultrafine particles (UFPs) and cardiovascular (CV) health. The Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health (CAFEH) is a cross-sectional study of the relationship between UFP and biomarkers of CV risk. CAFEH uses a community-based participatory research framework that partners university researchers with community groups and residents. Our central hypothesis is that chronic exposure to UFP is associated with changes in biomarkers.