Katie's STREET DIRT

Moving to TWITTER Feed @streetdirtph

2011-04-07T17:44:00.000-07:00

Have concluded that Twitter is a better vehicle for the material I post here, which is mostly links to information detailed elsewhere with terse descriptions. Please come follow this info stream on Twitter under @streetdirtph.

Air pollution causes California millions in excess medical costs annually

2010-03-03T22:33:00.000-08:00

Rand study attributes $193 million in excess medical care costs for conditions such as asthma and pneumonia to ozone and particulates.

Click on blog post title to jump to source report on Physorg.com.

Teamsters, environmentalists agree ports should green trucks

2010-02-27T23:06:00.000-08:00

Older, dirtier diesel engines used in trucking freight on-site at US ports need replacement to
curb emissions and protect air quality. Teamsters and environmentalists have allied to get that cost burden born by ports rather than driver/operators, who are mostly treated as independent contractors rather than port employees.

Click on blog post title to jump to source report on the NY Times.

Vegetated Buffers Work to Protect Streams

2010-02-17T17:20:00.000-08:00

...but they need to be flat (i.e. slope < 10%) and treed. Types of soil were not significant. Survey of published research focussed on buffers between streams and ag uses, but creates a reasonable but rebuttable presumption that they work between streams and other uses.

Click on blog post title to jump to source article at Physorg.com.

EPA issues draft of stronger ozone standard

2010-01-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

Says NY Times: "Agency analysts project that if the stricter standard is adopted, as many as 12,000 premature deaths per year from heart or lung diseases could be avoided, along with thousands of cases of bronchitis, asthma and nonfatal heart attacks."

Click blog post title to jump to ozone actions page on EPA's web site.

Tugboats dragging air quality anchor

2009-10-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

Tugboats remain generators of disproportionate amounts of dirty petroleum product exhaust.

Waterless Car Wash and Polish from Mary Moppins

2009-10-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

Unless you go to a carwash that filters and reuses their water, car washing wastes and dirties lots of water. This product is produced for an eco-friendly cleaning products designer, Mary Moppins. Works great. Saves water.

Disclosure: I am a retail customer of the Mary Moppins business and have received swag from her.

Mother's air pollution exposure before birth linked to lower childhood IQ

2009-07-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

"Prenatal exposure to environmental pollutants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can adversely affect a child's intelligence quotient or IQ, according to new research by the the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public Health. PAHs are chemicals released into the air from the burning of coal, diesel, oil and gas, or other organic substances such as tobacco. In urban areas motor vehicles are a major source of PAHs."

Click blog post title to jump Science Daily's report.

International accord to limit shipping emissions falters

2009-07-17T14:43:00.000-07:00

Roger Harrabin, BBC environment analyst, says, "Plans to reduce rising emissions from global shipping have faltered at a key international meeting." A fuel surcharge is proposed to fund technology improvements, but rich and poor countries fail to agree. Shipping is a huge source of particulates and carbon emissions.

Click on blog post title to jump to source report from BBC.

EPA moving on air impact of big ocean cargo ships

2009-07-10T21:15:00.000-07:00

If this comes to pass, break out the champagne, because it is a huge step forward.

Click on the title of this post to jump to an excellent article by Michael Graham Richard in Treehugger.

The new regulations are projected to annually eliminate "about 1.2 million tons of NOx and 143,000 tons of particulate matter (PM)" by 2030. Says Richard, "Just 15 of the world's biggest ships may now emit as much pollution as all the world's 760m cars."

Another report: "Mitigating the Health Impacts of Pollution from Oceangoing Shipping: An Assessment of Low-Sulfur Fuel Mandates," in an Environmental Science & Technology special focus issue on particulates and human health, estimates that cleaner shipping fuels could reduce excess deaths from this particulate pollution by 40,000 annually.

NYC soot plagues interior designers

2009-07-04T00:40:00.000-07:00

Whites, beiges and creams that perpetually sell well in interior design industries challenge New York City residents due to sooty air pollutants.

Read all about by clicking on the blog post title to jump to the original story in the NY Times (requires registration).

Premature birth and preeclampsia linked to smog

2009-06-30T23:40:00.000-07:00

Women living within three kilometers of a busy LA roadway experienced substantial increases in premature births and preeclampsia than women living farther from traffic, reports Environmental Health Perspectives.

Click on blog post title to jump to source report at Treehugger.com.

Pollutants drift farther than thought from freeways

2009-06-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

This California study found that air pollution from traffic drifted far further than previously believed from freeways. During pre-dawn and post-sunset periods, air pollution from traffic was found as far as 1.5 miles from its source. Such pollution has definite public health impacts.

Click on blog post title to jump to source report at Physorg.com.

DNA damage from particulates requires only short exposures

2009-05-18T22:33:00.000-07:00

Tumor suppressor genes were compromised after only three days of airborne particulate exposure in this study.

Oregon project reduces diesel exhaust impact from road construction.

2009-05-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

Old technology diesel busses, construction equipment and other fleet equipment operated by public agencies in the Portland metro area and Lane county, Oregon, will get retrofitted to reduce diesel emissions under a new Department of Environmental Quality program. Funds come from federal and state economic stimulus programs.

Click on blog post title to jump to Oregon Daily Journal of Commerce report which includes comments by Kevin Downing, DEQ program administrator for the Oregon Clean Diesel Initiative.

Smog once again linked to incidence of childhood asthma

2009-05-03T18:48:00.000-07:00

A study published in Environmental Health Perspectives adds to the weight of evidence linking air pollution from traffic to the incidence of new child asthma cases. Researchers placed air quality monitoring equipment in homes with children. NO2 readings correlated with new childhood asthma cases.

Pavement sealcoat generates stormwater pollution

2009-04-08T21:11:00.000-07:00

UNH scientists have established that widely used pavement sealcoats release substantial amounts of carcinogenic PAH's to stormwater. Sealcoating is a widely used practice that improves the appearance of aged asphalt pavement and is thought to improve its longevity.

Click on blog post title to jump to the full UNH press release.

Sac Bee on $1 billion CA diesel upgrade program

2009-03-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

The state of California has created a one billion dollar program to upgrade heavy diesel equipment and thereby improve air quality, reports the Sacramento Bee.

Click on blog post title to jump to Sac Bee report.

Oregon bills propose to protect kids from school bus deisel exhaust

2009-03-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

Bills in the Oregon house of representatives this year propose to protect kids from diesel exhaust exposure they get riding on old technology, under-maintained school buses. Multiple adverse health impacts are associated with diesel exhaust exposure, including an increase lifetime cancer risk. Getting old technology, under-maintained diesel fueled vehicles replaced is the most effective strategy for reducing diesel exhaust exposures.

Click on blog post title to jump to Oregonian article.

450,000 person study links ozone to respiratory death

2009-03-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

People who live in areas with high ozone air pollution are about 30% more likely to die of respiratory diseases than people who live elsewhere. Ozone is generated from petroleum fueled vehicle exhaust. The study lasted 18 years. It was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Click on blog post title to jump to brief NPR report.

Or, see report with more detail from the LA Times.

Heavy traffic exposure in previous hour stongly linked to heart attack onset

2009-03-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

A German study reported at the American Heart Association’s 49th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention found that heart attack patients were more than three times as likely as controls to report having been in heavy traffic within the hour before the onset of the attack. There was a lesser but still significant correlation between heavy traffic exposure within the previous six hours. The effect was stronger for women, elderly men, and angina patients. The effect was found among drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.

Click on blog post title to jump to fuller report at Science Daily.

Diesel exhaust effects on arteries helped by face masks

2009-03-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

New research from the University of Edinburgh published in Particle and Fibre Toxicology reproduces previous findings that acute exposure to diesel exhaust stiffens artery walls:

"Acute exposure to diesel exhaust is associated with an immediate and transient increase in arterial stiffness. This may, in part, explain the increased risk for cardiovascular disease associated with air pollution exposure".

In addition, these researchers found that particle-filtering masks reduced the artery-stiffening effect.

Click on blog post title to jump to Physorg.com report with additional links.

EPA particulate standards sent back to woodshed by court

2009-02-28T16:33:00.000-08:00

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled against the EPA in regard to current federal standards for airborne particulates. Airborne particulates are generated in substantial quantities by older fossil fuel burning technologies, such as diesel truck engines. The connection between traffic, especially truck traffic, and these air pollutants is well known. Airborne particulates, especially the smallest of them, referred to as PM10, damage human health. Failing to properly regulate these pollutants has the effect of protecting older, worse-polluting technologies that need to be replaced, and causes increased respiratory and heart disease-related mortality and morbidity.

Click on blog post title to jump to source article from the NY Times.

Shipping traffic generates substantial portion of transportation-generated particulates.

2009-02-26T13:53:00.000-08:00

The huge, low-tech fossil fuel consumption which powers ocean-going shipping fleets contributes half as much particulate pollution to the atmosphere as vehicle traffic. Since most of this activity is within 250 miles of shore, human health impacts are inevitable.

Click on blog post title to jump to Physorg.com report.

Pre-natal harm from traffic pollution

2009-02-18T21:36:00.000-08:00

Umbilical cord blood from new babies gestated in high traffic areas showed epi-genetic changes attributable to PAH exposures. PAHs or poly-aromatic hydrocarbons are products of incomplete heavy petroleum product combustion which are associated with cancer and asthma. This research was reported by scientists from the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in PLOS1.

Click on blog post title to jump to the coverage in Physorg.com.