Re: Deaths from fossil fuel burning air pollution

["ruth_weiner" <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com>]

I have no doubt -- nor does anyone -- that cleaner air results in less
bronchitis, less respiratory distress, fewer asthma attacks,  and so on, or
even that severe air pollution episodes cause an increase of deaths of
people with already impaired respiratory health (though this is usually in
the elderly, and not children).  Also, NO ONE is arguing against cleaning
the air or, if your will, for dirty air.

What is questioned is the relationship of air pollutant concentration  to
deaths (and "prospective deaths" whatever they are), which seems to apply
similar fuzzy reasoning to the latent cancer fatalities projected from
accumulated exposure to very small amounts of ionizing radiation.  Just as
we don't countenance anti-nuke exaggerations just because Greenpeace does
them in Europe as well as in the US, the claim of 40,000 European deaths is
no more nor less open to question than the claim of 60,000 US deaths.

Ruth Weiner
ruth_weiner@msn.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Leo M. Lowe <llowe@senes.on.ca>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 2:36 PM
Subject: Re: Deaths from fossil fuel burning air pollution


>The recent discussions on this topic have focused on estimates of potential
>health impacts from air pollution in the U.S.
>
>However, studies in Europe also point to significant estimated impacts.
>According to a recent article in the British Medical Journal on the
>beneficial effects of reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) (2 December 2000, p.
>1367), initial results from a study of eight Italian cities suggest that
>4.7% of total mortality - 3500 deaths annually in a population of 11
>million - is attributable to air pollution.  Also, researchers in
>Switzerland, Austria and France claim that 6% of deaths in these countries
>are due to air pollution, amounting to 40,000 deaths annually.
>
>The point of the article is that reducing GHG also results in cleaner air
>(lower particulate matter PM), thus producing immediate health benefits  -
>not just the long-term benefits of lower GHG levels.  For example, the
>cleaner air in the former East Germany has resulted in a reduction in the
>prevalence of bronchitis in children in direct relation to the reduced
>concentrations of PM.
>
>
>
>Leo M. Lowe, Ph.D.
>Principal, Senior Health and
>Environmental Physicist
>
>SENES Consultants Limited
>121 Granton Drive, Unit 12
>Richmond Hill, Ontario
>Canada L4B 3N4
>Tel: (905) 764-9380
>Fax: (905) 764-9386
>email: llowe@senes.on.ca
>WWW: www.senes.on.ca
>************************************************************************
>The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
>information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html



************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html