Emissions Cuts Save Lives, New Study Says

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@ICX.NET>]

Draw your own conclusions, the article doesn't mention the obvious one.



--Susan Gawarecki



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Emissions Cuts Save Lives, New Study Says 

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Reducing air pollution would improve health



By Solana Pyne

STAFF WRITER



August 17, 2001



Cutting emissions of greenhouse gases will not only help stall predicted

global warming but will save lives almost immediately by reducing air

pollution, researchers report in today's issue of the journal Science.



The researchers examined health effects of reducing greenhouse gas

emissions in New York City; Mexico City; Santiago, Chile; and Sao Paulo,

Brazil. They found that using readily available technologies to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions would also cut emissions of pollutants, because

both are released when fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas

are burned. Those reductions would prevent 64,000 premature deaths,

65,000 cases of chronic bronchitis and 37 million person-days of

restricted activity in just those four cities over the next 19 years,

the report said. A "person-day" refers to one day of activity for one

person.



The air in New York is generally cleaner than in the other three cities,

said George Thurston, a co- author of the paper and an associate

professor of environmental medicine at New York University School of

Medicine. However, the city's pollution is proportionally more toxic, he

said, because it contains a greater proportion of smaller pollutants,

which

tend to cause more health damage. 



In the United States, reducing emissions from older coal-fired power

plants could save 18,700 lives and prevent 3 million lost workdays and

16 million restrained-activity days each year, according to estimates

the researchers cited in the paper.



The recent study looks at the climate debate from an angle different

from most. Many of the common arguments for slashing emissions of

greenhouse gases focus on avoiding the potentially apocalyptic, but less

immediate, effects of global climate change: flooding, landslides,

frequent and severe hurricanes, among other catastrophic environmental

damage.



The strategies the researchers of the study examined to reduce the

emissions of greenhouse gases and pollution are not extreme, Thurston

said. "A lot of it is just Yankee common sense, like trying to use more

efficient modes of transportation."



The so-called ancillary benefits associated with lower pollution could

also make reducing greenhouse gas emissions more economical, because so

much would be saved in health care costs, Thurston said. Developing

countries also might decrease greenhouse gas emissions while aiming to

clean their air.



Developing countries such as China, which generates 80 percent of its

energy from coal-fired plants, and India "are concerned with air

pollutants," said Dale Jorgenson, a professor of economics at Harvard

University. "They have a great desire to improve their own air quality.

They will therefore be paying attention to the ancillary benefits issue

with a view toward improving air quality."



The major pollutants - carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen

oxides, sulfur dioxide and tiny particles called particulate matter -

are all released as fossil fuels are burned. 



All can damage health, though the subtle health effects have not been

rigorously studied in all cases. 



This study looked only at the effects of particulate matter and ozone.

Ozone forms when pollutants and other compounds mix in the atmosphere,

and it is linked to asthma and lung problems. 



Copyright (c) 2001, Newsday, Inc. 



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This article originally appeared at:

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hsgas172318465aug17.story 



Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com

-- 

.....................................................

Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director

Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee

                       -----                       

A schedule of meetings on DOE issues is posted on our Web site

http://www.local-oversight.org/meetings.html - E-mail loc@icx.net

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