[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Study Links Smog Increases to Urban U.S. Deaths
>From what I've learned on Radsafe, it is clear that this study should be
discredited since it does not account for possible confounding factors such
as:
Radon levels, pollen counts, beer consumption, sexual frequency, atmospheric
pressure, Dow-Jones averages, astrological signs, etc., etc. etc, etc.------
----- Original Message -----
From: Flood, John <FloodJR@NV.DOE.GOV>
To: 'Susan Gawarecki' <loc@icx.net>; RadSafe <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>
Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 1:36 PM
Subject: RE: Study Links Smog Increases to Urban U.S. Deaths
> OK, I'll bite on this one.
>
> "Ground-level ozone typically increases when temperatures rise."
>
> AND
>
> "this study provides strong evidence of short-term effects of ozone on
> mortality," said Francesca Dominici, an author of the study."
>
> Have they found a relationship between ozone concentration and the
> short-term mortality rate, or have they actually found a relationship
> between temperature and the short-term mortality rate, where the ozone
> concentration is a surrogate measure for temperature changes?
>
> Bob Flood
> Nevada Test Site
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Susan Gawarecki [mailto:loc@icx.net]
> Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 12:04 PM
> To: RadSafe
> Subject: Study Links Smog Increases to Urban U.S. Deaths
>
> Imagine the outcry if nuclear power could be linked to even a fraction
> of this number of deaths annually.
>
> Susan Gawarecki
>
> Study Links Smog Increases to Urban U.S. Deaths
> http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=398
> November 17, 2004 By Michael Conlon, Reuters
>
> CHICAGO - Increases in air pollution caused by cars, power plants and
> industry can be directly linked to higher death rates in U.S. cities, a
> study said Tuesday.
>
> Reducing such ozone pollution by about 35 percent on any given day could
> save about 4,000 lives a year across the country, researchers at the
> Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies said.
>
> The conclusion came from a look at 95 urban areas where about 40 percent
> of the U.S. population lives, comparing spikes in ozone pollution there
> with death rates from 1987 to 2000.
>
> Ground-level ozone typically increases when temperatures rise. While
> short-term increases have been recognized as causing jumps in hospital
> admissions, especially among those with chronic respiratory problems,
> there have been inconsistent results from studies tying them to
> mortality rates, the authors said.
>
> "By linking day-to-day variations in ambient ozone levels and daily
> number of deaths in each of the urban areas, and pooling the results
> across the 95 urban areas, this study provides strong evidence of
> short-term effects of ozone on mortality," said Francesca Dominici, an
> author of the study.
>
> "This is one of the largest ozone pollution studies ever conducted,"
> added Michelle Bell, the lead author. "This actually underestimates the
> total impact of ozone on mortality, because it only captures the
> mortality impact associated with high ozone levels in the past few days,
> not the impact associated with a lifetime exposure to high ozone
> levels," she said.
>
> "This reduction of ozone is modest given available technology," she added.
>
> The government-financed study, published in this week's Journal of the
> American Medical Association, found that an increase of 10 parts per
> billion in ozone pollution in the previous week was associated with an
> increase of 0.52 percent in the daily death rate and specifically with a
> 0.64 percent increase in cardiovascular and respiratory-related deaths.
>
> People aged 65 to 74 had a slightly higher increase in the death rate,
> at 0.70 percent.
>
> The 10 parts per billion increase would correspond to an additional 319
> annual premature deaths in New York City and 3,767 premature deaths
> annually for the other urban communities, the study concluded.
>
> Ozone pollution can be reduced by lowering energy consumption through
> such things as car pooling and using public transportation.
>
> The authors said the 10 parts per billion figure chosen a unit for the
> study has no special significance in itself other than that it helps
> demonstrate that higher ozone is associated with higher mortality.
>
> While ground-level ozone is considered a hazard stratospheric ozone is
> not because it helps protect the Earth from harmful solar rays.
>
> Source: Reuters
>
>
> ************************************************************************
> You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To
> unsubscribe, send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the
> text "unsubscribe radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail,
> with no subject line. You can view the Radsafe archives at
> http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/
>
>
> ************************************************************************
> You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To
> unsubscribe, send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the
> text "unsubscribe radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail,
> with no subject line. You can view the Radsafe archives at
> http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/
>
************************************************************************
You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To
unsubscribe, send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the
text "unsubscribe radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail,
with no subject line. You can view the Radsafe archives at
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/
************************************************************************
You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To
unsubscribe, send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the
text "unsubscribe radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail,
with no subject line. You can view the Radsafe archives at
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/