Utah Moms for Clean Air

Breathing in air pollution from traffic fumes can raise the risk of potentially deadly blood clots, a US study says.

Exposure to small particulates - tiny chemicals caused by burning fossil fuels - is known to increase the chances of heart disease and stroke.
But the Harvard School of Public Health found it also affected development of deep vein thrombosis - blood clots in the legs - in a study of 2,000 people.
Researchers said the pollution made the blood more sticky and likely to clot.The team looked at people living in Italy - nearly 900 of whom developed DVT.
Blood clots which form in the legs can travel to the lungs, where they can become lodged, triggering a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism. The risk of DVT is known to be increased by long periods of immobility. In particular, passengers on long-haul flights have been shown to be vulnerable, but so are people who spend long periods of time sitting at their office desk without exercising, or walking around.

Researchers obtained pollution readings from the areas they lived and found those exposed to higher levels of small particulates in the year before diagnosis were more likely to develop blood clots.The Archives of Internal Medicine report said for every 10 microgrammes per square metre increase in small particulates, the risk of developing a DVT went up by 70%. Air quality guidelines generally state that small particulate concentrations should not exceed 50 microgrammes. Lead researcher Dr Andrea Baccarelli said: “Given the magnitude of the effects, our findings introduce a novel and common risk factor into the development of DVT.

“And, at the same time, they give further substance to the call for tighter standards and continued efforts aimed at reducing the impact of urban air pollutants on human health.”
Dr Beverley Hunt, medical director of the DVT charity Lifeblood, said: “We have known for some time that air pollution has been associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke. “This study shows for the very first time that air pollution also increases the risk of clots in the veins and tells us why. “It’s an exciting finding because air quality is something we can improve on through tightening air quality legislation.”

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7396733.stm

By Janet Wilson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 22, 2008

As many as 24,000 deaths annually in California are linked to chronic exposure to fine particulate pollution, triple the previous official
estimate of 8,200, according to state researchers. The revised figures are based on a review of new research across the nation about the
hazards posed by microscopic particles, which sink deep into the lungs.

“Our report concludes these particles are 70% more dangerous than previously thought, based on several major studies that have occurred in
the last five years,” said Bart Croes, chief researcher for the California Air Resources Board. Croes will present his findings at a board meeting in Fresno this morning.

The studies, including one by USC tracking 23,000 people in greater Los Angeles, and another by the American Cancer Society monitoring 300,000
people across the United States, have found rates of heart attacks, strokes and other serious disease increase exponentially after exposure
to even slightly higher amounts of metal or dust. It is difficult to attribute individual deaths to particulate pollution, Croes conceded, but he said long-term studies that account for smoking, obesity and other risks have increasingly zeroed in on fine particulate pollution as a killer.

“There’s no death certificate that says specifically someone died of air pollution, but cities with higher rates of air pollution have much
greater rates of death from cardiovascular diseases,” he said.

Californians exposed to high levels of fine particulates had their lives cut short on average by 10 years, the board staff found. Researchers
also found that when particulates are cut even temporarily, death rates fall. “When Dublin imposed a coal ban, when Hong Kong imposed reductions
in sulfur dioxide, when there was a steel mill strike in Utah . . . they saw immediate reductions in deaths,” Croes said.

More measures will be needed, air board officials said, including eventually lowering the maximum permissible levels of soot statewide.
California already has the lowest thresholds in the world, at 12 micrograms per cubic meter, but researchers say no safe level of exposure has been found. More regulations are being drafted, including one requiring cleaner heavy-duty trucks.

“We must work even harder to cut short these life-shortening emissions,” Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said in a statement.

Clean air advocates said they would be watching closely.

“These numbers are shocking; they’re incredible,” said Tim Carmichael, senior policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air, a statewide
group. He and others said the board must strengthen a soot clean-up plan submitted to them by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control
District. A hearing and vote on the plan is scheduled for today.

Numerous Central Valley public health groups wrote Nichols this week, urging bans on the use of industrial equipment on bad air days, tougher
controls on boilers and crop drying equipment, and other action. The economic cost attributed to premature deaths and illnesses linked to
particulate exposure in the Central Valley has been estimated at $3 billion a year, and $70 billion statewide, according to separate studies. Those figure are expected to be revised upward based on the new report.

For more information:
Deborah Shprentz
Consultant to the American Lung Association
703-437-0959
dshprentz@hers.com
www.cleanairstandards.org

Utah Moms for Clean Air is extremely disappointed with the EPA’s new ozone standard. In spite of overwhelming scientific evidence and the unanimous advice of its own expert panel to set a more stringent standard, the EPA chose to do otherwise. According to the Clean Air Act, the EPA’s sole consideration in setting air quality standards is the protection of the public’s health. The EPA has acted in blatant disregard of this mandate and the new standard fails to go far enough to protect the public, especially our children and those who are predisposed to respiratory illnesses.

Last summer, members of Utah Moms for Clean Air, educated hundreds of Utah’s citizens about Utah’s ozone problem, how it impacts their health, and what they can do about it. As ozone season approaches, we are readying ourselves to do this again. Yet, no matter how hard we work at educating the public, it will never be enough. Today, we needed the support of the federal government to provide an ozone standard that adequately protects the public’s health. Unfortunately, they failed us. During the recent 2008 Session of the Utah Legislature, we saw our State’s Representatives and Senators take it upon themselves to craft legislation in areas inadequately addressed by federal law. Utah Moms for Clean Air would like to call upon our State’s lawmakers to do the same in 2009, this time focusing on cleaning up our air.

Michelle Hoffman, MD, MPH
Utah Moms for Clean Air Co-Founder

***************

Press Release from American Academy of Pediatrics
March 12, 2008

EPA’S NEW OZONE STANDARD STILL LEAVES CHILDREN’S HEALTH AT RISK
Statement by American Academy of Pediatrics President Renée R. Jenkins, MD, FAAP

“The Environmental Protection Agency has missed a real opportunity to protect children’s health with today’s decision to reduce the ozone standard from its current 0.08 parts per million (ppm) to 0.075 ppm. While any reduction in air pollution is a step in the right direction, EPA’s new ozone standard—the first in a decade—fails to go far enough.

“The science is clear: Ozone pollution harms children. Critical parts of a child’s lungs don’t develop until after birth and the lungs continue to develop well into adolescence. In addition, children breathe in more air pollution than adults simply by the fact that children breathe at a more rapid rate, spend more time outdoors and have higher levels of physical activity than adults. Ozone exposure can cause short-term health problems including shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing, coughing and inflammation of the lungs, and has been linked to such chronic health problems as asthma.

“The AAP, along with other health and environmental experts—including the EPA’s own Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee—had urged the EPA to lower the ozone standard to below 0.070 ppm at least, and preferably to 0.060 ppm. That would have, in effect, required cities across America to scrub pollutants out of the air and provide a healthier environment for children of all ages, ranging from infants with barely developed lungs taking their first breath to adolescents competing in sports.

“Our children deserve clean air. The AAP, which represents 60,000 pediatricians, will continue to advocate for lower air pollution standards so we can give our children a healthy start and a healthy future.”

# # #

The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.

Contact:
Macon Morehouse (202-724-3303; mmorehouse@aap.org)
Priscilla Ring (202-724-3304; pring@aap.org)

Utahns have been well-aware of mercury in our water and air since methylmercury levels in the Great Salt Lake shocked us all in 2004.

Methylmercury is the toxic form of mercury after it has been biologically transformed. It poses a public health risk, especially to children and unborn babies.

A neurotoxin, it builds up in the food chain and attacks the neurological system, causing retardation in the unborn and learning disabilities and behavioral problems in children. Humans are exposed most commonly by eating contaminated flesh, usually fish.

Utah has consumption warnings for several fish statewide and four duck species on the Great Salt Lake. Idaho has similar warnings.

Now, we are seeing action by the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection to shut down Nevada gold-ore plants until they can remove mercury from their emissions.

“This is a bold action they’ve taken,” said Cheryl Heying, director of the Utah Department of Air Quality. “It shows they have teeth, and they can bare them.”

Read more:

• “Utahns praises closure of mercury-spewing Nevada plant,” Judy Fahys, Salt Lake Tribune, March 13, 2008.

Our own Michelle Hofmann, a member of the Utah Moms for Clean Air steering committee and our Education Outreach Chair, published “Air Pollution and Health” in the November issue of the Utah Medical Association Bulletin. The article reviews “the most contemporary findings on this subject” and addresses “the relevance of these studies to the Utah medical community.”

At certain times of the year, Utah has some of the worst air quality in the nation. According to the American Lung Association’s State of the Air report for 2007, three of Utah’s major metropolitan areas ranked among the top 25 most polluted by short term particle pollution (PM2.5), including Logan (5th), Salt Lake City-Ogden-Clearfield (7th), and Provo-Orem (19th). Poor air quality not only compromises the aesthetics of our beautiful state, it also significantly endangers the health of Utah’s citizens. An extensive body of scientific evidence now indicates that air pollution is responsible for signifi cant morbidity and mortality; thus, physicians should be aware of these findings in order to optimally protect the health of their patients.

• Read the full article: “Air Pollution and Health,” Michelle Hofmann, MD, MPH and Charles Langelier, MD, PhD cand., UMA Bulletin, November 2007.

Sunday at the Salt Lake City Library, Dr. Brian Moench, of Utah Physicians for a Health Environment, spoke on “Utah’s Air Pollution: Should You Give Up and Move Out of State?” The answer for some might be yes, but most of us see enough hope ahead that we will stay here and make the difficult changes necessary to clean up the air.

What can be done, in addition to ordinary Utahns acknowledging the problem and changing our lifestyles? Dr. Moench say we

need to “change our political leaders” by letting them know what a high priority it is to deal with air pollution.

“That’s the most important part of this whole picture,” he said, adding the issue cuts across political and economic boundaries.

We need to be informed about what the Utah politicians are doing about air pollution.

Two months ago, a legislative committee panned a task force recommendation for raising an additional $3 million a year to step up air monitoring. And, in the 2007 Legislature, lawmakers kept spending on environmental programs flat while infusing most other state programs with some of the $1.6 billion budget surplus.

Governor Jon Huntsman Jr, on the other hand, has made clean air one of his top three priorities.

In an interesting counter to the false dichotomy set up by some Utah business people between caring for our air and keeping our economy healthy, Dr. Moench pointed out that pollution-related health care costs are a drain on Utah’s economy. He said, air pollution causes about 2,000 premature deaths per year in Utah. This number does not, of course, include those whose respiratory and cardiopulmonary problems are caused or worsened by air pollution but who don’t lose their lives. Clean Air that we can all breathe in common is clearly best for Utah’s economy.

• Read the whole story: “Utah’s air: Expert says breathing pollution is like smoking five cigarettes a day,” Judy Fahys, December 10, 2007.

In September, Dr. Brian Moench of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment proposed the following resolutions to the Utah Medical Association House of Delegates. The resolutions on Clean Air and Mercury Exposure were adopted by the House. It’s great to see this public support for clean air resulting from the hard work of our clean air ally, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.

Resolution # 2 - Clean Air

RESOLVED, That UMA publicly support Governor Huntsman’s initiatives to improve Utah’s air quality by moving to a renewable energy portfolio within the state; and be it further

RESOLVED, That UMA work to have the Utah Division of Air Quality adopt the stricter standards advocated by the CASAC to protect the health and well being of the citizens of Utah; and be it further

RESOLVED, That UMA support clean air by publicly announcing UMA support for clean air initiatives, and at least yearly, publicly support strict monitoring and enforcement of Utah State air quality standards and emphasize the health impacts of particulate, and ozone, air pollution.

ADOPTED

Resolution # 3 - Mercury Exposure

RESOLVED, That UMA urge Governor Huntsman, and the Utah State Legislature, to support the development of renewable energy sources within the State of Utah; and be it further

RESOLVED, That UMA contact the elected state and federal officials from the State of Utah and ask them to oppose the development of coal powered generating plants that would directly contribute to mercury contamination in the State of Utah; and be it further

RESOLVED, That UMA request the Utah Department of Environmental Quality to study mercury levels in maternal and fetal blood to determine the extent of human environmental mercury contamination and study the potential health effects of this contamination on the children of Utah; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the UMA House of Delegates reaffirm support for the September 2005, Resolution 2 - Mercury Exposure (A-05).

ADOPTED

The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a policy statement about the health effects of air pollution on children. The report (it is in pdf format) is available here. The policy statement is intended to help educate pediatricians about the impact of air pollution on their patients’ health, but is an interesting read for anyone concerned about air pollution and kids.