Air pollution slows cognitive development in children: Study

Traffic-related fumes in schools may
lead to development problems in children.

Attendance at schools exposed to high levels of traffic-related air pollution is linked to slower cognitive development among 7-10-year-old children in Barcelona, according to a study published by Jordi Sunyer and colleagues from the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Spain, published in PLOS Medicine.

The researchers measured three cognitive outcomes (working memory, superior working memory, and attentiveness) every 3 months over a 12-month period in 2715 primary school children attending 39 schools.

By comparing the development of these cognitive outcomes in the children attending schools where exposure to air pollution was high to those children attending a school with a similar socio-economic index where exposure to pollution was low, they found that the increase in cognitive development over time among children attending highly polluted schools was less than among children attending paired lowly polluted schools, even after adjusting for additional factors that affect cognitive development.

Thus, for example, there was an 11.5% 12-month increase in working memory at the lowly polluted schools but only a 7.4% 12-month increase in working memory at the highly polluted schools.

These results were confirmed using direct measurements of traffic related pollutants at schools.

The findings suggest that the developing brain may be vulnerable to traffic-related air pollution well into middle childhood, a conclusion that has implications for the design of air pollution regulations and for the location of new schools.

While the authors controlled for socioeconomic factors, the accuracy of these findings may be limited by residual confounding, that is, the children attending schools where traffic-related pollution is high might have shared other unknown characteristics that affected their cognitive development.

Source: Press release

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Viral documentary is challenging China’s powerful polluters

Pollution has become China's "Inconvenient Truth".
Photo by Danilo Rizzuti/Freedigitalphotos.net

A Chinese video has garnered well over 20 million views on video sharing site YouKu, and close to 5 million on Tencent Video.

What’s more, it hasn't yet been banned.

Usually that would describe content like celebrity gossip or comical animals, but this is Under the Dome, a meticulously researched documentary on the causes and implications of the country’s pollution crisis.

Pollution in China is an inconvenient truth. Nearly everyone agrees it is a problem, but the intricacies, scale, and potential solutions are not well understood.

Chai Jing—a former TV news anchor who produced Under the Dome with her own funds—has attempted to tackle the complexities of the issue much as Al Gore did for climate change.

In her documentary, Chai purposefully guides viewers through the data on pollution, weaving in interviews with experts, policymakers, and industry representatives.

The documentary—named after the Stephen King book that inspired an American TV series—is novel on many levels. There is an expertly animated section showing how particulate matter infiltrates the lungs.

Charts and disturbing images of pollution-ravaged lungs are presented with Gore-like effectiveness.

And there are many moving anecdotes from Chai about her personal relationship with pollution, which she believes caused her infant daughter to be born with a benign tumor.

But what’s most surprising is how brazenly Chai attacks some of the most powerful organizations in the country, from the coal and oil industries to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and state-run banks.

She makes a trip to a coal factory in Hebei Province to get a firsthand account of production.

Chai goes on to discuss the quality of coal and poor regulation of its disposal.

In recent years, our coal consumption has grown, the quality of the coal has gotten worse, we aren’t cleaning the coal, and there is little regulation of coal disposal.

The result is this: In China, the places with higher coal consumption have a much higher concentration of particulate matter.

Regulators and the oil industry

Chai moves on to talk about the impact of oil consumption on air quality, focusing first on vehicle emissions standards. She addresses the fact that, while China’s increasing reliance on cars is partly to blame for poorer air quality, lax regulation of heavy-duty trucks is even more harmful.

She tracks down drivers that have stickers on their trucks claiming that they have been cleared for the “China IV” emissions standards.

Checking their engines, however, reveals that they are well below these standards. While there are regulations that can put a stop to these “counterfeit China IV” trucks, she says, they are never enforced.

Chai attempts to find out which government department is responsible for enforcing these regulations. She finds a lot of buck passing.

Moving past enforcement, Chai turns to the poor quality of oil used in commercial vehicles.

She looks to find out why standards aren’t higher, and finds a revolving door between the oil industry and the regulators meant to keep it in check.

Banks, subsidies, and zombie companies

Looking for an example of the kind of heavy industry that consumes large amounts of the coal and oil she’s been discussing, Chai zeroes in on steel.

She reveals a systemic problem faced by several industries in the country: “zombie” companies, which are noncompetitive and obsolete firms that are kept alive primarily by government subsidies.

She later makes a more general point: The most important thing for the government to do is not to subsidize obsolete, polluting industries. What it should do is provide fair opportunities for the industries of tomorrow.

What to do about it

Amazingly, given the film’s critical tone and its high-profile targets in government and major Chinese industries, the video has not (yet) been blocked, although state-run news organizations have been directed not to “hype” the documentary further, according to China Digital Times, which monitors leaked censorship instructions.

Since that directive makes clear that the authorities are aware of “Under the Dome,” it’s not clear why Chai has been able to survive the censors.

Perhaps it’s because the video is so measured in its criticism, or that it simply became too popular too fast to shut down. Or maybe the government simply agrees with her message.

According to one government report, newly appointed environment minister Chen Jining said the documentary was “worthy of respect” and thanked Chai for her work.

Even with its popularity, though, Chai is just one former TV anchor. Her lecture closes by imploring others to act.

She tells anyone who is watching to find a way to help, comparing the experience of China to those of countries that have overcome once deadly pollution problems.

This article has been edited for length. Source: Quartz

Of course, Chinese officials have begun responding and deleting the documentary from various popular sites. Read more about that here. 

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Diesel fumes cause 6 percent of lung cancer deaths: Study

The World Health Organization concluded last year that diesel exhaust is carcinogenic

An estimated 6 percent of lung cancer deaths in the United States and the United Kingdom – 11,000 deaths per year – may be due to diesel exhaust, according to a new study.

Emission standards for diesel engines have become more stringent in recent years, but their exhaust still plays a significant role in lung cancer deaths among truckers, miners and railroad workers, the authors wrote. In addition, diesel exhaust still poses a major cancer threat for people living in dense cities or near highways, they said.

Truckers and miners exposed over their careers to diesel exhaust face a risk of deadly lung cancer that is almost 70 times higher than the risk considered acceptable under U.S. occupational standards.

Traffic exhaust can
affect people's health.

The scientists calculated the lifetime risk for these workers at up to 689 extra lung cancer deaths per 10,000 workers exposed. In comparison, one cancer death per 1,000 workers is used to set federal workplace standards.

In addition, people in urban areas face a lifetime risk of lung cancer that is 10 times higher than the acceptable risk used in U.S. health standards, according to the study.

An estimated 21 per 10,000 people exposed to the amount of diesel exhaust commonly found near U.S. highways would be at risk of dying of lung cancer over their lifetime. That compares to the risk of one death per 100,000 people that is used to set air-quality standards.

To come up with their calculations, the researchers from Emory University and several other U.S. and European institutions used data from three previous studies of workers – two of truckers and one of non-metal miners – as well as national death statistics for the United States and United Kingdom.

They estimated that 4.8 percent of lung cancer deaths in the United States and 1.3 percent in the United Kingdom were due to environmental and occupational exposures to diesel exhaust.

“With millions of workers currently exposed to such levels, and likely higher levels in the past, the impact on the current and future lung cancer burden could be substantial,” the authors wrote.

The researchers said their estimates “are far from precise and depend on broad assumptions.” But they said their findings are “generally consistent” with past findings.

Other factors, such as smoking, were not taken into account. They used the assumption that smoking does not modify effects of diesel exhaust.

The World Health Organization concluded last year, after reviewing health data for workers, that diesel exhaust is carcinogenic.

Diesel emissions have declined substantially over the past few years in the United States and Europe since new engine standards were initiated.

More than 50,000 high-polluting diesel engines were cleaned up or removed from U.S. roads between 2008 and 2010, according to an Environmental Protection Agency report. About 230,000 tons of soot and smog-causing pollutants were eliminated, according to the report.

However, while buses and trucks have largely adopted cleaner technology, it’s taken longer for off-road engines, such as farm and construction vehicles.

Source: Environmental Health News

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Traffic pollution increases asthma in adults

Living or working
near heavy traffic
affects well-being,
researchers found.

Asthma sufferers frequently exposed to heavy traffic pollution or smoke from wood fire heaters, experienced a significant worsening of symptoms, a new University of Melbourne led study has found.

The study is the first of its kind to assess the impact of traffic pollution and wood smoke from heaters on middle-aged adults with asthma.

The results revealed adults who suffer asthma and were exposed to heavy traffic pollution experienced an 80 per cent increase in symptoms and those exposed to wood smoke from wood fire heaters experienced an 11 per cent increase in symptoms.

Asthma affects more than 300 million people worldwide and is one of the most chronic health conditions.

Dr John Burgess of the School of Population Health at the University of Melbourne and a co-author on the study said "it is now recommended that adults who suffer asthma should not live on busy roads and that the use of old wood heaters should be upgraded to newer heaters, to ensure their health does not worsen."

In the study, a cohort of 1383 44-year old adults in the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study were surveyed for their exposure to smoke from wood fires and traffic pollution. Participants were asked to rate their exposure.

The survey asked for exposure to the frequency of heavy traffic vehicles near homes and the levels of ambient wood smoke in winter.

Results were based on the self-reporting of symptoms and the number of flare-ups or exacerbations in a 12-month period. Participants reported from between two to three flare-ups (called intermittent asthma) to more than one flare-up per week (severe persistent asthma) over the same time.

Heavy vehicle exhaust linked to health effects

Traffic exhaust is thought to exacerbate asthma through airway inflammation. Particles from heavy vehicles exhaust have been shown to enhance allergic inflammatory responses in sensitized people who suffer asthma.

"Our study also revealed a connection between the inhalation of wood smoke exposure and asthma severity and that the use of wood for heating is detrimental to health in communities such as Tasmania where use of wood burning is common," Dr Burgess said.

"Clean burning practices and the replacement of old polluting wood stoves by new ones are likely to minimize both indoor and outdoor wood smoke pollution and improve people's health," he said.

"These findings may have particular importance in developing countries where wood smoke exposure is likely to be high in rural communities due to the use of wood for heating and cooking, and the intensity of air pollution from vehicular traffic in larger cities is significant."

The study revealed no association between traffic pollution and wood smoke and the onset of asthma.

It was published in the journal Respirology.

Source: University of Melbourne; EurekAlert!

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