Clear The Air News Blog Rotating Header Image

September 5th, 2015:

Beijing Blue Sky Turns into Pollution Clouds Immediately After Huge Parade

Sep 5th, 2015
by AdminCTA.
No comments yet

http://www.i4u.com/2015/09/94797/beijing-blue-sky-immediately-turns-pollution-clouds-after-huge-parade

image001 (2)The pollution levels went sky high shortly after a huge military parade in Beijing. That is why, Beijing bans 2.5m cars for 2 weeks to achieve blue sky for parade

It was a sudden reversion to the old way of things. But such a thing was to be expected. A day after China’s massive military parade, the smog levels in Beijing went up, up and up.

Smog as everyone knows is smoke plus fog. And it is dangerous for lung function and public buildings. The blue skies that had been the norm since half a month or so had vanished overnight.

Beijing had a two week cleanup operation during which extra special care was taken to subdue the pollution levels. All car exhausts and sources of billowing smoke were eradicated.

The whole shebang was in preparation for the parade.

This parade was to celebrate the defeat of Japan in WWII. Scores of industrial outlets were closed during the two weeks and all cars were banned from the streets. Obviously the pollution levels simply vanished into thin air.

It was the most humongous parade ever held in China. And the excitement was at an all-time high. The parade was termed Parade Blue in honor of the pure skies of clean crispy air.

But such a state of affairs was not to last. A single day has passed and the same old grey skyline has resumed to cast its dismal shadow over all of Beijing. This is sad indeed.

According to the EPA, the smog and pollution levels are even worse than before. It is almost like the lull in things has caused a backlash of sorts. Now the industrial units are back in action and they are churning out pollutants.

The satanic mills are sending forth smoke that is black as hell. And all that effort that had lasted two weeks is gone within a time span of 24 hours.

The Victory Day Parade was a charade that has ended as suddenly as it had materialized. A year ago for a similar occasion, the pollution was cut to zero and the clear blue skies re-emerged.

But way back then the selfsame thing happened and the pollution returned in a villainous manner. China has always had a problem with pollution, according to CNN.

Being the carbon copy technology center of the world, it is only natural that all the pollutants would be concentrated in the Sino-Sphere. The dense black and grey clouds of smog have enveloped the city of Beijing once more. And so it is back to reality which is indeed a very depressing thing.

Kids Who Breathe More Pollution Have Lower Grades

Sep 5th, 2015
by AdminCTA.
No comments yet

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2015/08/pollution-lowers-gpa

A growing body of evidence suggests pollution can do a number on the brain. The July/August Mother Jones cover story chronicled the research connecting neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to the dirty air we breathe; studies have found that pollution may also age the brain prematurely. And according to new research from the University of Texas-El Paso, pollution’s damage to the brain may start even sooner than was previously thought: Fourth and fifth graders exposed to exhaust emissions, researchers found, don’t do as well in school as their peers who breathe cleaner air.

The new findings suggest poor students might be at a greater disadvantage because of pollution levels near their homes.

Using the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Air Toxics Assessment, researchers estimated how often children were exposed to air pollution in their homes. They then compared that data with the academic performance of close to 1,900 kids enrolled in the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD)—an area prone to high levels of pollution.

Adjusting for other factors that can influence school performance, like socioeconomic status and parents’ education levels, the researchers found that students exposed to more emissions had lower grade-point averages. Areas included in the study were ranked by the amount of air pollution, and students living in areas with the highest levels (in the top 75 percent) had GPAs that were 0.031 points below those who lived where the air was cleaner.

The researchers also found that pollution from “non-road mobile sources”—such as airports, construction vehicles, and trains—had the greatest impact on GPA, even though factories and vehicle emissions often receive the most attention from policymakers.

The American Lung Association reports that some 139 million people—close to half of the nation’s population—live in areas with air that the group deems “too dangerous to breathe,” and the UTEP researchers highlighted that low-income families are more likely to live in the most polluted areas. Poverty alone has been connected to adverse affects on childhood brain development, but the new findings suggest poor students might be at an even greater disadvantage because of pollution levels near their homes.

“This study and this body of literature about air pollution is demonstrating one more negative effect of air pollution in our environment,” says researcher Sara Grineski. “There are many studies that show that higher levels of air pollution are associated with so many negative effects, from asthma, respiratory infections, cardiovascular disease, and autism, to reduced school performance.”

Grineski and her coauthor believe their findings indicate an even greater urgency to implement policies that will curb emissions. “The finding that there is a significant association between residential exposure to air toxins and GPA at the individual level is both novel and disturbing,” they write. “These findings provide another piece of evidence that should inform advocacy for pollution reduction in the USA and beyond

Air Pollution a Cause of Extreme Weather Conditions, Says Chinese Scientist

Sep 5th, 2015
by AdminCTA.
No comments yet

http://en.yibada.com/articles/60496/20150905/air-pollution-cause-extreme-weather-conditions-chinese-scientist.htm

Other than being directly hazardous to health, air pollution has been pinpointed as a factor that causes extreme weather conditions such as floods and droughts, according to Fan Jiwan of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

Fan is a leading figure in atmospheric science at the facility, which specializes in research affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy.

After two years of research combining real-life observations with computer simulations, Fan and her research team have published findings that put the spotlight on how man-made air pollution has contributed to natural disasters, such as the catastrophic floods that hit Southwest China in July 2013.

According to Fan’s study, the disaster could have been less severe had the air quality in the region not been so poor.

“Our modeling and simulation results show that if the emissions level had been the same as it was in the late 1970s, the extreme precipitation in the mountainous region would have dropped by up to 40 percent, and only minor precipitation would have occurred in the basin,” Fan explained to the Global Times.

The study of Fan’s team was published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters and was highlighted by other leading international scientific publications like Nature and Science.

Fan first developed her hypothesis when she was watching the news of the 2013 storm in Sichuan, Southwest China, on TV.

“While I grieved over the casualties and damages, I was surprised by the fact that the heavy rainfall mainly occurred downwind in mountainous regions, instead of the broad basin area,” Fan recalled.

This eventually led her to form a team and collect data that would prove her hypothesis right