By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to issue rules by November 2011 to cut toxic air pollution at electric generating plants that burn coal or fuel oil, a federal court ruled.

The court-ordered agreement issued on Thursday will reduce mercury pollution and soot that cause asthma, bronchitis and other heath problems, particularly in children. The EPA acted after a coalition of environmental and public health groups sued the agency.

The fallout of mercury and other metal emissions from power plants can occur within 100 miles of the source, and then move up the food chain through fish and other animals.

“Power plants are the largest unregulated industrial source of air toxics. It is unconscionable that 19 years after the Clean Air Act of 1990, we still do not have air toxics controls on these large existing sources of pollution,” said James Pew of Earthjustice.

“Cleaning up dirty coal-burning power plants is the best way to make the air healthy for the American people,” said John Walke, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Under the settlement, the EPA has to propose its rules by March 16, 2011, and issue the final rules by November 16, 2011.

The EPA said tackling hazardous air pollutants from utilities was a “high priority.”. “The agency is committed to developing a strategy to reduce harmful emissions from these facilities, which threaten the air we all breathe,” it said.

The EPA was required under the Clean Air Act to slash toxic air emissions at power plants by December 2002. The former George W. Bush presidential administration asked Congress to end that requirement, but lawmakers said no.

The Bush administration then tried to convince the courts that the pollution controls were not needed, a move that was rejected in February 2008. The groups sued and now the EPA under the Barack Obama administration agreed to issue the rules within two years.

(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=epa-to-cut-toxic-emission

Article Date: 16 Oct 2009 – 0:00 PDT

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167535.php

The impact of air pollution may be worse for people who are obese, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The researchers base their findings on data collected on air quality, and biomedical measures for the Health Environments Partnership study. This five year study began in 2000 and involves 919 households in three areas of Detroit, Michigan, an area of the US that is ethnically and economically diverse.

All the households were within 5 km of an air quality monitoring site, which measured levels of fine particulate matter every 30 minutes between 2000 and 2003.

Out of the 919 households, 348 people agreed to give blood samples and have their blood pressure, weight (body mass index or BMI), height and waist circumference measured.

Data on ethnic background, gender, age, educational attainment, dietary habits and exercise, and pre-existing health problems were also collected as these factors all have a bearing on blood pressure.

Just over half the participants were obese, as measured by BMI, and 57% had waist circumferences above the sizes indicative of a higher than average risk for serious ill health, such as diabetes and heart disease – 88 cm for women and 102 cm for men.

Almost two thirds of the total sample (68%) either had high blood pressure or were on the cusp of a diagnosis of high blood pressure, and more than one in three (36%) had high blood cholesterol.

The average levels of particulate matter measured 15 ug/m3 at all three sites, but at one site in the south west, levels were 20% higher than this.

South western Detroit contains a relatively high concentration of heavy industry, including iron and steel manufacture, coke ovens, and refineries.

Unsurprisingly, those who lived closest to heavy traffic and other sources of particulate matter pollution had higher pulse pressure.

Pulse pressure measures the difference in diastolic (minimum) and systolic (maximum) blood pressure during a heart beat. They also had higher systolic blood pressure, irrespective of whether they were lean or fat.

But the effect was greater still among those classified as obese (BMI of 30 or higher and a large waist), and most evident 48 to 96 hours after exposure to the pollutant.

The authors say that their findings add to a growing body of work, suggesting that obesity and a midriff bulge (central adiposity) boost susceptibility to changes in blood pressure which are associated with ambient air pollution.

High blood pressure increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, and the authors point out that people who are already disadvantaged are being exposed to risk factors that are not just additive, but which further multiply the risks of serious ill health.

Source: The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

Air Quality Up, Ear Infections Down
Study Shows Reduction in Air Pollution Is Linked to Fewer Ear Infections in Kids

By Bill Hendrick
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
WebMD Health News

Oct. 7, 2009 — Cleaner air resulting from federal pollution laws may have significantly reduced the prevalence of ear infections in children, a new study shows.

The study, presented at the 2009 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation in San Diego, analyzed U.S. data on 126,060 children (average age 9 years) from 1997 to 2007, looking at how many instances of ear infections occurred in a one-year period. They also used air quality data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the same period, focusing on air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrous dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter.

Researchers say frequent otitis media, defined as three or more ear infections in a 12-month period, decreased as air quality improved, as measured by the EPA. The researchers also looked for an association between air quality and respiratory allergy, but found none.

The researchers write that their work has both medical and political significance, suggesting that toughening quality requirements in the Clean Air Act of 1990 is reaping dividends.

Revisions in the act gave the EPA more authority to implement and enforce regulations aimed at cleaning the air and led to improvements in health quality measures such as otitis media, which is one of the most common illnesses among children, with direct and indirect costs in the $3 billion to $5 billion range annually.

The researchers, led by Neil Bhattacharyya, MD, of the department of otology and laryngology at the Harvard Medical School, conclude that better air quality is “significantly associated with lower prevalence of pediatric ear infections but is not associated with the prevalence of pediatric respiratory allergy.”

Continuing efforts to clean up the air will decrease ear infection rates further, the researchers predict. They note that previous smaller studies have suggested a connection between cleaner air and reductions in ear infections.

“The current study reports a statistically significant association between improvements in air quality and a reduction in frequency of ear infections prevalence,” the researchers write. “Otitis media is a major cause of morbidity in children and is one of the most common reasons for children to undergo medical care.”

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Imagine reviving the art of walking to school. Imagine healthier kids, cleaner air, and neighbors that see and greet each other in the morning. The National Center for Safe Routes to Schools, or Safe Routes, has this vision, and with similar organizations around the world, brings us International Walk to School Month, beginning with an avalanche of walking and biking events on October 7. From their website:

Walking or biking to school protects the environment and your health. When children decide to lace-up their sneakers to walk, or strap on their bike helmets to pedal to school instead of riding in a car, they reduce the amount of air pollutants emitted by automobiles.

These air pollutants can be especially harmful to children. Children have respiratory systems that are not fully developed, they spend more time at higher activity levels, which can cause them to breathe more deeply and take in more air pollution. They are also more likely to have asthma or other acute respiratory problems that can be aggravated by air pollution than other age groups. By walking or riding a bike to school, children lower the amount of vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which helps reduce toxic air pollutants.

and

There are plenty of great reasons to walk to school – less traffic, safer streets, cleaner air – but one of the best is that children and parents will be healthier. With obesity rates skyrocketing and only one-quarter of American’s able to get the Surgeon General’s recommended daily dose of exercise (just 30 minutes), it’s an ideal time to encourage people to walk to school for their own health and well-being. …Walking to school is a missed opportunity. Roughly 10% of children nationwide walk to school regularly. Even among those kids living within a mile of their school, only 25% are regular walkers.

Many schools in Utah have budding “Walking School Bus” programs or other networks of walking-biking-scootering families. Call your school, and visit Who’s Walking in Utah to see what’s organized for your school or how you can get something started.