Guest guest Posted June 9, 2006 Report Posted June 9, 2006 POLLUTION, Global Concern Friday, June 9, 2006 Sadly, sensationalism sells. Those individuals emoting " my house is killing me " and " diesel soot fills our school buses " do get the headlines. But in fact, life is killing us isn't it, as with each moment passing we are in fact closer to our own passing. Lost in the rhetoric is a simple fact-of-life. What we are sacrificing by accepting chronic illness as a way-of- life (and profitability for the chemical industry including pharmaceutical) is quality-of-life for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. It may be enough for a reporter to end 2005 bobbing in a river exclaiming he can't even see the effluent floating with him as we've cleaned up our messes of these last decades so, but tell that to the person gasping for each breath, like myself, from the over reliance of fossil fuel petrochemical benzene b(u)y products in our society. You know my Organic Chemistry for Dummies text states that once you learn the general reactions of a functional group you have essentially learned the reactions of thousands of specific molecules that contain that functional group. Apparently some credentialed persons think it's ethical to tell a never-smoker that cancer prevention is about giving up smoking, and improving exercise and diet. With today's diet with benzene b(u)y products (additives and pesticide residues) that's a challenge. Still, I suppose it could be worse. In China, the reported pollution is roughly 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product. China's GDP for 2005 is reported $2.26 trillion, their pollution costing $200 billion a year. And the number of coal power plants in Asia is expected to double in 10 years to meet that region's fast growing energy needs. According to the atmospheric chemist who is reported to have made the first discoveries of trans-boundary pollution in the 1990s, " Pollutants from Asia can actually affect U.S. air quality " . The most famous incident being reported in April of 2001 when a brown dust cloud from China drove air pollution to unhealthy levels over much of our country. Dan Jaffe, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Washington is reported saying that " pollutants that affect human health, such as mercury, ozone and particulates, regularly cross the oceans " . Much of Asia's ocean spanning pollution is reported from coal-burning power plants. Coal-burning power plants are also claimed responsible for 25 percent of U.S. mercury emissions. According to Inter Press Service (IPS) on June 4, 2006, " U.S.-based coal-burning power companies have become the target of international lawsuits so Canadians can one day hope to breathe cleaner air... U.S. trans-boundary pollution is reported to account for an estimated 2,750 premature deaths and five billion dollars in health and environmental damages annually, according to an Ontario government study last year. " According to our National Academy of Sciences (NAS), currently more than 60,000 children born each year may suffer from learning disabilities due to mercury exposure before birth. What a legacy we're leaving. So how can we tell Asia they can't build those coal plants, when we won't invest in cleaning up our own for our own families health and safety? Somehow I don't believe the intended outcome of the covenant, " Do unto your neighbors as you would have them do unto yourself " , was cancer and chronic illness disablement endpoints. cg_006@... FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner > > , > I guess I didn't quite look at it in that way. Since I never thought " Mold Is Killing Me " or " My House Is Killing Me " were outrageous statements, I missed the other point. My apologies. (BTW, the diesel issue does happen to me, sometimes strongly) > > Bruce > > Bruce Rundlett, BBEC > Bio-Home Solutions > HC 1 Box 3354 > Oracle,AZ 85623 > > www.bio-homesolutions.com > > -----Original Message----- Quote
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