Global Warming: New Research Finds Air Pollution is Far Deadlier than Previously Thought: by Dr. Jeff Masters

The U.S. standards for our two deadliest air pollutants--ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM_2.5 )--are not stringent enough to prevent thousands of premature air pollution deaths each year among the elderly, found a study by Harvard University scientists, led by Qian Di, released Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The research was exceptionally vast and lengthy, covering all 61 million Americans on Medicare, age 65 and older, for the thirteen years from 2000 to 2012.

The EPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) sets the acceptable annual average concentration of PM_2.5 pollution at 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air. However, the study discovered that PM_2.5 concentrations as low as 5 micrograms per cubic meter caused significantly increased death rates, and found no “safe” level of PM_2.5 below which the risk of death tapered off. In a press release accompanying the paper, the researchers said that if the level of PM_2.5 could be lowered by just 1 microgram per cubic meter nationwide, about 12,000 lives could be saved every year. Similarly, if the level of ozone could be lowered by just 1 part per billion (ppb) nationwide, about 1,900 lives would be saved each year. The current EPA standard for ozone is 70 ppb for an 8-hour average; there is no annual average standard set for ozone, like there is for PM_2.5 , and the researchers said that "our results strengthen the argument for establishing seasonal or annual standards" for ozone.

“This study shows that although we think air quality in the United States is good enough to protect our citizens, in fact we need to lower pollution levels even further,” said Joel Schwartz, professor of environmental epidemiology at Harvard and the study’s senior author.

Death certificates never list air pollution as the cause of death. Nevertheless, air pollution is a huge and silent killer: about 3 million premature deaths per year globally are due to outdoor air pollution. Between 91,000 and 100,000 air pollution deaths per year occur in the U.S., according to separate studies done in 2016 by the World Bank and the Health Effects Institute (a U.S. non-profit corporation funded by the EPA and the auto industry.) Even higher U.S. air pollution deaths in excess of 200,000 per year were estimated for 2005 in a 2013 MIT study.

Air pollution deaths are calculated using epidemiological studies, which correlate death rates with air pollution levels. Air pollution has been proven to increase the incidence of death due to stroke, heart attack and lung disease. Since these causes of death are also due to other factors—such as life style and family history—we typically refer to air pollution deaths as premature deaths. A premature air pollution-related death typically occurs about twelve years earlier than it otherwise might have, according to Caiazzo et al., 2013.

Read more: New Research Finds Air Pollution is Far Deadlier than Previously Thought by Dr. Jeff Masters | Category 6 | Weather Underground

Energy: Japan Embracing Coal While The Rest Of The World Is Trying To Cut Emissions - by Samantha Page

Scotland just closed its last coal-fired power plant. England said it will be coal-free in the next decade. The United States has the Clean Power Plan, which doesn’t exactly end coal, but it puts a pretty hefty damper on it. Even China has made a series of announcements signaling they are dropping coal.

Japan, on the other hand, is planning to build 45 domestic coal plants, and the Japanese foreign investment bank is considering financing a massive project in Indonesia. As host of the next G7 meeting and a powerful player on the international stage, Japan’s doubling down on coal is not great news for the climate — and environmentalists are wondering how long it will last.

Coal has been a primary source of generation since electric power became widespread, accounting for 32 percent of generation in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in 2014, according to the International Energy Agency. And it has contributed hugely not only to climate change, but also to the air pollution that kills millions of people each year.

Mining for coal is notoriously hard and dangerous, and it, too, has taken a massive environmental toll in the United States and abroad.

Right now, there are five coal plants under construction and another 41 under development in Japan, according to Kimiko Hirata, international director for the Kiko Network, a Japanese environmental coalition.

And it is unclear how those plans will fit with the world’s recent pledge in Paris to keep global warming under 2°C. Japan’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) is equivalent to 18 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, a goal Climate Action Tracker rates as “inadequate.” 

In light of this, and the recent arrival of inexpensive wind and solar, much of the world is trying to move away from coal generation. In fact, according a new report from CoalSwarm, the Sierra Club, and Greenpeace, coal generation has declined for two years in a row. In Japan, though, coal consumption went up nearly 5 percent just last year. 

Read more: This Country Is Embracing Coal While The Rest Of The World Is Trying To Cut Emissions | ThinkProgress

Scientists predict European cancer death rates to fall

Nearly 1.3 million Europeans will succumb to some form of cancer in 2011, according to research conducted by Swiss and Italian researchers and published Wednesday in the journal Annals of Oncology. 

The figure represents an overall decrease in cancer rates of 7 percent for men and 6 percent for women over the last four years. Stomach, colon, breast, womb, prostate and male lung cancers should continue declining, the researchers wrote.

The analysis used predictive models based on individual cancer rates from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom as well as cancer rates for the European Union as a whole.

For more: Scientists predict European cancer death rates to fall | Science & Technology | Deutsche Welle | 09.02.2011