Air Pollution Still Plagues Nearly Half of Americans (npr.org) 37
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Air in the U.S. has gotten cleaner for decades, adding years to people's lives and preventing millions of asthma attacks, but nearly half of Americans still live with unhealthy air pollution, a new report finds. The report comes as the Trump administration is considering rolling back some key air quality regulations. Air quality across the country has improved dramatically since regulations like the Clean Air Act were put in place in the 1970s to govern sources of pollution like coal-fired power plants and emissions from diesel trucks. Despite that progress, the air is still unhealthy and polluted in many parts of the country. In 2023, nearly half of the country's inhabitants -- 156 million people -- lived in places heavy in smog or soot pollution that harms their lungs, hearts, and brains, according to the newest edition of the American Lung Association's State of the Air report.
"Both these types of pollution cause people to die. They shorten life expectancy and drive increases in asthma rates," says Mary Rice, a pulmonologist at Harvard University. Pollution levels vary widely across the country, the report finds, with the worst soot pollution, averaged over the whole year, centered on California cities like Fresno and Bakersfield. Ozone pollution is highest in the Los Angeles region. Phoenix, Arizona, and Dallas, Texas, also rank in the top 10 most smog-heavy cities. Nationwide, people of color are about twice as likely to live somewhere with high soot and ozone pollution as white Americans. "The Clean Air Act is one of the greatest success stories in our country," says Rice. NPR notes that the law requires the EPA to revisit the science every five years, reassessing what health researchers have learned about the risks of breathing in poor air and adjusting the regulations accordingly.
"So the air quality standards have kept pace with the science over time, and levels of fine particulate matter have declined over the last 50-plus years," Rice says. "As a result, life expectancy is longer, and asthma rates have gone down." [...] "We are best equipped to protect our health when we have all the information, like weather and air quality," she says.
"Both these types of pollution cause people to die. They shorten life expectancy and drive increases in asthma rates," says Mary Rice, a pulmonologist at Harvard University. Pollution levels vary widely across the country, the report finds, with the worst soot pollution, averaged over the whole year, centered on California cities like Fresno and Bakersfield. Ozone pollution is highest in the Los Angeles region. Phoenix, Arizona, and Dallas, Texas, also rank in the top 10 most smog-heavy cities. Nationwide, people of color are about twice as likely to live somewhere with high soot and ozone pollution as white Americans. "The Clean Air Act is one of the greatest success stories in our country," says Rice. NPR notes that the law requires the EPA to revisit the science every five years, reassessing what health researchers have learned about the risks of breathing in poor air and adjusting the regulations accordingly.
"So the air quality standards have kept pace with the science over time, and levels of fine particulate matter have declined over the last 50-plus years," Rice says. "As a result, life expectancy is longer, and asthma rates have gone down." [...] "We are best equipped to protect our health when we have all the information, like weather and air quality," she says.
Hahahaha, no. (Score:1)
Pollution is only plaguing half of the US populace but that's about to change.
With great don of maga rooting for BEAUTIFUL CLEAN COAL, Amurrikah will soon enjoy the same air quality as Delhi and other large Asiatic shitholes.
MAGA!
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It isn't pollution when you're coal-rolling willingly.
Gotta Make That Money (Score:1)
Fuck humans, amirite?
For the love of money is the root of ALL evil. And y'all are some evil motherfuckers.
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Who is y'all?
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Nope.
People are the root of all evil.
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It takes people to love money, so, YES.
Don't be pedantic, it's not becoming.
More nuclear power then? (Score:2)
Here's a video of some dudes bullshitting over beers in Texas taking 12 minutes of their podcast to stop talking about guns and anime to take a shit on wind and solar energy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
These guys want nuclear power. I believe they will get it soon. Why? Because if this issue has beer drinking dudes in Texas talking about nuclear power then there's got to many people that vote, in most every demographic, that want nuclear power.
I know how people will want to reply, "But they don't
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if you were half as smart as you act you'd see posting to the source poll at fucking *Gallup* of all places would be far more effective advocacy than the tabloid trash rag of excrement that is the post millenial, jesus christ you're bad at this
https://news.gallup.com/poll/6... [gallup.com]
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If you thought you were so smart on making that reply then you'd do so under your real user name than hide behind posting as an AC.
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If you would check out deaths by terawatt/hour, nuclear is a class in its own.
We don't want that.
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Indeed, nuclear's right there at the very bottom between solar and wind. [ourworldindata.org] We don't want so few dead people, amirite?
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It would make sense if those polls had two questions: (1) do you support a nuclear power plant in your county, (2) do you support storing the nuclear waste right next to the power plant.
Deprioritize driving everywhere (Score:2, Troll)
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The issue is Americans driving everywhere all the time, both Ds and Rs.
Do people not comprehend just how firetrucking huge the USA is? And how thinly spread the population is over that area? Individual states or cities with a high population density might be able to create a viable mass transit system but there is not likely to be any such thing on a federal level, the USA is just too big for that.
What I see as helping considerably is increasing use of PHEVs for cars and light trucks. With a PHEV I'd expect most daily driving, even for rural Americans, could be done on batt
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This is definitely something I can agree on. PHEV vehicles may not be the rage in more urbanized areas, but in a lot of the US, there just are not the chargers available.
I've not understood why serial hybrids are not more popular. BMW had great success with the i3 + range extender from people I know that own those. I'm hoping the RAMCharger sees production, because that is what a half-ton pickup should be. If one doesn't have a charger, fill it up at a gas station as normal. Otherwise, plug it in. Plu
Re: Deprioritize driving everywhere (Score:2)
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" 60% of typical community greenhouse gas emissions are from transportation."
Quick google search says:
"In the United States, transportation accounts for about 28% of total greenhouse gas emissions. This makes it the largest contributor of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Within the transportation sector, a significant portion comes from the combustion of fossil fuels in various modes of transportation. "
Asking google about worldwide greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector yields:
"The transport
Probably gonna kill me (Score:3)
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Get one of those "work from home" jobs and live somewhere clean.
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My dude, you do realize that most people can change jobs, even vocation, yeah? It might not be easy but if you truly wanted to breathe better air, you could manage.
Unless, of course, you prefer the additional victim points?
This is by no means a statement of acceptance toward the status quo. That kind of thinking leads to things getting worse everywhere. However, being defeatist certainly hasn't solved any problem ever.
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What's wrong with cleaning the air everywhere?
It costs money and the shareholders don't like it. Besides, the houses we bought in clean areas will lose value if the air is good everywhere.
So, no, we won't allow it.
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Hmmmm....25 yr old: I can work anywhere, I choose a nice clean location.
35 yr old: I'd like to work where there are good schools and have quality time for raising the kids.
45 yr old: I need to work in state that has good colleges and unis so Jr. can get a good finished and get the hell out of my house.
55 yr old: I have roots here, I don't want to move, and I'm socking my pay away for retirement.
65 yr old: My house is paid for, with housing prices I cannot afford to move, where's my SS and Medicare.
75 yr old
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It's worth properly insulating your house and installing air filters. You can get commercial ones but a cheaper option is to just build one from a box fan and some furnace filters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Unfortunately box filters seem to be a North American thing because they aren't widely available in Europe.
Business as usual (Score:2)
It's business as usual:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Why "still"? (Score:1)
With the dumb felon in power, it is bound to get worse.
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I assume by "dumb felon" you mean the President of the United States Donald Trump.
Elections have consequences. If you believe President Kamala Harris would have done better then I'd like to learn what a theoretical President Harris would have done differently. I can look to what the Republicans and Democrats put in their platform documents on energy policy to get an idea. I recall there wasn't much difference on energy policy between the two. If I recall correctly then if "clean coal" means "carbon sequ
Re: Why "still"? (Score:2)
Diesel emissions standards weren't about health. (Score:2)
Those and the chicken tariff(look it up). Were simply done to prevent cheaper, more efficient and better made trucks and light duty vehicles from japan, europe, and korea from doing to those markets in the united states that their sedans and hatchbacks did to the regular car market.
Wasn't about health, and the health claims are 'nearly' as dubious as those that claimed artificial sweeteners and dyes are dangerous. Because the media didn't tell people the studies were flawed. For example those two feed the w