pollution Archives - Austin Vegas

March 10, 2008January 20, 2010

China’s air pollution threatens 08 Olympians

Haile Gebrselassie the world record holder for the marathon run just announced that because of Bejing’s extensive air pollution problem, and his asthma, he won’t be running in the high endurance race.

China’s pollution problems for the Olympics have been well publicized on the net but are not fully well known to everyone in the states (stats are listed below). China had committed to the Olympic committee to ease these concerns and are doing so by moving factories outside the city, reducing taxi use and replacing them with more fuel efficient cars, replacing coal burning furnaces with natural gas, and even committing to closing plants all together during the events of the games. Still:

Runners coughed and gagged as they limbered up. Thick smog shrouded the Tsing Ma Bridge. Pollution index readings on this morning in February 2006 were at 149, the highest in months. Any reading over 100 is considered unhealthy.

A disturbing trend in popular thought is Gary Lough’s quote (husband of Britain’s Paula Radcliffe, a planned runner for the games) said:

“There’s no point in us being especially concerned, because pollution’s not really something you can control.”

Ahh but it is if we want to Gary, it is if we want to. And obviously if this is a situation that’s effect athletes that are in top shape, imaging what it’s doing to those typical day walkers that don’t have the physical conditioning?

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Whatâ€™s wrong with China’s air:

China’s air was rated Worst in the World in late 2005 based on satellite data for all countries contributing pollution and particulates into the earth’s atmosphere.
According to the World Bank, 16 cities in the world with the worst air pollution are located in China.
The countryâ€™s Ministry of Science and Technology has estimated that 50,000 newborn babies a year die from the effects of air pollution.
Chinaâ€™s emissions of carbon dioxide, the most important global warming gas, are expected to surpass those of the United States in 2009, according to the International Energy Agency.
At a recent Marathon (in 2006), the pollution Index read 149 (Anything over 100 is considered unhealthy).
â€œEric W. Orts, professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton, says that pollution, if left unchecked, will drag down Chinaâ€™s economic growth and result in huge healthcare costs. In addition, Chinaâ€™s pollution will, over time, erode its competitive position in the global economy.â€

“It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.”
~ Dan Quayle (former Vice President of US, with George H Bush 1989â€“1993)

March 10, 2008March 10, 2008

Pharmaceutical drugs in your drinking water?

I first saw this story on local news this morning: The AP press has just divulged a 5 month long study of our nations water supply, specifically looking for emerging contaminants or pharmaceuticals in the water supply. 24 major metropolitan areas (including SoCal, New York City, northern NJ, Detroit, Louisville, Dallas) and up to 41 million Americans are exposed to pharmaceutical drugs in their water supply. These drugs included but are not limited to acetaminophen, ibuprofen, heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizer and a tranquilizers. The extent of the risk is unknown.

In the New York water shed (not drinking water), 2 studies showed 16 pharmaceuticals or their breakdown products in levels below medical dosages. The scientific (and my own personal) concern for this finding requires more national attention as most water treatment plants do not treat for drugs and several don’t even test for the presence of any.

It’s believed these drugs are getting into the watershed from treated wastewater that is assumed ready for consumption and dumped back into natures watershed. With that even well water drinkers and bottled water fanatics are at risk as many vendors just filter and treat existing spring water.

Pharmaceuticals are specifically designed to work in and be active with your body, which could pose potential long term effects from exposure over other contaminants that don’t have such a ready uptake by the human body. There’s not a whole lot of scientific study on steady the long term effects of small dosages, however, assumptions are being made as some lab studies have showed shown residual effects of these drugs could alter human cells over time.

I’m deeply concerned about my own and our nations health as industry has continued to disregard our environment in the name of cheaper operations and more profits. Get involved and contact your congress person if you to are concerned.

“We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.” ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

July 28, 2007January 4, 2010

Bottle water does not equal healthy living

I personally feel that one of the biggest wastes of this decade is the proliferation of bottle water sales. Bottled water is one of the fastest-growing beverages on the market, however, despite it’s convenient each bottle is filled with vague and shadowy dangers to consumers, the environment and our lifestyle. The manufacture of plastic water bottles is resource-intensive, made from non-renewable resources (oil as a base for some chemicals such as HDPE, PVC, PC, PP, and PETGs), yields various cancerous emissions that contribute to global warming and further the degradation of our water quality (which feeds the marketing for buying more bottled water).

There’s been several non-credited studies and flavor tastings which with this dated ABC story showed that the worst tasting water was the most expensive and one of the best was NYC tap water (a cheap water from Kmart which is actually purified tap water won this contest):

One of the worst commercial issues with the bottle water market is the misleading advertising. What most people don’t know is bottled water is just tap water that’s either filtered or purified several more times. There’s no real benefit from drinking bottle vs tap except again the convenience and now Pepsi lost a lawsuit that now states they have to print on their bottles it’s actually tap water.

Here’s to hoping the source water is free from contaminates before hand before it’s bottled and brought to your door (Queens, NY).

Charles Fishman writing for Fast Company states:

Bottled water is often simply an indulgence, and despite the stories we tell ourselves, it is not a benign indulgence. We’re moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That’s a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water. (Water weighs 81/3 pounds a gallon. It’s so heavy you can’t fill an 18-wheeler with bottled water–you have to leave empty space.)

Meanwhile, one out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water. The global economy has contrived to deny the most fundamental element of life to 1 billion people, while delivering to us an array of water “varieties” from around the globe, not one of which we actually need.

Most people don’t think about the added costs to the environment bottle water bestows. There’s processing of water that takes electricity, transportation, packaging, storage and then more electricity to cool the bottles in store shelves. Here’s more on Fiji Water:

The label on a bottle of Fiji Water says “from the islands of Fiji.” Journey to the source of that water, and you realize just how extraordinary that promise is. From New York, for instance, it is an 18-hour plane ride west and south (via Los Angeles) almost to Australia, and then a four-hour drive along Fiji’s two-lane King’s Highway.

Every bottle of Fiji Water goes on its own version of this trip, in reverse, although by truck and ship. In fact, since the plastic for the bottles is shipped to Fiji first, the bottles’ journey is even longer. Half the wholesale cost of Fiji Water is transportation–which is to say, it costs as much to ship Fiji Water across the oceans and truck it to warehouses in the United States than it does to extract the water and bottle it.

That is not the only environmental cost embedded in each bottle of Fiji Water. The Fiji Water plant is a state-of-the-art facility that runs 24 hours a day. That means it requires an uninterrupted supply of electricity–something the local utility structure cannot support. So the factory supplies its own electricity, with three big generators running on diesel fuel. The water may come from “one of the last pristine ecosystems on earth,” as some of the labels say, but out back of the bottling plant is a less pristine ecosystem veiled with a diesel haze.

Despite all the costs to the environment Fiji is pushing their “green” stature but without addressing any real issues or stating any actual figures for production and what their actual carbon footprint is.

I applaud New York City’s campaign to encourage people to give up bottle water and consume NYC’s finest from the tap. I would love to see similar campaigns in all cites in American and the world.