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Blowin' in the Wind, Issue #038 Air Pollution Facts statistics - January 3, 2007
January 03, 2007
Hello ,

Air pollution facts statistics etc.

Hope you had a good Holiday.

Trying to come up with some air pollution facts statistics and other related information? I hope I can provide some food for thought here. Some free online places for free research data and statistics on air pollution would include Answers.com, Wikipedia.org or, more generally, the handy search engines such as Google.com.

StuffInTheAir.com provides some information too. A general introduction to the Air Quality Index, for instance. You can find out what our biggest polluter is - if you guessed cars, you're right. A heavy but lesser-known source of air pollution is industrial and vehicular diesel emissions. Find a few other assorted bits of information here.

You may have noticed, the whole global warming thing is the source of a great deal of controversy. Skeptics rule, some with just cause, others with financial interests in things that are not so great for our beloved planet. You have to take all this into stride when accepting or rejecting any idea.

Secondhand Smoke Statistics

Sometimes we call this Passive Smoking, or ETS exposure. Whatever. We think it should be a diminishing problem as more and more cities and other jurisdictions require restaurants and public establishments to become smoke free. The Air pollution facts statistics on this one indicate that people contract various chronic diseases and frequently die from it. The studies have identified the expected culprits
  • lung cancer
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
  • asthma
  • cardiovascular disease
  • bronchitis and
  • emphysema
in addition to sudden headaches, allergies, and nausia. And don't forget smelly clothing. The page elaborates on it a bit.

Here is an interesting fact: Tobacco smoke contains over 400 chemicals, and over 60 are known or suspected to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing). This comes from a British webpage:

bupa.co.uk/health_information/html/health_news/270503smoke.html

Global Warming Statistics

Films such as The Great Warming and An Inconvenient Truth attempt to bring some of the underlying data to light. To expose the facts to the public. Anytime such a documentary is produced, it is subject to criticisms of bias or other slants and inaccuracy in the data portrayal, and it seems the more controversial it is, the more successful it is. Until you examine it up close and in full detail, you never know whether the bias is in the filmaker or the critic. Probably both. And they are both right to some degree. If you want to learn about an important American figure in the field of global warming research, look up Patrick Michaels on the web. He has done some hard thinking and authored some interesting ideas on the subject.

Some American emissions statistics on air pollution tables, sorted by contaminant and by year, can be downloaded from this page:

mlsi.gov.cy/mlsi/dli/dli.nsf/All/1B0BB33CFA21F53DC2256E4B003337DB?OpenDocument&t=d&e=

Global warming is a global issue. Regional air quality is a different thing, and governments require industries to jump through hoops just to operate. They often hire consulting firms to provide guidance in the complex regulatory and compliance arena.

This should give you a few broad ideas. If you ever wanted to construct a web site like Stuff in the Air.com to get your own broad ideas across, and make some money at it, have a look at the story on this page. Thanks for listening and Happy New Year!

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