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\"Discusses the environmental issue of pollution and how to create a sustainable way of living\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Tainted Earth
Smelting is an industrial process involving the extraction of metal from ore. During this process, impurities in ore-including arsenic, lead, and cadmium-may be released from smoke stacks, contaminating air, water, and soil with toxic-heavy metals.
The problem of public health harm from smelter emissions received little official attention for much for the twentieth century. Though people living near smelters periodically complained that their health was impaired by both sulfur dioxide and heavy metals, for much of the century there was strong deference to industry claims that smelter operations were a nuisance and not a serious threat to health. It was only when the majority of children living near the El Paso, Texas, smelter were discovered to be lead-exposed in the early 1970s that systematic, independent investigation of exposure to heavy metals in smelting communities began. Following El Paso, an even more serious led poisoning epidemic was discovered around the Bunker Hill smelter in northern Idaho. In Tacoma, Washington, a copper smelter exposed children to arsenic-a carcinogenic threat.
Thoroughly grounded in extensive archival research,Tainted Earthtraces the rise of public health concerns about nonferrous smelting in the western United States, focusing on three major facilities: Tacoma, Washington; El Paso, Texas; and Bunker Hill, Idaho. Marianne Sullivan documents the response from community residents, public health scientists, the industry, and the government to pollution from smelters as well as the long road to protecting public health and the environment. Placing the environmental and public health aspects of smelting in historical context, the book connects local incidents to national stories on the regulation of airborne toxic metals.
The nonferrous smelting industry has left a toxic legacy in the United States and around the world. Unless these toxic metals are cleaned up, they will persist in the environment and may sicken people-children in particular-for generations to come. The twentieth-century struggle to control smelter pollution shares many similarities with public health battles with such industries as tobacco and asbestos where industry supported science created doubt about harm, and reluctant government regulators did not take decisive action to protect the public's health.
eBook
Impact of air pollution on the burden of chronic respiratory diseases in China: time for urgent action
In China, where air pollution has become a major threat to public health, public awareness of the detrimental effects of air pollution on respiratory health is increasing—particularly in relation to haze days. Air pollutant emission levels in China remain substantially higher than are those in developed countries. Moreover, industry, traffic, and household biomass combustion have become major sources of air pollutant emissions, with substantial spatial and temporal variations. In this Review, we focus on the major constituents of air pollutants and their impacts on chronic respiratory diseases. We highlight targets for interventions and recommendations for pollution reduction through industrial upgrading, vehicle and fuel renovation, improvements in public transportation, lowering of personal exposure, mitigation of the direct effects of air pollution through healthy city development, intervention at population-based level (systematic health education, intensive and individualised intervention, pre-emptive measures, and rehabilitation), and improvement in air quality. The implementation of a national environmental protection policy has become urgent.
Journal Article
Assessment and analysis of agricultural non-point source pollution loads in Henan, China: 2001-2023
Agricultural non-point source pollution (ANPSP) is one of the important factors leading to water environmental pollution. Identifying the spatial distribution of ANPSP and implementing regional control measures are, therefore, important for ensuring effective pollution prevention and control. However, analyzing regional ANPSP using a single approach is challenging due to the impacts of geographical, economic, and policy differences. In this context, the present study aims to assess the long-term spatiotemporal characteristics of pollutants and their sources in Henan Province over the 2001-2023 period using inventory analysis, equal standard pollution load method, and cluster analysis. In addition, we investigated the decoupling relationship between ANPSP and agricultural output value using the Tapio decoupling model. The results showed that: (1) distinct variation stages of total pollution, including total emission reduction, structural transition, and emerging conflicts. Specifically, there was a increase in total pollution over the 2001-2006 period, followed by a fluctuation, continuous decrease, and stabilization in the 2007-2013, 2014-2019, and 2020-2023 periods, respectively. The pollution loads of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) were reduced by 26.2, 23.5, and 18.2%, respectively. In addition, increases in the contribution rates of livestock and farmland straw. On the other hand, rural households and livestock were the main sources of COD and TP emissions, respectively. The main source of TN emissions has shifted from livestock to farmland straw; (2) the total pollutant load exhibited a distinct spatial distribution pattern. Specifically, the southern part of the study area had the highest pollutant loads, followed, respectively, by the eastern, northern, and western parts; (3) the decoupling relationship between ANPSP emissions and agricultural output values showed fluctuating changes, dominated by weak and strong decoupling status, with gradual improvement. (4) Henan Province was divided into three primary non-point source pollution control zones using cluster analysis, namely high, moderate, and low-risk zones. The high, moderate, and low risk areas had average equivalent pollution indices of 61.89, 40.44, and 15.37, respectively. In this study, we proposed targeted prevention and control measures for ANPSP in Henan Province. These findings provide a reference for the governance and planning of ANPSP in Henan Province, as well as a novel perspective for investigating the relationship between rural development and the environment.
Journal Article
Exposure to outdoor air pollution and its human health outcomes: A scoping review
Despite considerable air pollution prevention and control measures that have been put into practice in recent years, outdoor air pollution remains one of the most important risk factors for health outcomes. To identify the potential research gaps, we conducted a scoping review focused on health outcomes affected by outdoor air pollution across the broad research area. Of the 5759 potentially relevant studies, 799 were included in the final analysis. The included studies showed an increasing publication trend from 1992 to 2008, and most of the studies were conducted in Asia, Europe, and North America. Among the eight categorized health outcomes, asthma (category: respiratory diseases) and mortality (category: health records) were the most common ones. Adverse health outcomes involving respiratory diseases among children accounted for the largest group. Out of the total included studies, 95.2% reported at least one statistically positive result, and only 0.4% showed ambiguous results. Based on our study, we suggest that the time frame of the included studies, their disease definitions, and the measurement of personal exposure to outdoor air pollution should be taken into consideration in any future research. The main limitation of this study is its potential language bias, since only English publications were included. In conclusion, this scoping review provides researchers and policy decision makers with evidence taken from multiple disciplines to show the increasing prevalence of outdoor air pollution and its adverse effects on health outcomes.
Journal Article