The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has identified tens of thousands of polluted sites in the US, in need of an immediate containment/solution. (5) The National Priorities List (NPL) is the list of sites of national priority among the “known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants throughout the United States and its territories”. (6) The U.S. EPA’s National Priorities List for urgent remediation currently lists more than 1,300 sites. (5) The World Health Organization’s global assessment is based on satellite data and modelling overlapped on the database of cities, it is based on voluntary reporting. (7) According to the WHO, 9/10 people on the planet breathe polluted air, and it kills 7 million people each year, almost all of them in poor countries in Asia and Africa. (7) About a quarter of deaths from heart disease, stroke and lung cancer can be attributed to air pollution, the WHO says. (7)
According to the US EPA Air Pollution Trends website, the national average ozone levels declined in the 1980's, then plateaued during the 1990's, and decline a little after 2002. The average ozone concentration has decreased 19% since 2000 in the Northeast region of the US, according to the US EPA Air Pollution Trends website. The average ozone concentration has decreased 9% since 2000 in the Western region of the US, according to the US EPA Air Pollution Trends website. Although we are making strides to combat global warming (ex: reducing our carbon foot print, reducing air and water pollution, carbon emissions, recycle) we still have a long way to go to protect our ozone layer. We have cause so much damage to the ozone layer, that the ozone concentration (03) has been decreasing at an exponential rate. We have to take watershed action against the decrease of our ozone concentration.
According to the World Health Organization in 2008, there were 1.3 million deaths related to ambient air pollution. In 2012 there were approximately 3,732,00 deaths related to ambient air pollution (AAP). In 2010, WHO estimated that the household air pollution (HAP) related deaths was responsible for 3.9 million premature deaths and ∼4.8% of lost healthy life years. In 2016, household air pollution (HAP) was responsible for 3.8 million deaths, and 7.7% of the global mortality according to the World Health Organization.
Regions of the world that reveals the highest mortality burden from combined air pollution in 2012 includes:
-The Western Pacific region {Consisting of: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia,China, Cook Islands, Fiji, Japan, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Mongolia, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Vietnam}
The South East Asian regions {Consisting of Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, East Timor, Laos, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Burma and Thailand} bear the highest mortality burden from combined air pollution in 2012. In the Western Pacific region of the world, 2.8 million people died from combined air pollution. In South East Asian region of the world, 2.3 million people died from combined air pollution.
In 1964, New York City had the worst air pollution among big cities in the United States.(1) It had 32 garbage incinerators that were operated by the city, and 17,000 others in apartment houses.(1) Many power plants in the city were fueled with coal and oil, which led to noxious emissions.(1) During the Thanksgiving weekend of 1966 a haze of smog that consisted of sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, wrapped around the city. (1) Approximately 200 people died.(1) The fastest-growing cause of death in New York during the 1960s was pulmonary emphysema.(1) Deaths from chronic bronchitis also soared.(1) Also, NYC’s waterways were worse than the air pollution.(1) “Huge quantities of untreated sewage are pumped into New York Harbor continually,” The New York Times reported in 1970. (1) Companies along the Hudson River, particularly General Electric and General Motors, drained and leaked chemicals into the river. (1)
Another Northeastern city that has had an air pollution episode is Donora, a town in Pennsylvania that had a population of 14,000 people.(2) Donora is on the Monongahela River in a valley surrounded by hills and had a number of steel mills along with a zinc smelting plant that released excessive amounts of sulphuric acid, carbon monoxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere.(2) During the 1920s, Zinc Works, paid off local residents for damages caused by the pollution but there was little or no regulation of the air.(2) In 1948, a smog hovered over Donora, Pennsylvania, for over 5 days, killing 20 people and leaving thousands severely sick.(2) In the beginning of the fall, the weather conditions in the valley brought a heavy fog into Donora.(2) This fog trapped the airborne pollutants emitted from the zinc smelting plant and steel mills.(2) The trapped the airborne pollutants were inhaled by the local residents.(2) Most residents tried to evacuate, but the heavy smog and increased traffic made leaving difficult.(2) Thousands flooded the hospitals when they experienced difficulty breathing.(2) The day that Zinc Works shut down their operations, rain fell on Donora and dispersed the pollutants.(2) By that time, another nine people had died.(2) The Donora smog disaster led to the passage of 1955 Clean Air Act.(2)
Indonesia annually sees agriculture fires in Riau province in East Sumatra, South Sumatra, and parts of Kalimantan on Indonesian Borneo. (3) Corporations and farmers use the quick-and-easy method of clearing vegetation for palm oil, pulp and paper plantations, which usually cause these agriculture fires. (3) The fires often spread and are difficult to put out, creating a thick haze which pollutes the air. (3) The haze these fires create, spread to parts Malaysia, the whole of Singapore, the south of Thailand and the Philippines.(3) In 2002, all 10 South East Asian countries signed an agreement to combat the issue through greater monitoring and encouragement of sustainable development, but efforts have been limited.(3) Singapore in 2014 passed a set of laws that allow it to prosecute individuals and companies that contribute to the haze, and has begun taking legal action against several firms. People have been boycotting the products of the companies said to be contributing to the haze. (3)
The Toxic Sites Identification Program (TSIP) is the largest database of polluted sites of its kind, which assesses and maps out contaminated sites that pose a health risk to communities to more than 80 million poor people around the world (which is a small fraction of the overall total number of toxic sites that exist; data and trends in the database indicates that as many as 200 million people may be affected worldwide). (4) This data is available online at www.contaminatedsites.org, where database users can access information on more than 3,100 identified polluted sites and over 1,800 contaminated sites worldwide. Unfortunately, this only represents a small fraction of the overall total number of toxic sites that exist. (4) It’s important that the database grows with updated and new information, so that the scope of pollution’s true impact will become sharper. (4) The effort to combat global pollution fight has been challenged by a lack of data, you cannot manage what you cannot measure. (4)
In order to carry out TSIP site assessments, a network of national experts called Pure Earth visits and documents hazardous waste sites trains a multitude of professionals in each country to spread out and document hazardous waste sites. (5) Approximately 150 investigators and 90 government representatives have been trained to identify and assess toxic sites in over 14 countries. (4) The results of all their assessments are put into the database using a rapid assessment tool called the Initial Site Screening (ISS) protocol. (5) The ISS identifies key features of a contaminated site such as estimated population at risk, key pollutant information, human exposure pathway data and sampling data. (5) This database aids governments and experts to make better-informed decisions about pollution in their countries, and prioritize cleanup to help the most vulnerable populations. (4) It helps researchers doing pollution studies in low- and middle-income countries. (4)
“By gathering and making this information available where it is most needed, the database will give those on the frontlines the knowledge to fight pollution where it is doing the most harm.” (4)
The World Health Organization’s global assessment is based on satellite data and modelling overlaid on the database of cities, it is based on voluntary reporting. (7)According to the WHO, 9/10 people on the planet breathe polluted air, and it kills 7 million people each year, almost all of them in poor countries in Asia and Africa. (7) About a quarter of deaths from heart disease, stroke and lung cancer can be attributed to air pollution, the WHO says. (7)
(Image was taken from the website of the 4thresource listed under my “Resources” List)
Resources:
1. Dwyer, J. (2017, March 01). Remembering a City Where the Smog Could Kill. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/nyregion/new-york-city-smog.html
2. Killer smog claims elderly victims. (2009, November 13). Retrieved from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/killer-smog-claims-elderly-victims
3. What causes South East Asia's haze? (2015, October 26). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34265922
4. Database of World's Polluted Sites Is Now Online. (2017, March 07). Retrieved from https://www.pureearth.org/blog/global-database/
5. Toxic Sites Identification Program (TSIP). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pureearth.org/projects/toxic-sites-identification-program-tsip/
6. Superfund: National Priorities List (NPL). (2018, June 04). Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/superfund/superfund-national-priorities-list-npl
7. Miles, T., & Reuters. (n.d.). These are the world's most polluted cities. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/05/these-are-the-worlds-most-polluted-cities/
9. https://www.epa.gov/air-trends