May 3-7, 2010 was Air Quality Awareness Week

Here is a welcome tool that is an easily-accessible indicator of your local air quality.

Visit this post often as the map updates automatically with the latest air quality forecast information.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that along with “the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Park Service, tribal, state, and local agencies it has developed an AIRNow Web Site to provide the public with easy access to national air quality information.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) is an index for reporting daily air quality. It tells you how clean or polluted your outdoor air is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for you. The AQI focuses on health effects you may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. EPA calculates the AQI for five major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act: ground-level ozone, particle pollution (also known as particulate matter), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. For each of these pollutants, EPA has established national air quality standards to protect public health.”

Also, since we spend the majority of our time indoors, the quality of our indoor air environments is an important determinant of our health.

See the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2010 Report.

Learn More About Air Pollution from the Encyclopedia of Earth.

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From its Earth and Climate section, ScienceDaily reports on research that indicates, “. . . people generally do not act on information about the effects fossil fuel-based products are having on the environment. And the reason . . . is because of the way discussions on environmental issues are structured.”

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Question: Given the prevalence of media reports and supposed attention given to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, what do you make of these findings published in 2007?

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Climate Change Choices for the U.S.

The National Research Council, on Wednesday, May 19, 2010, released three reports within its America’s Climate Choices suite of studies.  The reports were requested by the U.S. Congress—to inform responses to climate change.

• Advancing the Science of Climate Change
  Advancing the Science of Climate Change focuses on the scientific evidence regarding human-induced climate change and future research needs.
• Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change
  Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change assesses options for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and taking other actions to reduce the magnitude of climate change.
• Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change
  Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change focuses on options to improve the nation’s capacity to adapt to climate change impacts.

Question:  How useful do you think these reports will be in addressing climate change at global scales of spatial resolution?

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President’s Cancer Panel: Environmentally caused cancers are ‘grossly underestimated’ and ‘needlessly devastate American lives.

“The true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated,” says the President’s Cancer Panel in a strongly reported report that urges action to reduce people’s widespread exposure to carcinogens. The panel today advised President Obama “to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our nation’s productivity, and devastate American lives.”

The President’s Cancer Panel on Thursday reported that “the true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated” and strongly urged action to reduce people’s widespread exposure to carcinogens.

The panel advised President Obama ”to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our nation’s productivity, and devastate American lives.”

The 240-page report by the President’s Cancer Panel is the first to focus on environmental causes of cancer. The panel, created by an act of Congress in 1971, is charged with monitoring the multi-billion-dollar National Cancer Program and reports directly to the President every year.

Environmental exposures “do not represent a new front in the ongoing war on cancer. However, the grievous harm from this group of carcinogens has not been addressed adequately by the National Cancer Program,” the panel said in its letter to Obama that precedes the report. “The American people – even before they are born – are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures.”

The panel, appointed by President Bush, told President Obama that the federal government is missing the chance to protect people from cancer by reducing their exposure to carcinogens. In its letter, the panel singled out bisphenol A, a chemical used in polycarbonate plastic and can linings that is unregulated in the United States, as well as radon, formaldehyde and benzene.

Read More . . .

See Press Release

Q: How do you see this report impacting the public’s understanding of the interface of health and environmental quality?

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Climate Change Indicators in the United States

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that “Collecting and interpreting environmental indicators play a critical role in our understanding of climate change and its causes. An indicator represents the state of certain environmental conditions over a given area and a specified period of time. Examples of climate change indicators include temperature, precipitation, sea level, and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.”

Now, EPA has released Climate Change Indicators in the United States (PDF) (80 pp, 13.2MB) that will help readers interpret a set of important indicators to better understand climate change. The report presents 24 indicators, each describing trends related to the causes and effects of climate change. It focuses primarily on the United States, but in some cases global trends are presented to provide context or a basis for comparison. EPA will use these indicators to collect data and generate analyses to:

• Monitor the effects/impacts of climate change in the United States
• Assist decision–makers on how to best use policymaking and program resources to respond to climate change
• Assist EPA and its constituents in evaluating the success of their climate change efforts

Q: It has been reported that this report confirms that climate is changing. What are your thoughts on this contention?

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A report from the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars defines the criteria for a new technology assessment function in the United States.

The report, Reinventing Technology Assessment: A 21st Century Model [PDF], emphasizes the need to incorporate citizen-participation methods to complement expert analysis. Government policymakers, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and citizens need such analysis to capably navigate the technology-intensive world in which we now live.The U.S. Congress set a global precedent in 1972 when it created an Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), but then reversed course in 1995 by shutting down the OTA. In the meantime, 18 European Technology Assessment agencies are flourishing and have pioneered important new methods, including Participatory Technology Assessment (pTA). By educating and engaging laypeople, pTA is unique in enabling decision-makers to learn their constituents’ informed views regarding emerging developments in science and technology. pTA also deepens the social and ethical analysis of technology. European pTA methods have been adapted, tested, and proven in the U.S. at least 16 times by university-based groups and independent nonprofit organizations.

“We style ourselves as living in a ‘technological society’ and an ‘information age,’” notes report author Dr. Richard Sclove, “yet we lack adequate information about – of all things! – the broad implications of science and technology.”

As the pace of technological change quickens and the Obama Administration moves forward on its Open Government Initiative, the time is ripe to institutionalize a robust national TA capability incorporating both expert and participatory TA methods. The Internet and social networking capacities make it possible to organize such an endeavor on a distributed, agile and open basis, harnessing collaborative efficiencies and supporting broad public engagement.

“In the 15 years since OTA was closed, TA has progressed significantly in Europe. It is time for the U.S. to institutionalize a serious, continuous and nonpartisan capability to assess the broad social, ethical, legal, and economic impacts of emerging science and technology in areas such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and earth systems engineering,” said David Rejeski, who directs the Wilson Center program.

In the report, Dr. Scloverecommends creating a nationwide Expert & Citizen Assessment of Science & Technology (ECAST) network that will combine the skills of nonpartisan policy research organizations with the research strengths of universities and the public outreach and education capabilities of science museums. Founding partners in ECAST include the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Wilson Center,, the Boston Museum of Science, Arizona State University, ScienceCheerleader, and the Loka Institute.

Report author Richard Sclove, Ph.D. is founder and senior fellow of the Loka Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making science and technology responsive to democratically decided priorities.

The report can be downloaded at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/techassessment

Q: Do you believe that scientists (or other “experts”) are ready or able to entertain the opinions or concerns of laypersons?

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The Interagency Working Group on Climate Change and Health (IWGCCH) has prepared a report outlining the range of research needs on the human health effects of climate change titled “A Human Health Perspective: On Climate Change“. The IWGCCH states that:

The purpose of this paper is to identify research needs for all aspects of the research-to-decision making pathway that will help us understand and mitigate the health effects of climate change, as well as ensure that we choose the healthiest and most efficient approaches to climate change adaptation.

Climate change endangers human health, affecting all sectors of society, both domestically and globally. The environmental consequences of climate change, both those already observed and those that are anticipated, such as sea-level rise, changes in precipitation resulting in flooding and drought, heat waves, more intense hurricanes and storms, and degraded air quality, will affect human health both directly and indirectly. Addressing the effects of climate change on human health is especially challenging because both the surrounding environment and the decisions that people make influence health. For example, increases in the frequency and severity of regional heat waves—likely outcomes of climate change—have the potential to harm a lot of people. Certain adverse health effects can probably be avoided if decisions made prior to the heat waves result in such things as identification of vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly and ensured access to preventive measures such as air conditioning. This is a simplified illustration; in real-life situations a host of other factors also come into play in determining vulnerability including biological susceptibility, socioeconomic status, cultural competence, and the built environment. In a world of myriad “what if” scenarios surrounding climate change, it becomes very complicated to create wise health policies for the future because of the uncertainty of predicting environmental change and human decisions. The need for sound science on which to base such policies becomes more critical than ever.

Recognizing the complexity of this issue, an ad hoc Interagency Working Group on Climate Change and Health (IWGCCH) assembled to develop a white paper on relevant federal research and science needs, including research on mitigation and adaptation strategies. Examples of mitigation and adaptation research needs are identified, but a comprehensive discussion of these issues is not included. These research and science needs broadly include basic and applied science, technological innovations and capacities, public health infrastructure, and communication and education. Consideration is also given to the potential structure of a federal climate change and health research agenda and the use of scientific research results for applications and decision making. The purpose of this paper is to identify research critical for understanding the impact of climate change on human health so that we can both mitigate and adapt to the environmental effects of climate change in the healthiest and most efficient ways. Although the group recognizes the global nature of climate change’s impacts on human health, the primary focus of this paper is on the situation in the United States.

This report is organized around 11 broad human health categories likely to be affected by climate change. Categories are arranged in alphabetical order, and no prioritization—for instance as to likelihood of occurrence, severity of effects, or depth of current knowledge—is implied. Each category is broken into sections that introduce the topic, explain its relationship to climate change, and identify the basic and applied research needs of that category, as well as crosscutting issues where relevant. Most investigations of climate change and health have relied on environmental and ecological effects to extrapolate potential human health impacts; the IWGCCH deliberately chose to emphasize the need for research on human health outcomes over environmental impacts for this reason: this approach highlights direct links between climate change and federal research priorities that are often disease- or outcome-specific, and a focus on human health outcomes enables a holistic approach to exploring climate change-related health impacts. We recognize that the health consequences identified in this document are not exhaustive, and that because so many climate change effects are prospective, some of the research needs enumerated may be speculative. As more information becomes available, new research needs may be identified and others rejected, but it is our intent that this report may serve as a baseline discussion from which agencies can proceed.

• Full Report (PDF) [14.1 MB]

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ScienceDaily reports on research conducted at the University of Minnesota. The research acknowledges that “Environmentally friendly products are everywhere one looks. Energy efficient dishwashers, bamboo towels, the paperless Kindle and, of course, the ubiquitous Prius are all around.” The study asks “. . . why do people buy these “green” products? Do they care about the environment or is there something else at play?”

See an Abstract of the Research Paper

Q: How do you see the need for status as influencing desires for green products?

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Humberto Blanco-Canqui of Kansas State University reports in Agronomy Journal that:

“Crop residues, perennial warm season grasses, and short-rotation woody crops are potential biomass sources for cellulosic ethanol production. While most research is focused on the conversion of cellulosic feeedstocks into ethanol and increasing production of biomass, the impacts of growing energy crops and the removal of crop residue on soil and environmental quality have received less attention. Moreover, effects of crop residue removal on soil and environmental quality have not been compared against those of dedicated energy crops.”

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Jinglei Yu and co-authors report in Environmental Science and Technology on proposed regulations, now under debate in the U.S. Congress to ban the export of electronics waste.  The authors say in their policy analysis that the regulations would likely make a growing global environmental problem even worse.

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