The ozone layer’s healing, could recover fully: Study

The ozone layer is continuing to heal and has the potential to fully recover, according to a new study. A scientific paper heralds a rare success in the reversal of environmental damage and shows that orchestrated global action can make a difference.

A researcher said, " we found signs of climate changes in the southern hemisphere, specifically in the air circulation patterns. The challenge was showing that these changing air circulation patterns were due to the shrinking ozone hole following the implementation of the Montreal Protocol.

The emissions of ozone-depleting substances that were responsible for the ozone hole- the CFCs from spray cans and refrrigerants- started to decline around 2000, thanks to the Montreal Protocol.

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Future generations will face greater health problems due to climate change

Children are growing up in a warmer world that will hit them with more and different health problems than their parents experienced, an international report by doctors said.

With increasing diarrhea diseases, more dangerous heat waves, air pollution and increases in mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and malaria, man-made global warming is already harming public health around the world, the annual climate change and health report from the medical journal said.

But the report and its authors said they worry that the future health of the world’s youngest people will get even grimmer if emissions of heat-trapping gases aren’t curbed.

“A child born today as they go through their lives they are going to be increasingly exposed to more and more harms that I did not experience,” said study co-author Dr Renee Salas, a Boston emergency room physician and professor at Harvard.

“I cannot think of a greater health emergency,” Salas said.

Already, the number of days when conditions are ripe for the spread of the water-borne bacteria Vibiro, a major cause of debilitating diarrhoea, have doubled since 1980 with last year ranking second-highest on record, the report said. Because of the warming climate, 29 percent more of the U.S. coastline is vulnerable to Vibrio. The report also said the cholera version of Vibrio has increased by nearly 10 percent.

Nine of the top 10 years where conditions were most ripe for dengue fever transmission have occurred since 2000, the report said.

Those diseases hit children harder, the report said. And children, the elderly, the poor and the sick are most hurt during extreme heat with dangerous overheating, respiratory disease and kidney problems.

“Children are the most vulnerable. They will bear the vast majority of the burden of climate change,’’ said Dr Nick Watts, an Australian emergency room physician and the lead author of the global report. “Their health will be hit by climate change in a profoundly different way.”

While medicine and public health have improved over the decades, allowing people to live longer, climate change “threatens to undermine all of the gains we’ve had,” Salas said.

Dr Cindy Parker, an environmental health professor at Johns Hopkins University, praised the peer-reviewed report, which she wasn’t part of, but she worried that focusing on the health effects that have already happened lessens the urgency of the future.

“Climate change is a risk amplifier,” Parker said in an email. So as bad as the health problems are, add in water and food shortages caused by climate change and there will be more social unrest and conflict around the world that will still hit the United States in indirect ways, she said.

As an emergency room doctor, Salas said diseases that spread farther because of a changing climate, such as Lyme Disease, are something she has to consider when she treats patients.

During an emergency room shift in July, Salas saw an elderly man during a heatwave with a body temperature of 106 degrees. The ambulance crew said he lived on the top floor of a public housing complex with no air conditioning and when they opened the door “there was this wave of heat that hit them.”

Salas was able to save him. But as a doctor, she struggles with cases where there is no way to treat the patient, such as with devastating bleeding inside the brain. With climate change health problems, she said, the remedy is stopping emissions of heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and gas.

“We can’t ‘doctor’ our way out of this,” said Dr Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, who wasn’t part of the study but praised it. “We must address the root causes of climate change.”

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Heart disease greater in people living near oil & gas wells

People living near areas with oil and gas exploration sites could be at more risk of developing cardiovascular disease, say researchers. The pilot study found that those who lived in these areas showed early signs of CVD, including higher blood pressure, changes in the stiffness of blood vessels, and markers of inflammation.

"We are not sure whether the responsible factor is noise or emissions from the well pads or something else, but we did observe that with more intense oil and gas activity around a person's home, cardiovascular disease indicator levels increased," said a researcher.

For the study, the team measured indicators of CVD among nearly 100 men and women. These participants did not smoke tobacco or marijuana and had no history of diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or chronic inflammatory disease like asthma or arthritis. 

Also, the participants did not have jobs that exposed them to dust, fumes, solvents or oil or gas development activities. While behavioural and genetic factors contribute to the burden of CVD, exposure to environmental stressors, such as air pollution, noise and psychosocial stress also contribute to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

One increasingly common source of these stressors is extraction of oil and gas in residential areas, which includes fracking, horizontal drilling, and micro-seismic imaging, the researchers said.

In addition, previous studies have shown that short and long-term exposure to the kind of particulate matter emitted from oil and gas operations may be associated with increases in CVD and death.

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Air pollution is the leading cause of lung cancer, says World Health Organisation

The air we breathe is laced with cancer-causing substances and is being officially classified as carcinogenic to humans, the World Health Organisation has said. 

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said that in 2010, 223,000 deaths from lung cancer worldwide resulted from air pollution.

The agency also said that there is convincing evidence it increases the risk of bladder cancer.

It listed the main sources of outdoor air pollution as transport, power generation, industrial and agricultural emissions, and heating and cooking in residential buildings. 

Some air pollutants also have natural sources, it added.

Air pollution is already known to increase risks for a wide range of diseases, such as respiratory and heart diseases. 

Depending on the level of exposure in different parts of the world, the risk was found to be similar to that of breathing in second-hand tobacco smoke, Kurt Straif, head of the agency's section that ranks carcinogens, told reporters in Geneva.

In a statement, deputy head of the WHO cancer agency, Dana Loomis, said: 'Our task was to evaluate the air everyone breathes rather than focus on specific air pollutants.

'The results from the reviewed studies point in the same direction: the risk of developing lung cancer is significantly increased in people exposed to air pollution.'

Air pollution, mostly caused by transport, power generation, industrial or agricultural emissions and residential heating and cooking, is already known to raise risks for a wide range of illnesses including respiratory and heart diseases.

Research suggests that exposure levels have risen significantly in some parts of the world, particularly countries with large populations going through rapid industrialisation.

IARC reviewed thousands of studies on air pollution tracking populations over decades and other research such as those in which mice exposed to polluted air experienced increased numbers of lung tumours.

In a statement released after reviewing the literature, the Lyon-based agency said both air pollution and particulate matter - a major component of it - would now be classified among its Group 1 human carcinogens.

That ranks them alongside more than 100 other known cancer-causing substances in IARC's Group 1, including asbestos, plutonium, silica dust, ultraviolet radiation and tobacco smoke.

Dr. Christopher Wild, director of IARC, told a news briefing in Geneva that the work's aim is to be as comprehensive as possible.

He said: 'Often we're looking at two, three or four decades once an exposure is introduced before there is sufficient impact on the burden of cancer in the population to be able to study this type of question.'

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