Saturday, 24 July 2010
INFLAMMATION AND AIR POLLUTION
Inflammation:
The final common pathway of metals and particulates (oxidative stress),allergens (asthma) and gases (noxes and ozone).The picture above shows leakage,the black lines, into inflammed tissues
Most people think of inflammation as a small red painful itchy lump, or a swollen knee or ankle. They think of it as local. A real flu gives a hint at how it can be a whole body response. You won’t hear about this in relation to air pollution from the newspapers, TV, parliament or government bodies. Plausible deniability is one of the reasons for “not knowing” why the body’s rhythms of inflammation make a nonsense of the way averages of pollution, and the general numbers game, are played out in London. Self-amplifying cascades are the order of the day. A single peak episode will trigger an unstoppable, uncontrollable immune reaction leaving the whole body more sensitive to the next lot of pollution and awash with activated cells, new cells breeding fast and swamped with little known hormones, some of which stay around for 24 hours or longer. When this pollution becomes long term, or when we have a long heat wave this gets really serious and leads to permanent scarring and damage. If a child has lived long enough in such conditions the lungs never grow properly, the wounded lungs scarring, if it is in the womb its development is affected.Low birth weight,preterm delivery and therefor infant mortality all rise in frequency. Most politicians prefer to talk about the end stage, dying early, rather than the damage that affects babies or youngsters for their whole life ahead.
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Recent research has highlighted the special place of PM 0.18,now called ultrafine particles:This is a link to an excellent paper:
ReplyDeletea)
http://www.particleandfibretoxicology.com/content/6/1/24
and b)
cardiology.med.ucla.edu/ecvblab/files/Araujo's Lecture Presentation.pdf
Lorries and chimneys will push these up +++
In the meantime proposed solutions to air pollution have crumbled:
Part of the justiications of all planners of pollution is that air quality isn't going to be a problem.Boris says Euro 6 standards will make it all right. Sutton Council has given planning permission to 2 incinerators (two more in the pipeline) on this basis.
SOME HOPE !
We were looking for safeguarding from pollution over the next decade.We were promised it would all come from Euro 6 standard engines. Boris promised it,despite population rises,TFL promised it,despite predicted congestion rises,planners of pollution emitters promised it would all be taken care of.
BUT EURO 6 DOESN'T WORK ! :
http://cleanairinlon
don.org/wp-content/u
ploads/CAL-264-T-and
-E-RDE-a-last-chance
-for-diesel-cars-FIN
AL-300914.pdf
CAR MANUFACTURERS ARE SABOTAGING TEST REGIMES
http://www.thesunday
times.co.uk/sto/news
/uk_news/Health/arti
cle1461995.ece
EU administration has changed and there is a whiff of reneging on promises from last years YEAR OF AIR from Janez Potocnik.Deals within wheels,to our health's great disadvantage:
http://www.euractiv.
com/sections/sustain
able-dev/ngos-rules-
national-emission-ce
ilings-are-under-thr
eat-308984
It seems that the car is winning all over Europe, all over again, and populations are being sacrificed on the altar of "growth"....what is economics actually about then? It certainly isn't about public health.
If Lorries and Chimnies aren't going to win people must join any and every citizen science group to INDEPENDENTLY MEASURE SCHOOLS AIR QUALITY.
The tide of dangerous air has risen, is rising and will continue to rise.Don't expect the Council,Government or Europe to do anything about it....IT'S UP TO YOU.