Red cedars show that Clean Air Act is reducing pollution, improving forests

Ecologists studying centuries-old eastern red cedar trees in the Central Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia say the trees are recovering from decades of sulfur pollution and acid rain.

The research team spent four years studying the trees which are in an area downwind of the Ohio River Valley coal power plants. The area experienced high amounts of acidic pollution -- caused by sulfur dioxide emissions -- in the 20th century.

By studying more than 100 years of eastern red cedar tree rings, the scientists found that the trees have improved in growth and physiology in the decades since the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970.

"There is a clear shift in the growth, reflecting the impact of key environmental legislation," says Jesse Nippert, associate professor of biology at Kansas State University.

Researchers analyzed tree rings back to the early 1900s, when sulfur dioxide deposition throughout the Ohio River Valley began to increase. They were able to compare the trees' growth patterns and changes in physiology to changes in atmospheric chemistry during the 20th century. Results showed that despite increased carbon dioxide -- which tends to increase plant growth -- tree growth and physiology declined for the majority of the 20th century when acidic pollution was high.

But scientists noticed a dramatic change around 1980, 10 years after the Clean Air Act was enacted.

"Our data clearly shows a break point in 1982, where the entire growth patterns of the trees in this forest started on a different trajectory," Nippert said. "It took 10 years for that landmark environmental legislation to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, but it eventually did. When it did, we saw an entire ecosystem recover from years of acidic pollution."

Another interesting finding from the tree ring analysis: Results from the Great Depression era in the 1930s were very similar to the results from post-1980. Because of the suppressed economy during the Great Depression, coal power plants were less productive and the Ohio River Valley had reduced fossil fuel emissions. Similar to the post-1980 data, data from the 1930s showed improved tree growth and physiology.

"It's kind of interesting that those two very important periods in our history match up perfectly in terms of the responses seen throughout this whole forest ecosystem," Nippert said.

The findings appear in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, or PNAS, in the article "Evidence of recovery of Juniperus virginiana trees from sulfur pollution after the Clean Air Act." 

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Video: Presentation on air pollution and pre-term birth

Dr. Amy Padula of Stanford University discusses how women who are exposed to traffic-related air pollution during pregnancy tend to have pre-term birth babies, especially for those exposed in the second trimester.  

 

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Geographic factors can cause allergies, asthma

Those living near the equator may find themselves sneezing and wheezing more than usual. And the reason may not be due to increasing pollen counts. According to a new study in the February issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), living in locations closest to the equator can put you at increased risk of developing allergy and asthma.

"UV-B rays exposure is higher for people living in areas closer to the equator," said Vicka Oktaria, MPH, lead study author. "This increase in UV-B may be linked to vitamin D, which is thought to modify the immune system. These modifications can lead to an elevated risk of developing allergy and asthma."

Previous studies have shown that latitude can reflect a variation in airborne allergens due to climate, housing and social and cultural differences. This study is one of the first using the individuals latitude location and UV-B exposure to examine the association with allergy and asthma.

"Allergies and asthma are serious diseases that can be life-threatening if not diagnosed and treated properly," said allergist Richard Weber, MD, ACAAI president. "Both conditions can be more than bothersome for people, no matter their geographic location, and can last year-round."

According to ACAAI, many people that have an allergy also experience asthma symptoms. In fact, an estimated 75 to 85 percent of asthmatics have an allergy.
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The pros and cons of HEPA air purifiers

HEPA or High Efficiency Particulate Arresting air purifiers use a fibrous filter to trap ultrafine particles. HEPA filtration was actually born from an infamous and historically significant event; the development of the atomic bomb. It was created to prevent the spread of minute radioactive particles. Today, HEPA plays an equally important role in home air purifiers, filtering dangerous particles from air pollution and smoke that have been linked to heart disease, cancer and respiratory illnesses. While widely recommended, HEPA-only air purifiers have a significant disadvantage; they cannot filter out other worrisome modern-day pollutants like chemicals, gases and odors.

What exactly is HEPA?

HEPA filters are comprised from tightly arranged fibres that trap hazardous fine particles that could otherwise be inhaled and settle in the body. To be classified as HEPA, the filter must remove at least 99.97% of all particles greater than 0.3 micrometers. Air purifiers that claim to be "HEPA-type" or “HEPA-like” may not have been adequately tested and could provide inferior air filtration. 

Why can’t HEPA air purifiers filter all types of contaminants?

While the design of the HEPA filter is ideal for trapping ultrafine particles, other pollutants like gases, fumes, chemicals and odors pass right through.  Air purifiers that trap a wider range of contaminants combine HEPA filtration with another filtration media. 

Air purifiers with activated carbon

The most efficient filter material for trapping gaseous pollutants is activated carbon. Like HEPA, activated carbon was developed by the military, and then commercialized for residential use.  It’s so effective, that activated carbon is widely used by heavy industry to trap toxic chemicals and is also used in water filtration. As home air quality concerns shift to dangerous airborne chemicals, some manufacturers have unfortunately used carbon as marketing ploy. These types of inefficient air purifiers use only a thin carbon mesh and claim their units can remove odors and chemicals. The adsorption capacity of carbon-mesh is so limited that these types of filters may be full within only weeks or days of use, depending on the level of pollutants in the environment. Only air purifiers with pounds of deep-bed activated carbon can provide lasting adsorption of chemicals, gases and odors.

How does activated carbon work?

The carbon used in air purifiers has been specially treated to open up millions of microscopic pores that attract and trap chemicals, gases and odors. Only a handful of granular activated carbon has a surface area larger than most suburban shopping malls. 

Hybrid Air Purifiers

The most effective air purifiers for today’s air quality challenges combine both of these excellent filtration methods into one unit.  When used together, a HEPA and deep-bed activated carbon air cleaner can remove a wider range of airborne contaminants including allergens like dust, pollen and dander as well as smoke, cleaning chemicals, VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and strong odors.

Learn More

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VIDEO: Woman's allergies were really a leak in her brain

This story might have you second guessing your doctors. Despite numerous medical professionals telling her her constant runny nose was due to allergies, a woman from Tucson says she was convinced there was more to it and she was right....her brain was leaking...

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Possible link between immune system and Alzheimer's

An international research team including scientists from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine has discovered a link between a mutation in an immune system gene and Alzheimer's disease.

Using data from 25,000 people, researchers from the Faculty of Medicine and University College London's Institute of Neurology discovered that a rare genetic mutation in the TREM2 gene — which helps trigger immune system responses — is also associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's. The discovery supports an emerging theory about the role of the immune system in the disease.

"This discovery provides an increasingly firm link between brain inflammation and increased risk for Alzheimer's," says Dr. Peter St George-Hyslop, director of U of T's Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases. "This is an important step towards unraveling the hidden causes of this disease, so that we can develop treatments and interventions to end one of the 21st century's most significant health challenges."

St George-Hyslop, renowned for identifying five genes associated with Alzheimer's disease, says the breakthrough is, "another win for U of T scientists who are building on a worldwide legacy of expertise in neurodegenerative research."

The team began by sequencing the genes of 1,092 people with Alzheimer's and a control group of 1,107 healthy people. The results showed several mutations in the TREM2 gene occurred more frequently in people who had the disease than in those without the disease. One mutation – known as R47H – had a particularly strong association with the disease.

The mutation makes a patient three times more likely to develop the disease, although it affects just 0.3 per cent of the population.

"While the genetic mutation we found is extremely rare, its effect on the immune system is a strong indicator that this system may be a key player in the disease," says Dr. Rita Geurreiro from UCL, the study's lead author.

The study is published now in the New England Journal of Medicine. 
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Breathing air polluted with pesticide additive in pregnancy linked with childhood cough

Mothers who breathe air polluted with a widely used pesticide additive piperonyl butoxide (PBO) have heightened risk of their children having noninfectious coughs at ages 5 and 6, according to researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public Health and of Columbia University Medical Center. 

The findings, which appear in the journal Environment International, support the premise that the children's respiratory system is susceptible to damage from chemical exposure during the prenatal period. A common symptom, childhood cough can disrupt normal daytime activities and interrupt sleep for both child and parent.

Piperonyl butoxide (PBO) is an organic compound used to bolster the effects of pyrethroid pesticides. Pyrethroids are the most commonly used pesticides for both professional pest control and non-professional residential use, according to a 2011 study by Mailman School researchers. Exposure to one pyrethroid, a variation of permethrin, was linked with increased risk for cough by age 5 in a 2009 study by Rachel Miller, MD. In the current study, Dr. Miller and colleagues sought to build on these findings by exploring the effects of subsequent exposure during childhood, looking specifically at the effects of PBO exposure. 

Researchers looked at 224 mother-child pairs enrolled in the CCCEH birth cohort study of environmental exposures, examining measures of PBO and pyrethroid in personal air monitors worn by the mothers during pregnancy. Air samples also were collected from the home over the course of two weeks when children were between 5 and 6 years old. Questionnaires were used to evaluate respiratory outcomes.

Researchers found that children exposed to PBO during pregnancy had increased odds of reporting cough unrelated to cold or flu. Exposures to PBO during childhood were not a factor. There was no observed association between prenatal or childhood permethrin exposure and cough, something the researchers say may be explained by the fact that PBO is much easier to measure in air samples than permethrin. There was also no association with PBO or permethrin exposure and other respiratory outcomes like wheeze or asthma. While it is unclear whether the effect is due mainly to PBO itself or residential pyrethroids of which PBO is an indicator, it is important to remember, says Dr. Miller, that "these exposures may be a factor in a very common problem for children—cough."

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