What You Can't See Can Kill You

Some Medical Groups Say Microscopic Soot Can Lead To Fatal Diseases

(CBS)  One day last July, a power plant smokestack rained black soot on the farms and homes of Shippingport, Pa., CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports.

The power company, First Energy, said it was a maintenance accident — and, according to local residents, warned them not to eat anything dusted by the soot.

The accident, which had the power company power-washing a town, was an unusually severe and visible example of what Americans breathe — in much smaller amounts — every day. And not just from power plants: Trucks, cars and even fires produce microscopic soot particles and chemicals that can damage your lungs.

"Particle pollution, soot, kills people," says Janice Nolan with the American Lung Association

The American Lung Association is one of many leading medical groups demanding that the Bush administration adopt stricter controls on microscopic soot. These groups cite overwhelming evidence linking microscopic particles to fatal diseases.

Tens of thousands of people die "every year, from soot-based heart attacks, cancer, strokes," Nolan says.

Despite that evidence, when the Environmental Protection Agency had the chance to set a tough new annual emissions standard for soot this year, the agency declined. The EPA also declined a request by CBS News to explain that decision on camera, but in a written statement said, "EPA's air-quality standards are the most health-protective in U.S. history. ..."

Dr. Roger McClellan, an EPA adviser, agrees with the agency; he says none of the research cited by critics proves that tougher standards will save lives.

"They are just stretching the scientific data. And I think that has been used excessively to try to scare the public into thinking these are real deaths," McClellan says.

However, in a 20-2 vote last year, an independent committee of scientists advising the EPA said tighter annual control on microscopic soot would save lives.

When EPA dismissed this, critics said the Bush administration was ignoring science to go easy on industry.

Meanwhile, the power company in Shippingport is now telling residents it's safe to eat vegetables if they're washed. But remember, the black rain that fell that day was pollution you could see. On every other day, it's what you can't see that could kill you.

[red8bird]

Dear Folks, we sure could have used you a few months ago when they gave the go ahead to build a coal fired Power Plant between Shippenport and Downtown Pittsburgh. All of the pollution is heading straight for Pgh. It's only 15 miles away. If you go to www.post-gazette.com go to the bottom of the page and under archives type in Beech Hollow Power Plant, and see for yourselves how the company who is building the plant paid off 3 supervisors of Robinson Twp. Construction was to start Oct.1st. If you send me an address I can send you a foldout about the Plant. Please see if you can help us in anyway. Robert T. Anderson 2564 Hawthorne Dr. Oakdale, Pa. 15071

[vriss]

I would imagine that people would be shocked to know what it is they breathe in every day and I'm not talking about particulate matter, either. With an alarming increase in asthma patients over the years, you'd think people would get a clue. I know that smoking is bad for people, but with all the chemicals and microscopic particulates that aren't monitored in the air, it would seem that many deaths blamed on smoking are really caused by our filthy air. It will be interesting to see, years from now, what the government's excuse will be when there aren't any smokers left, but the lung cancer rates have increased.

[vriss]

An excellent book regarding the air we breathe is: "The Toxic Cloud: The Poisoning of America's Air" by Michael Harold Brown, 1988. This book is, unfortunately, out of print, but here is an editorial review provided by Amazon.com:

From Publishers Weekly
"Something in the wind" has a literal rather than a literary connotation for journalist Brown. That "something" is composed of unseen toxic particlescarcinogens, compounds akin to nerve gas, unknown combinations of hazardous chemicals, the infamous MIC of the Bhopal disasterwafted on the wind far from their points of origin. Of approximately 204 dangerous compounds, the EPA regulates seven, according to the author. In Laying Waste, he looked at the Love Canal and other areas of ground pollution. Here he examines contaminated air and its travels throughout the country. Not a place in the U.S. is free of toxic clouds: pesticide residues from the cotton fields of Texas and Mississippi have turned up on Isle Royale in Lake Superior; along the Gulf coast, petrochemicals produce a breathtaking miasma, and the chances of contracting cancer there are one in three. Brown charges that EPA policy favors polluters and that neither government nor industry is willing to take responsibility for clean air. Perhaps this crusading book will help spur us to action."

[skyk-2009]

What I think is really a slap in the face here is that the Criminals who created this mess took all the Jobs American's were doing to create the Polution to other nations. Why? One of the reasons given was the enviromental standards weren't as tough in those third world countries. We have people in very powerful places who care less about the public as long as they can make a few bucks.

[randalds]

The EPA was turned over to former lobbyists as one of the first orders of business when Bush took power. The *** over, rape really, of the environment in favor of big business has been one of the most under reported stories of the past 6 years because of the war in Iraq. Still they've managed to do at least as much damage to our homeland of America with pollution, clear cutting, mining and oil drilling leases, as they have with bombs and missiles in Iraq.

[sjc_1]

Health is one of the "externalized" costs that economists talk about. Whether it is diesel locomotive pollution or car tailpipes, none of us pays the health costs for pollution up front. So all of us have to pay them up front in pollution laws and increased costs for goods and services. Even if you only counted money and not suffering nor loss of life, it is good to pay up front, rather than later.