Lite Initiatives

Archive for November, 2010

Here is a pre-recession, pre-cars-for-clunkers-government-stimulus-program joke about Detroit as the US city of car makers: “Detroit is one city that knows how to deal with air pollution.  It pumps its air into the tires of the cars it manufactures and quietly ships it out of town.”  Air pollution is a deadly reality in almost every city around the world.

According to some news reports a few years ago, Tokyo policemen return regularly to headquarters to breathe oxygen.  There were also some vending machines, even hip bars and clubs that dispense oxygen to pedestrians and customers.  Across the world, the smoke and smudge over Los Angeles could be seen by astronauts from space.  Fast forward it a bit, and the most recent Olympics which was held in China made an uproar in the international committee.  This is not because of dubious awarding of medals but because some athletes refused to participate, citing the health reasons due to the thick smog that covered most of the competition venues.

Most people think that everything is unlimited.  On the contrary, everything has its limits—from the payday advances one applies for to the air he or she breathes.  Surprisingly, some still believe the sky is unlimited and a vast natural resource.  They think the huge piece of space up there will not affect the earth.  But the earth is a closed system.  The waste disposal process that we have produced clearly has limits and is finite.  It is important to realize that the winds that ventilate the earth are only six miles high.  Above this level, the air rapidly thins out to almost nothing by the 15 mile level.  There is a limited six mile umbrella that covers the world.  Unfortunately, more and more people are filling every inch of air space with dangerous pollutants that are harmful for them and the succeeding generations.

More shocking to realize is that other than outdoor air pollution, there is also indoor air pollution that people have to deal with.  This could be classified as a silent, invisible enemy because most people don’t know what hit them when they get ill due to harmful indoor air pollutants.  The causes of indoor air pollution in urban residential homes can be from natural sources such as house dust mites.  Another cause of indoor air pollution can be man-made or anthropogenic, such as cigarette smoke.  While natural causes may be more common, it’s the man-made causes that pose the greater threat to a household’s health and well-being.

Dust mites are microscopic and almost invisible insects that exist everywhere inside homes.   In homes with cigarette smokers, on the other hand, the danger from second-hand smoke far outweighs that from dust mites.  Cigarette smoke contains dioxins among its 4,000 chemicals.  Forty of which are known carcinogens.  Long term exposure to dioxins can lead to an increased risk of cancerous tumors.  Thus, cigarette smoke is one of the most dangerous sources of indoor pollutants, especially for children.

Constant cleaning is the best defense against dust mites.  Stopping the habit of smoking cigarettes is the best way to eliminate dangerous indoor air pollution.  Better start doing these things now.

Incoming search terms:

• causes of air pollution (1)

Clean air is a prime precondition of our shape. However, most of the people in United States and other urban countries bear from exposure too many air pollutants that put our fitness at stake. Air pollution affects our wellbeing in different behavior from plain to grave harms. For example, particulate matter in the air decreases life expectancy according to many researchers; Pollutants such as ozone annoy people’s breathing, trigger asthma symptoms and produce lung and mind diseases; exposure to environmental tobacco smoke causes many brutal respiratory wellbeing troubles such as asthma and lung pest. Prolonging exposure to certain air pollutants can even touch creature infertility according to topical remedial researches on air pollution.

Nowadays, scientists have discovered a lot of empathy and respiratory diseases related to air pollution; the most joint are:

Minor Respiratory Diseases – The best known is the cold, accompanied with symptoms such as sore throats, congestion and runny nose, cough and sometimes irritation of eyes.

Respiratory treatise Infections – the most universal are bronchitis and pneumonia, caused by viruses or bacteria. Cough characterized them, fever, chills and dyspnea (difficulty breathing).

Asthma – Asthma attacks can be triggered by countless factors, counting corporeal activity, infections, exposure to pollen, allergies and stress. They can also be triggered by sensitivity to non-allergenic pollutants in the air such as haze. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) – It includes two foremost troubles: emphysema and unending bronchitis. Emphysema is an unceasing infection characterized by injuries and defeat of elasticity in the alveoli. Inflammation characterized chronic bronchitis of the lining cells inside the airways, which increases the menace of infection and obstacle of the entry and exit of air from the lungs. While other forms of air pollution can affect the development of these diseases, Smoking is responsible for about 80% of gear of recurring obstructive pulmonary disease.

Lung Cancer – It is the chief root of pest deaths among women and men. Cigarette smoked contains different carcinogens and is behind most suitcases of this momentous disease. Lung melanoma typically doesn’t trigger signs and symptoms in its initial stages. When the disease is advanced the symptoms of lasting cough, shortfall of desire, wheezing and chest grief can happen. Scientists have discovered a connection between air pollution and lung cancer.

Coronary concern disease (CHD) – disorders of the coronary arteries a reduction characterized that or impasse of arteries or blood vessels carrying blood and oxygen to the heart. Cigarette Smoked (including next hand smoke), lack of training, fatness, high cholesterol, family chronicle of coronary highway disease and hypertension (high blood anxiety) are the core factors of this medicinal disorder.

Heart collapse – is a poser that occurs when the heart is incapable to do its job, transfer blood to the lungs and the breather of the body. The most joint affect is a genuine disease of the coronary conduit. It could also be triggered by a sensitivity to non-allergenic pollutants in the air. The core symptoms are dumpiness of breath and engorged ankles and feet.

Heart Arrhythmia (Irregular Heartbeat) – consists of bumpy or abnormal heartbeat. In some luggage, arrhythmia is the findings of coronary route disease. It could also be triggered by sensitivity to pollutants in the air. The symptoms of arrhythmia are palpitations in the chest and vertigo. Certain types of arrhythmia are risky and want emergency medical medicine.