It’s like a bargain made with the devil: It turns out we have China’s POLLUTION to thank for the reason climate change hasn’t made the weather warmer. Smoke belching from Asia’s rapidly growing economies is largely responsible for a halt in global warming in the decade after 1998 because of sulfur’s cooling effect.
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Scientists have found chemical flame retardants in the blood of pet dogs at concentrations five to 10 times higher than in humans, but lower than levels found in a previous study of cats. Chemicals are bad for PEOPLE too: A recent study found that higher levels of perfluorocarbons (PFCs) in the body are associated with increased odds of having experienced early menopause in women between 42 and 64 years old. Women in this age group with high levels of PFCs also had significantly lower concentrations of estrogen when compared to women who had low levels of PFCs. And plastic bottles are bad for MEN too: They lead to lower sperm counts.
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Military personnel and contractors stationed in Iraq risk not only enemy gunfire, suicide bombers, and roadside bombs, but the very air they breathe often is polluted with dust and other particles of a size and composition that could pose immediate and long-term health threats–the same type of threat that civilians face who live too near pollution spewing highways and power stations.read more
What to do about the fallout from air pollution? BUILD with it! Not everyone realizes that ash is an essential ingredient in the manufacture of concrete. The nation’s power plants generate about 130 million tons of fly ash, the fine particles that rise with flue gases during combustion, during the coal combustion process. These dangerous particles can be captured through filtration to reduce air pollution and are often stored at coal power plants or placed in landfills.
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