I would like not to argue the merits of emission controls based on global warming. Instead, there is a substantial and neglected argument for emission control.
I am more familiar with the science of epidemiology than that of climatology I propose medical epidemiology data as a more concrete method of advancing the cause of policies aimed at reducing emissions.
Let’s start with the fact that we can easily track the number of hospital admissions and emergency room visits for asthma exacerbations, respiratory illnesses,and cardiac deaths and show a direct correlation with the level of air pollution for that day or week.
http://www.americanheart.org/present...dentifier=4419
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/airpollution/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16522832
In fact, asthma has increased in prevalence by a whopping forty percent.... the one disease that has increased not only increased in prevalence but also mortality so it is serious subject among medical professionals. Numerous studies show that air pollutants exacerbate asthma but there are also many studies showing it’s link in causing asthma. Who suffers? Children who have to breath in fifty percent more air than adults per body mass.
These studies show counties with higher ozone levels have three times more newly diagnosed asthmatics and more school absences due to respiratory problems.
The EPA has been good about reducing overall air pollutants, skeptics may ask why the increased rate in asthma? Once again, the answer depends on the question asked. The EPA bases its measurements on relatively large particle size airborne pollutants that are measured and thus define air quality index. Experts state that these air quality measurements do not measure the real and much more dangerous smaller particle pollutants which are comprising more of our emissions.
Thus, some may not care about emission's contributions to global warming or our depleting finite fuel supply. However, fossil fuel's effect on medical expenditure usage and the increasing the prevalence of the one disease that has also increased in mortality (compared to many other diseases) and the physical damage to the most vulnerable segment of our society... children,
makes emission control a public health problem. (I have only discussed asthma and did not even go into detail about the exacerbations and increased death or hospitalizations of those with other lung diseases and cardiac events affected by air pollution.)
Thus, policies that decrease emissions is not just an environmental issue, it is a medical issue for many doctors and a public health crisis around the globe.
Atlanta has some of the worst air pollution America and this is not a physical variable that is” due to the usual patterns of global climate changeover time". It is the worst place to live with asthma according the American Asthma and Allergy Foundation. Hmm, maybe a connection?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2002-11-12-pollution-health_x.htm
