Author Archives: pendari1060

Extended bike lanes and wider sidewalks are among solutions to keep car traffic down as people continue to avoid public transit

When cities put stay-at-home orders in place, traffic plummeted. And some cities, like Paris and Milan, have plans to support the limit automobile use long after the lockdowns end.

The purpose of the policies is to fight local urban air pollution, particularly smog, which is caused by the chemicals in automobile emissions. Milan plans to turn over 21 miles of streets into bike lanes, and Brussels is converting its city core to a priority zone for pedestrians and cyclists, Francesca Perry reports for the BBC. Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo has supported car reduction policies for years, following a decades-long push in the city to pedestrianize the city, Laura Bliss reported for CityLab in 2018.

She said at a Paris City Council special session last month that the pandemic won’t change her plans, which include phasing out diesel cars by 2024 and transitioning to only electric or hybrid vehicles by 2040.

“I say in all firmness that it is out of the question that we allow ourselves to be invaded by cars, and by pollution,” Hidalgo said, per CityLab’s Feargus O’Sullivan. “It will make the health crisis worse. Pollution is already in itself a health crisis and a danger — and pollution joined up with coronavirus is a particularly dangerous cocktail. So it’s out of the question to think that arriving in the heart of the city by car is any sort of solution, when it could actually aggravate the situation.”

Hidalgo’s plan to reduce car usage in Paris also aims to make the space more friendly for pedestrians and cyclists by building wider sidewalks, adding greenery and creating protected bike lanes that extend into the suburbs, according to CityLab. Paris accelerated its plans to construct the long-distance bike lanes because of the pandemic.

As Bloomberg reports, commuters in cities like Beijing and Frankfurt, which have begun to reopen, chose to sit in traffic rather than take public transportation in order to avoid exposure to the coronavirus.

To avoid the same in Paris, the city created temporary bike lanes that follow public transit lines, providing a car-free option for people hesitant to use the shared service. The Paris metro will also provide hand sanitizer at all ticket barriers and require riders to wear masks, and bus services will also be expanded to avoid crowding.

“The pandemic challenges us, but it also offers a once-in-a-lifetime chance to change course and repair the damage from a century of car-focused streets,” says Janette Sadik-Khan, a former New York City transportation commissioner, to the BBC. Sadik-Khan now works with cities creating transportation recovery programs. “Cities that seize this moment to reallocate space on their streets to make it easier for people to walk, bike and take public transport will prosper after this pandemic and not simply recover from it.”

In March, the start of lockdowns and the resulting drop in traffic were joined by a drop in urban air pollution. However, a new analysis by NPR shows that the drop in car traffic leaves a clearer picture of how much pollution comes from other factors like delivery trucks, chemical plants and coal plants in Los Angeles, Houston and Pittsburgh. Though tailpipe emissions fell, the cities’ smog and soot didn’t drop dramatically.

“We don’t need a pandemic to breathe cleaner air,” says University of California, Los Angeles public health specialist Yifang Zhu to NPR. “There is a sustainable way for a society to achieve a cleaner world in the future. We need to do more than we’re doing right now.”

By Theresa Machemer
SMITHSONIANMAG.COM

Originally published May 21, 2020 at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/some-cities-want-keep-traffic-out-when-lockdowns-lift-180974917/

 

“Climate action directly benefits people at a local and regional scale by creating cleaner air. The public health benefits are both immediate and long-term, and we can save the economy billions each year” said one of the study’s co-authors Dr. Yifang Zhu. “It doesn’t need to take a global pandemic to create cleaner air and healthier lives.” 

Amid rising death tolls and the slow down of lives that this pandemic has caused, the improvement of air quality is one clear positive thing that has resulted from coronavirus.

However, some experts are concerned about the post-pandemic air levels and if they’ll return to previous levels.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles say the future of air quality in this state doesn’t have to be bleak.

They’ve laid out a plan in a study to cut greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution by 2050, while preventing approximately 14,000 premature deaths caused by air pollution-related illnesses, which can include respiratory, cardiovascular diseases and neurological problems.

“It doesn’t need to take a global pandemic to create cleaner air and healthier lives,” said one of the study’s lead authors Yifang Zhu. “Climate action directly benefits people at a local and regional scale by creating cleaner air. The public health benefits are both immediate and long-term, and we can save the economy billions each year.”

The study’s roadmap to reach net-zero emissions in California uses existing policies and technologies.

“Nothing we are suggesting is science fiction, but it will take a lot more than what we’re doing now,” said study co-author Tony Wang.

The study found that achieving net-zero emissions in California would do the following:

• Reduce acute respiratory symptoms in 8.4 million adults
• Reduce asthma exacerbation in 1 million children
• Decrease the number of lost workdays by 1.4 million
• Decrease cardiovascular hospital admissions by 4,500

The study’s authors say this research is aimed at assisting state and local policymakers to visualize the benefits of climate change action.

The study, “Health co-benefits of achieving sustainable net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in California,” was published on May 4 in the Journal Nature Sustainability. 

Originally published by CBS-LA at https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/05/04/air-environment-coronavirus-california/

Stay-at-home orders and other social distancing measures have dramatically improved outdoor air quality in cities around the world, but a new study published Tuesday shows that indoor air quality may pose acute risks of its own — especially now that the novel coronavirus has us all spending so much time at home.

The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health study found that after just an hour of using a gas-fired stove or oven, levels of nitrogen dioxide — one of a group of gases that contribute to smog formation and are considered harmful to human health — inside California homes reached levels that exceeded both state and national ambient air-quality standards. The compromised indoor air quality caused by gas-powered furnaces, stoves, and water heaters could increase the likelihood of respiratory and cardiovascular disease and premature death, according to the study.

“The goal of this report is to provide information to Californians on how pollution from gas-fired appliances affects the air they breathe, and the related health effects,” Yifang Zhu, the study’s lead researcher, said in a statement. “California’s state agencies often focus on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts, but there has been much less focus on how fossil fuel use in household appliances can adversely impact indoor air quality and public health.”

The research, commissioned by Sierra Club, comes as recent studies have linked air pollution to higher rates of COVID-19 mortality. Inhaling nitrogen oxides poses especially acute risks to children and the elderly. Meanwhile, residential gas appliances emit approximately 16,000 tons of nitrogen oxides to outdoor air each year — which Rachel Golden, deputy director of Sierra Club’s building electrification program, notes is more than twice the NOx emissions from all of California’s gas-fired power plants combined.

Air pollution concentration matters a great deal, so residents of smaller homes and apartments often have it worse. Researchers found that after an hour of cooking in a small household, more than 90 percent of smaller residences had peak levels of nitrogen oxides that exceeded national ambient air quality standards. As Grist’s resident advice columnist Eve Andrews reminded us last week, indoor air quality isn’t always better than what you’re breathing outdoors.

The study also highlights environmental justice issues, since low-income households tend to have less space and more unmet maintenance needs, which can increase indoor emissions on top of being more at-risk for poor outdoor air quality. These factors may contribute to higher rates of respiratory challenges among low-income communities — particularly communities of color — which in turn may make residents more vulnerable to developing serious complications if they contract COVID-19.

To decrease indoor air pollution, the study proposes that households transition to zero-emission electric appliances. If all residential gas appliances in California were immediately replaced with clean energy alternatives, the resulting decrease in pollution would result in approximately 350 fewer deaths, 600 fewer cases of acute bronchitis, and 300 fewer cases of chronic bronchitis annually.

Without a massive public intervention, however, it seems unlikely that these appliances will be replaced at that scale, at least not in the homes of many low-income residents that could benefit the most. Golden says that policymakers can prioritize a just transition by focusing on efforts to reduce pollution and lower energy bills for vulnerable households, especially given the economic fallout from COVID-19.

“State agencies have a central role to play in helping people replace polluting gas appliances with clean, pollution-free electric alternatives like heat pumps and induction stoves,” Golden told Grist.

Originally published at https://grist.org/energy/study-gas-powered-appliances-may-be-hazardous-for-your-health/
By Rachel Ramirez on Apr 30, 2020

Graphic by Sierra Club

Millions of Californians with “essential” jobs are still going in to work.

Unlike other workers, who can hunker down at home and do their jobs in front of a computer screen, they must still interact with their co-workers and, often, the public. In some cases, such as on production lines, social distancing can be nearly impossible.

So what can workers do if they believe their employers aren’t adequately keeping them safe from potential exposure to the coronavirus? The state agency that enforces workplace safety is backlogged with complaints related to COVID-19 hazards, worker advocates say. But there are still some things to try.

First, the basics. What personal protective gear are workers entitled to?

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires employers to provide workers with personal protective equipment to keep them safe on the job.

The type of gear depends on the risk of exposure.

Workers who are exposed to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases and are performing jobs that can aerosolize the virus — intubating a patient, for example, or performing an autopsy — should wear a respirator, eye protection, gloves and gown, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The same gear recommendation applies for doctors, nurses and healthcare support staff who enter the room of a COVID-19 patient, medical transport workers and mortuary workers, the CDC says. But with the shortage of N95 masks, which filter air as it goes in and as it goes out, the CDC advises giving N95s only to workers who perform tasks that carry the most risk of aerosolizing the virus, and providing less-protective surgical masks to people who do other jobs.

The CDC recommends cloth masks for workers who are exposed to travelers or who have jobs at grocery stores or other high-volume retail environments where they are within six feet of people who may be infected.

“The ‘everybody wear a face mask’ thing is actually important and works when literally everybody wears a face mask,” said Paula Cannon, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the USC Keck School of Medicine. “Part of the purpose of your mask or face covering is to hold in your own respiratory droplets and prevent you from infecting other people.”

The CDC says grocery workers need to wear gloves only if they work in food preparation. They all need to maintain proper hand-washing hygiene, which can include regular use of hand sanitizer, according to the agency.

Gloves are most useful when the wearers are conscious of what they touch, how they remove the gloves (turn them inside out, touching only the inside) and how often they put on a new pair (after finishing a task), Cannon said.

There’s no point in wearing gloves if wearers still rub their eyes or touch their faces, she said. “Gloves work only when you don’t treat them like an outer layer of skin.”

Workers in warehouses, stockrooms and similar nonpublic areas should wear cloth face masks, per the CDC’s guidance, but according to OSHA they don’t need additional gear to protect them from the coronavirus at work as long as they have minimal contact with co-workers.

Should I approach my employer with concerns about coronavirus exposure?

Not by yourself, according to worker advocates.

“If there’s an issue in the workplace, never address something on your own with an employer,” said Alice Berliner, coordinator for the Southern California Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, an advocacy group. “That is when you’re most vulnerable.”

It’s best for workers to approach their supervisor in a group so they can communicate that the issue is a collective problem.

In addition, a group of workers who speak out to their employer about health and safety concerns have some legal protection against retaliation, said Laura Stock, director of the Labor Occupational Health Program at UC Berkeley.

Under California law, workers also have the right to refuse hazardous work, but labor advocates advised thinking carefully before choosing this option.

“Employers can retaliate, and that retaliation may be illegal, but its consequences will likely be very immediate,” said Stephen Knight, executive director of Worksafe, a worker advocacy group. “Any redress will take much longer to pursue with the system.”

So who should I reach out to for support?

Labor experts say workers can talk to their coworkers about what they’ve noticed and questions they have about health and safety issues.

“If there’s any overarching principle … it would be: Don’t go it alone,” said Linda Delp, director of the UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program.

If unionized, workers can also reach out to their union representatives. Collective bargaining agreements can include health and safety provisions. In some cases, that language might go beyond what’s required by law.

For example, a Northern California grocery store union met with company management to talk about health and safety issues, which led the company to offer to install plastic shields at checkstands, said Jim Araby, director of strategic campaigns for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5.

Workers who are not represented by a union can reach out to worker centers or community advocacy groups, such as the Garment Worker Center, the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, the Los Angeles Black Worker Center and the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, for advice and connections to resources.

Can I file a Cal/OSHA complaint?

Yes. Workers have the right to file a complaint with the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA. The agency is to keep the person’s name confidential unless the person requests otherwise.

After receiving a well-documented and strong complaint about a hazard in a workplace, a Cal/OSHA inspector typically goes out to the work site to investigate. The inspector will also interview employees there to hear more about the working conditions. If there’s enough evidence, Cal/OSHA could issue the employer a citation, which includes a fine. The entire process can take months, but sometimes just the threat of a visit from a Cal/OSHA inspector will lead an employer to fix problems, UC Berkeley’s Stock said.

But worker advocacy groups say Cal/OSHA is now flooded with complaints about COVID-19 workplace concerns. Berliner of the Southern California worker advocacy group said she did not know of a single workplace that had been issued an inspection notice.

Cal/OSHA did not respond to a request for comment asking for an estimate of the number of complaints it has received in light of the coronavirus outbreak and how many it has investigated.

Berliner said it’s still important for workers to file a Cal/OSHA complaint.

“It’s really important that the state and Cal/OSHA know that COVID cases are still happening in workplaces, that workers are still being put at risk,” she said. “If Cal/OSHA complaints were to stop … it could be perceived that there isn’t as much of an issue.”

Workers can also follow up with Cal/OSHA after filing the complaint and ask about its status, UCLA’s Delp said.

Are there other options?

Workers who believe their workplaces are not operating safely can also file a report with their county’s department of public health. Unlike Cal/OSHA, which focuses on workers’ rights, these county departments are focused on protecting the public’s health, Worksafe’s Knight said.

“It becomes an issue that’s also about your situation but also is a real mushrooming public health concern because of the exposure of so many other people,” he said.

Workers can also try contacting media organizations if their workplaces have a number of COVID-19 cases, Berliner said.

 

Could a lawsuit lead to workplace changes?

It could, though building a solid case would take a lot of documentation as well as witness and expert testimonies.

If a court finds that an employer violated a broad civil statute known as business and professions code section 17200, the company could be fined and a judge could help fashion a settlement agreement that would mandate changes.

“You can get specific requirements that the employer has to abide by to protect their workers that are tailored to the situation,” said Fran Schreiberg, who was chief of Cal/OSHA’s investigations bureau in the early 1980s.

This type of case could be brought by a private attorney, a local prosecutor or the state’s attorney general.

For this type of case to succeed, she said, an attorney would have to prove that the worker was exposed, that there was a realistic possibility of death as a result of the exposure and that the employer should have known about and corrected these unsafe conditions.

What if my co-workers have tested positive for COVID-19?

Cal/OSHA recommends that anyone whose co-workers test positive for the coronavirus should contact their local public health department for guidance. CDC guidelines direct employers to inform workers if there has been a confirmed case of COVID-19 infection within the workplace, but they are required to maintain confidentiality — not announce the infected worker’s name. Employers should identify potentially exposed employees and alert them directly.

If the workplace followed guidelines on personal protective equipment and hand hygiene, then the risk of transmission is reduced, USC’s Cannon said.

But anxiety could still set in. Cannon suggested looking into getting tested for the virus. People can also practice additional social distancing at home, she said, by telling their families that their co-worker was infected, and sleeping in a separate room if possible.

 

Originally published at LA Times at https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-04-29/coronavirus-work-safety 
By SAMANTHA MASUNAGA, THUC NHI NGUYEN on APRIL 29, 2020

Photo by Russ Allison Lor

WASHINGTON, April 21 (Xinhua) — The arrival of spring in the Northern Hemisphere has raised hope that warmer weather might slow or even stop the COVID-19 epidemic. However, a leading expert told Xinhua on Tuesday that it might be premature to count on higher temperatures to control COVID-19.

“Currently there is no solid data around the world supporting the conclusion that a warmer climate can alleviate COVID-19,” said Yifang Zhu, associate dean and professor of environmental health at the School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles.

The evidence for the association of temperature or UV radiation with COVID-19 transmission is very limited, Zhu said.

There is a possibility that the epidemic might ease when the climate gets warmer, but it is very difficult to predict due to the lack of research data, she told Xinhua.

In a study on the impact of meteorological factors on COVID-19 transmission, published earlier this month in the journal European Respiratory, researchers found ambient temperature has no significant impact on the transmission ability of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Previous results on respiratory-borne infectious diseases indicated that both SARS and influenza need to survive under certain temperature conditions, and increasing temperature can reduce the ability of SARS virus and influenza virus to spread.

However, the study by Chinese researchers at Fudan University showed cumulative incidence rate and R0 — the expected number of secondary cases generated by an initial infectious individual — of COVID-19, held no significant associations with ambient temperature. It suggested that ambient temperature has no significant impact on the transmission ability of SARS-CoV-2.

The study had limitations, including lack of a whole meteorological pattern associated with transmissibility of COVID-19, and other city-level factors such as control policies, urbanization rate and availability of medical resources, which may affect the transmissibility of COVID-19, the researchers acknowledged.

“One should not assume that we are going to be rescued by a change in the weather. You must assume that the virus will continue to do its thing,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

A report released earlier this month by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences suggested that while much about the virus remains unknown, summer temperatures probably will not do much to dampen the spread of the virus.

Studies published so far have conflicting results regarding potential seasonal effects, and are hampered by poor data quality, confounding factors and insufficient time since the beginning of the pandemic from which to draw conclusions, said the report.

Oringally published at http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-04/22/c_138996853.htm

Photo by Conservation Law Foundation.

As COVID-19 continues as a global pandemic, people, businesses and ways of life are being severely disrupted — and no one knows for how long. However, the outcomes are not wholly bleak. Researchers have already identified a link between improved air and water quality and COVID-19.

COVID-19 lockdowns are causing air quality improvements

 

Many of the most publicized positives associated with the COVID-19 outbreak relate to air pollution reductions. By early April, the AFP reported that half the world’s population was asked or ordered to stay at home as government leaders fought to contain the spread.

Satellite images from the European Space Agency captured visual representations of nitrogen oxide counts in European and Asian industrial centers. They indicated a substantial decrease from levels a year ago across only six weeks in 2020.

Also, CNN reported how Dr. Yifang Zhu, an environmental health sciences professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), teamed up with colleagues to examine Southern California air quality from March 16 to April 6. They found a 20% improvement during that span, even though three days of it occurred before the state’s lockdown.

Living in an area with poor air quality makes a coronavirus fatality more likely

Health experts around the world are racing to figure out what makes some areas especially hard hit as the coronavirus outbreak persists. A research team at Harvard University believes low air quality is to blame for higher death rates.

The researchers gathered data from 3,000 U.S. counties representing 98% of the country’s population. Their results showed that long-term exposure to air with more particulate matter increased the risk of dying from COVID-19 by 15%.

The COVID-19 crisis could have unintended ill effects on the planet

Despite the advantageous air quality outcomes mentioned above, some people are afraid that emissions will quickly return to previous levels — or even worse ones — after the lockdowns cease. Plus, some advocates fighting against Earth pollution worry about climate policies getting put on hold as decision-makers set aside funds for other purposes.

For example, April 1 saw the postponement of the COP26 UN climate change conference, due to happen in Glasgow, Scotland, this November. Organizers have not set a new date.

Christian Egenhofer, a senior research fellow at the Energy, Resources and Climate Change Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies, noted: “We might lose half a year to a year in climate negotiations. Finances that have been earmarked for climate will go to other activities. For the next two years, all politicians will be focused on relaunching the economy.”

Another worrisome development is that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would treat civil noncompliance infractions differently due to COVID-19.

For example, it will not penalize parties for some shortcomings related to water quality monitoring and reporting. However, it still expects those entities to ensure the water is safe for human consumption.

Those relaxed rules could have unforeseen implications that will take years to rectify. It’s also possible that companies that were already trying to skirt the requirements will feel even more empowered to do so now.

There’s a link between the coronavirus and water infrastructure

People who have unlimited access to clean water often overlook the role it plays in numerous aspects of society. For example, beverage makers know that chloride, sulfate and other anions adversely affect the taste of many drinks, including wine and beer. Thus, manufacturers rely on reverse osmosis and other purification techniques to ensure consistent quality.

During the fight against the coronavirus, health experts repeatedly say washing hands for 20-30 seconds is one of the best ways to stay healthy. What about if a person does not have access to clean water? Then, using any contaminated supplies to try and safeguard against the coronavirus could lead to other health consequences, such as diarrhea.

During coverage of World Water Day, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) emphasized the need for clean water around the world. It mentioned how 40% of people globally don’t have basic handwashing facilities at home. Moreover, women and girls travel to collect water about 80% of the time, often enduring lengthy and dangerous trips.

Even in developed nations, handwashing is often impossible for homeless people. In American cities like Austin, apps exist that show people where they can go to wash their hands. However, the homeless often doesn’t have Internet access.

Animals return to Venice canals due to less sediment near the surface

With so much emphasis on air and water quality changes due to the coronavirus, there’s also a chance that people could wrongly attribute a new aspect to improved water quality. For example, some fish and bird species came back to the canals in Venice, suggesting a bright spot in Italy’s tough coronavirus fight.

However, a researcher who studies Venice lagoons told ABC News that the recent low water turbidity does not equal cleanliness. Reduced sediment pushed to the surface from boat traffic made the water appear clearer instead.

Could air and water quality changes lead to long-term action?

Since evidence shows the positive things that could happen over a short period, perhaps more lawmakers will take action concerning the matters outlined here. However, activists must continue putting pressure on them to increase that likelihood.

Originally published at: https://intpolicydigest.org/2020/04/16/how-covid-19-could-impact-air-and-water-quality/

“If there is a major outbreak among farmworker communities, it can spread very, very quickly,” said Lucas Zucker, director of policy and communications for the Central Coast Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSA), which advocates immigrants, indigenous and undocumented communities in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

“I am really concerned about what will happen when the strawberry peak season coincides with this peak Covid-19 outbreak,” he added. “You can’t pick strawberries on Zoom.”

That collision will be a severe blow to a segment of the population that greatly lacks not only medical care, but also sometimes even the information on how to better protect themselves before or after exposure.

Advocates have been encouraging producers to take “significant steps” to protect farm workers from coronavirus exposure by promoting workplace practices that prioritize worker health and safety, but say many companies do not. they are responding.

The United Farm Workers union surveyed farmworkers through social media to determine if employers are providing information related to the coronavirus. The union found that few are doing so, according to Armando Elenes, the organization’s secretary-treasurer.

Certain employers operating under union contracts have issued new guidelines, such as selection practices that require social distancing. But across the industry, the UFW says it has learned from its members that companies are not applying these best practices. In its March 30 letter to agricultural employers, the UFW requested long-term sick leave, easy access to medical services, as well as screenings, tests and treatment for non-union farm workers who lack medical care.

Among farmworkers that CAUSE has surveyed, workers report that employers are providing reports of safety measures at the start of work shifts and are staggering people in the ranks of the field. But even with these measures in place, Zucker noted that the nature of the job makes it difficult for workers to comply. For example, during the peak season, employers pay workers per box, creating a strong incentive for farmworkers to skip breaks.

“Things like taking 20 seconds to wash your hands, it seems like not that long. But when you’re washing your hands, it’s a long time, especially when you feel like you have to go out to earn a dollar to survive, “said Zucker.

Beate Ritz, an expert in occupational epidemiology at the University of California School of Public Health in Los Angeles, said the coronavirus is highly likely to spread to working-class farming communities, based on existing transmission patterns.

The impact of the coronavirus will be determined by the seriousness with which the agricultural industry takes this threat to health, if they apply security measures and what resources are allocated to address problems such as access to medical care.

“It can have a big outbreak and the whole system breaks down or, as we are trying to do now by what they call the ‘leveling the curve’, so it doesn’t peak, it can have spread over time, ”said Ritz.

The Institute for Economic Policy also warns that the peak in agricultural employment, which increases from spring to July, will overlap with the peak of the coronavirus. The nonpartisan panel of experts, which conducts economic investigations, concluded that employers should provide health insurance, paid sick days and adequate safety equipment. The expert group argues that producers should also implement social distancing measures, even if some of these security measures reduce productivity.

“Farm workers already work under what can sometimes be dangerous and unhealthy conditions, and now Covid-19 presents an additional challenge,” the report said.

Many of the areas that employ farmworkers tend to be rural and lack the health care and other infrastructure to respond to a potential outbreak. In the state of Washington and California, the UFW Foundation is concerned that farmworkers do not seek medical care even if they have symptoms, because they lack health insurance or fear deportation. Some have never been treated by a doctor.

Originally published at: https://newsdio.com/farm-workers-cant-pick-strawberries-with-zoom/89787/

Photo by Nathan Wells

(CNN) The mental image many people have of the Los Angeles skyline is one obscured by smog, with thick air pollution hanging over its downtown buildings.

But with the city — and the entire state of California — under stay-at-home orders to stem the deadly outbreak of coronavirus, something dramatic has happened to the air in LA.
On Tuesday, LA saw some of the cleanest air of any major city in the world, according to IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company which also monitors pollution levels in cities around the globe.

 

EPA data shows that in March of this year, the Los Angeles area experienced the longest stretch of “good” air quality since at least 1995.

And beginning in early March of this year, EPA air quality data shows that the city of Angels experienced its longest stretch of “good” air quality since at least 1995.

Dr. Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental health sciences at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, said that she and her colleagues identified a similar trend.

Between March 16 — three days before California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state’s 40 million residents to stay home — and April 6, Zhu’s team found there was a 20% improvement in overall air quality in Southern California.
 

Zhu’s team also found a 40% drop in levels of PM 2.5, a class of microscopic air pollutants that have been linked to serious cardiovascular and respiratory problems, especially in children and the elderly. A study released Monday, by Xiao Wu and Rachel C. Nethery of Harvard University, also linked exposure to PM 2.5 to an increased risk of death from Covid-19.
PM 2.5 ends up in our air from many sources, but Zhu said vehicle traffic is a big contributor in Southern California.
Since California’s stay-at-home order went into effect, Zhu’s team has found that traffic across the state has fallen by around 80%.
The massive drop — in one of the most traffic-choked states in the country — is likely a big reason for the cleaner air.
“With less cars on the road and less emissions coming from those tailpipes, it’s not surprising to see improvements in the air quality overall,” Zhu said.
The coronavirus has forced many of the world’s biggest countries to restrict people’s movements, and similar declines in air pollution have been observed around the world — from India and China, to the US and Europe.

Unfortunately, the reduced pollution is probably temporary. As lockdowns lift and commutes to work resume, LA’s air quality is likely going to decline again.
And though the cleaner air is positive news for the health of Southern Californians, it’s important to remember that these improvements have come at a massive cost in terms of lives and livelihoods lost because of the virus.

But what this also reveals, Zhu said, is that we can take action to improve our air quality, and that we don’t need a pandemic or a loss of life and wealth to make it happen.
“From the society level, I think we need to think really hard about how to bring about a more sustainable world, where technologies and policies come together to bring us cleaner energy,” she said. “So that the air that we’re breathing will stay as clean as what we’re breathing today.”

CNN’s Judson Jones contributed to this report.

Originally published April 7, 2020 at https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/us/los-angeles-pollution-clean-air-coronavirus-trnd/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1dQpZoUfdPmpaRZNmvZqqbcVw4Wx27bTQBG5swJolkP-SJWvKzqhltzhA

“People were dropping like flies,” said Dr Christy Montegut, his voice slowed by exhaustion.

Dr Montegut, the coroner in St John the Baptist parish, recited a scene of devastation similar to the ones seen by coroners in major metropolitan areas of the United States overwhelmed with Covid-19 deaths. But St John the Baptist, a small jurisdiction of 43,000 people in southern Louisiana, is no sprawling metropolis. Here, in this sparsely populated parish 30 miles from New Orleans, the Covid-19 death rate is the highest of any county in America with a population of over 5,000 people.

“We were getting calls almost every hour. The body count was just … amazing. …They all died in the same way. They got to a hospital, were on a ventilator, but the body just couldn’t keep going. They died in spite of full treatment. The virus is overwhelming.”

According to Montegut’s latest count, 30 people have died of Covid-19 in the parish since the outbreak of the crisis, a rate of 68.7 per 100,000 people. By contrast, New York City, the center of the virus in America, has a rate of 29.

The Trump administration is now tracking deaths in the parish along with other major urban hotspots in the country, Dr Deborah Birx, the US government’s coronavirus response coordinator, said at Sunday’s White House briefing.

Louisiana continues its battle with the virus. Governor John Bel Edwards announced on Monday that 512 people have died statewide and acknowledged for the first time that African American residents made up 70% of all deaths, despite being only 32.7% of the population.

The racial disparity was not immediately clear in St John the Baptist. But Montegut warned that if the death rate continues at the pace it has over the past 14 days, the parish will be completely overwhelmed. He has requested a refrigerated truck to store bodies. There is no morgue in St John the Baptist parish, nor are there any ventilators or a hospital, meaning all Covid-19 patients are being treated at facilities in other locations including New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

The coroner confirmed that eight deaths had occurred at a veterans nursing home in the town of Reserve, but fatalities have now been recorded in most towns throughout the parish. Most have been elderly residents with underlying health conditions.

“It gets depressing when you don’t see an end in sight,” Montegut, also a practicing family doctor, said. “And every day is just more bad news.”

Funeral directors in the parish have so far been able to keep up with the surge in deaths, but, said Geri Baloney, the owner of a funeral home in the town of Laplace, a continued outbreak will strain their resources.

Like other funeral homes, she has adjusted services to meet social distancing guidance. Tape on the floors guides mourners to stand eight to 10 feet apart during viewing processions, and she’s also started to offer online video streaming as an option to families unable to gather in person.

“It’s emotionally difficult,” said Baloney of the coronavirus crisis. “It’s a time that I tell everyone to be safe and cautious, but we have to be considerate and compassionate.”

In an indication of the depth of the crisis, the parish sheriff last week issued a nighttime curfew, one of the few jurisdictions in America to do so.

St John the Baptist has already commanded national and international attention due to major air pollution tied to a petrochemical plant operated by the Japanese firm Denka at the centre of the parish. Reserve is the subject of a year-long Guardian series, Cancer Town, and home to the highest risk of cancer due to airborne toxins anywhere in America, according to US government data.

Residents living in Reserve voiced concerns that decades of air pollution places them at a higher risk of coronavirus fatality, since the virus attacks the lungs.

Robert Taylor, the director of the concerned citizens of St John, and a lifelong resident of Reserve, said a number of neighbours on his block, which sits a few thousand feet from the plant, have been hospitalised with Covid-19. One, according to Taylor, has died.

“It’s so hectic right now,” Taylor said. “It feels hopeless for us. People are dying every day and I don’t know what to do to protect myself.”

Wilma Subra, an environmental scientist and community advocate, shared Taylor’s concerns and added that the rest of the heavily polluted area between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, known as Cancer Alley, was primed for a disproportionate impact from coronavirus.

“The Denka facility has been releasing toxic chemicals into the air for 50 years. All the community have some type of respiratory impact, some more than others. But they’re already very vulnerable,” she said. “And then you add the exposure to the virus, which has a huge impact on the lungs, then they are much more apt to get it and then to have very detrimental effects.”

Dr Michael Jerrett, an environmental health sciences professor at the UCLA Fielding school of public health, studies the links between air pollution and disease. He says that since the coronavirus is new, it is too early to draw firm conclusions. But his past research has demonstrated that air pollution increases the risk of pneumonia, a disease similar to Covid-19.

“Being in areas of higher exposure to common air pollutants like nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter, does increase the risk of acquiring pneumonia. So to the extent that Covid behaves in a similar way to bacterial pneumonia, which is more common, or other viral pneumonias, we have evidence that long-term exposure well increases your susceptibility to acquiring the disease.”

The Denka spokesman, Jim Harris, argued there was no relationship between the plant’s emissions and an increased risk from Covid-19.

“In this time of fear and uncertainty, we are all working hard to help make sure everyone has accurate and necessary information. We are trying to help the people in our community by connecting them with facts. There is no reason to believe that DPE’s operations could contribute to an increased risk from Covid-19,” Harris said.

“State officials are reporting other factors may increase risks from the virus, including diabetes and obesity, both of which Louisiana has higher-than-average rates of,” Harris said.

The company’s words were little comfort to Robert Taylor. “The nature of the disease and our particular situation [with air pollution],” he said. “It makes this thing so frightening.”

Originally published at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/07/cancer-alley-coronavirus-reserve-louisiana

Photo by Andrew Gustar

The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus has many people wondering what environmental factors, beyond age and underlying health problems, make some individuals more vulnerable to COVID-19 than others.

That’s especially true in California, where residents have long struggled with the nation’s worst-polluted air.

So, does air pollution increase your risk?

Probably, experts say.

While health scientists can’t say for sure, they suspect bad air makes people more susceptible to the novel coronavirus. They point to loads of research showing people who smoke or breathe dirty air are at higher risk of contracting pneumonia caused by similar viruses and of developing more severe symptoms once they have it.

“There’s lots of evidence that air pollution increases the chances that someone will get pneumonia, and if they get pneumonia, will be sicker with it,” said Aaron Bernstein, interim director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “We don’t have direct evidence of that with COVID, but I would be surprised if air pollution did not affect risk for COVID infection and the severity of illness.”

“The overwhelming majority of studies demonstrate that air pollution matters a lot to whether you are going to get sick with pneumonia and whether you are going to have mild illness or severe illness,” Bernstein added.

That means the virus could be more damaging to people living in polluted areas, because their lungs may already be impaired and their defenses weakened.

There is also evidence from previous outbreaks of similar coronaviruses that people exposed to dirty air are at greater risk of dying. Scientists who studied the SARS coronavirus outbreak in 2003 found that infected patients from regions with higher air pollution were 84% more likely to die than those in less-polluted areas.

Why do scientists suspect this?

Studies going back more than a decade have established that people living in neighborhoods with dirty air from vehicle exhaust and other combustion sources are hospitalized for pneumonia at higher rates than in areas with lower pollution, according to health experts.

That evidence indicates that long-term exposure to pollution makes people more susceptible to acquiring pneumonia in the first place and worsens their symptoms once they have it. It applies both to bacterial infections and those caused by viruses similar to the coronavirus.

“To the extent that it’s behaving like another pneumonia, yes, I think there’s going to be some elevated risk that’s associated with being in higher air pollution, but we don’t know enough about the biology of this particular virus to know how it’s going to respond,” said Michael Jerrett, a professor of environmental health science at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

 

How does air pollution weaken our defenses?

People who live in smoggy areas may be less equipped to fight off the virus to begin with. That’s because air pollution, just like smoking, damages the lungs and makes it harder for them to fight off respiratory infections. Exposure to ozone, fine particulate matter and other components of smog stress and inflame the lungs over the long term.

“When a pollutant enters the lung, the lung treats it like a foreign invader and initiates a whole process of defense,” Jerrett said.

Cells try to remove the pollutant, he said, and over time that depletes energy, causing the lungs to become inflamed.

 

“Once the lung is inflamed, the ability of a virus to penetrate is elevated,” Jerrett said.

That affects the lungs’ response to a virus in the alveoli, the tiny air sacs where oxygen moves into the bloodstream.

“They’re already expending energy to fight air pollution,” Jerrett said. “If another invader comes in, their defense is already diminished.”

What if air quality improves in the short term?

There is robust evidence that even short-term exposure to polluted air can increase lung infections, Jerrett said. Meaning that when pollution goes up, hospitals see an increase in admissions for pneumonia a few days later.

“In that case it’s probably not necessarily contributing to the formation of the disease, but it is exacerbating the severity,” Jerrett said.

But it suggests we also stand to gain an advantage against the virus by improving air quality.

Satellite imagery has revealed dramatic declines in air pollution during quarantines and lockdowns in Italy and China.

In parts of California, residents have already begun to comment on how clean the air has been in the last few days, though air quality officials said it remains unclear if this is due mostly to recent rains and winds that flush out pollution, or the sudden drop-off in motor vehicle traffic.

 

If improved air quality becomes a widespread side effect of the outbreak, it could be a boon during a trying time, bringing health benefits just when people need them most to fight off respiratory infection.

How big of a health problem is dirty air?

Globally, air pollution is the greatest environmental health threat, killing 7 million people each year, according to the World Health Organization. The primary mechanism of harm are fine particles that penetrate deep into the lungs and cause illnesses such as stroke, heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory infections including pneumonia.

Most of those deaths occur in developing countries in Asia and Africa where pollution levels remain dangerously high.

But thousands of Americans still die from polluted air each year, despite big improvements in air quality compared to decades ago. In the U.S., the health damage remains worst in California, with its large population exposed to the nation’s highest smog levels.

Experts note a big overlap between the populations most vulnerable during the coronavirus outbreak and those most harmed by dirty air. Unfortunately, that means some of the same underlying health problems that make people more vulnerable to air pollution, such as asthma, heart and lung disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, also appear to be risk factors for the coronavirus.

What about smoking?

Preliminary research on the novel coronavirus outbreak in China suggests that smokers are more susceptible to infection. Men, who smoke at higher rates than women in that country, were more likely to die from the virus, scientists found.

“If you don’t have good reason to stop smoking already, this is a good reason,” Bernstein said. While a definitive link has not been established yet for the coronavirus, he said, smoking has increased risk for most every other respiratory infection studied.

How else can I lower my risk from pollution?

There are other steps you can take to improve your air quality, especially inside your home, where you are likely spending a lot of time during widespread closures and social distancing.

“Make sure that the air filter on your HVAC system is clean,” Bernstein said. High-efficiency air filters — those rated 13 or higher on the 16-point MERV scale — can help remove particles that could inflame your lungs and weaken their defenses.

Don’t have a central air system? Consider using a standalone air-cleaning device, which helps reduce particle pollution levels in individual rooms within your home. Make sure the model you choose is certified by California regulators.

You can also reduce air pollution inside your home by venting your kitchen stove to the outside, if possible.

“If people have gas cooktops in their homes and they have a vent, make sure to use it,” Bernstein said. “You want to do anything you can now to make your indoor air as good as possible.”

By TONY BARBOZA STAFF WRITER 
MARCH 21, 2020

Originally published at: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-21/coronavirus-air-pollution-health-risk