Author Archives: pendari1060

Scientists have discovered a possible link between Parkinson’s disease and a gene impacted by a neurotoxin found in blue-green algae.

University of Queensland scientist Dr Jacob Gratten said the findings increased the understanding of the environmental risk factors of Parkinson’s disease.

“We looked for a link between Parkinson’s and changes in the human genome that control how genes are turned on and off, because these changes can be influenced by the environment,” Dr Gratten said.

“We found a gene, previously not known to be linked to Parkinson’s, which displayed reduced activity in people with the disease.

“This same gene is known to be targeted by a blue-green algae neurotoxin.”

Blue-green algae is found in inland waterways and poses a health risk to people, domestic animals and stock that come into contact with the toxic algal blooms.

The research team at MRI-UQ made the discovery in collaboration with Professor George Mellick at Griffith University and colleagues from New South Wales and New Zealand.

Their findings are the culmination of more than a decade of scientific effort.

Neurotoxins released by blue-green algae reduce activity of the gene identified in the study.

Researchers predict this will lead to higher oxidative stress levels in nerve cells associated with Parkinson’s disease, which can lead to cell death.

Dr Gratten said that while the study does not provide a direct link with Parkinson’s, blue-green algae had previously been associated with other neurodegenerative diseases such as motor neuron disease.

“This gives us confidence that we’re moving in the right direction towards understanding the environmental causes of Parkinson’s disease,” Dr Gratten said.

UQ geneticist Professor Peter Visscher, from the the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, who co-led the study, said Parkinson’s disease affects 1 in 100 people over 60-years-old and that figure is projected to double by 2040 as the population ages.

“This disease destroys lives and devastates families, so we’re determined to unlock the mystery behind Parkinson’s,” Professor Visscher said.

“More work is needed to confirm our findings, and to explore other possible explanations for the link between this gene and Parkinson’s disease, such as pesticides.”

Journal Reference:

1. Costanza L. Vallerga, Futao Zhang, Javed Fowdar, Allan F. McRae, Ting Qi, Marta F. Nabais, Qian Zhang, Irfahan Kassam, Anjali K. Henders, Leanne Wallace, Grant Montgomery, Yu-Hsuan Chuang, Steve Horvath, Beate Ritz, Glenda Halliday, Ian Hickie, John B. Kwok, John Pearson, Toni Pitcher, Martin Kennedy, Steven R. Bentley, Peter A. Silburn, Jian Yang, Naomi R. Wray, Simon J. G. Lewis, Tim Anderson, John Dalrymple-Alford, George D. Mellick, Peter M. Visscher, Jacob Gratten. Analysis of DNA methylation associates the cystine–glutamate antiporter SLC7A11 with risk of Parkinson’s disease. Nature Communications, 2020; 11 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15065-7

University of Queensland. (2020, March 16). Parkinson’s disease linked to gene targeted by blue-green algae toxin. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 31, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200316104018.htm

The 2019 list of the world’s most influential scientific researchers includes six Fielding School faculty members:

– Sander Greenland, professor emeritus of epidemiology

– Ronald Hays, professor of health policy and management

– Steve Horvath, professor of biostatistics

– Michael Jerrett, professor and chair of environmental health sciences

– André Nel, professor of environmental health sciences

– Dr. Marc Suchard, professor of biostatistics

In its annual list, the Web of Science Group, which is a Clarivate Analytics company, names the most highly cited researchers — those whose work was most often referenced by other scientific research papers published from 2008 through 2018 in 21 fields across the sciences and social sciences.

“The Highly Cited Researchers 2019 list from the Web of Science Group contributes to the identification of that small fraction of the researcher population that contributes disproportionately to extending the frontiers of knowledge and gaining for society innovations that make the world healthier, richer, more sustainable, and more secure,” according to Web of Science Group.

UCLA researchers on the list have affiliations that include the UCLA College, the David Geffen School of Medicine, the Samueli School of Engineering, the Fielding School of Public Health, the California NanoSystems Institute, the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research.

Beyond the Fielding School, current UCLA faculty members and researchers who were named to the list are:

Matthew Budoff, cardiology

Duilio Cascio, molecular biology

Jun Chen, bioengineering

Bartosz Chmielowski, hematology and oncology

Michelle Craske, psychology, psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences

Xiangfeng Duan, chemistry

Bruce Dunn, materials science and engineering

Gregg Fonarow, cardiology

Daniel Geschwind, genetics, neurology and psychiatry

Michael Green, psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences

Zhen Gu, bioengineering

Kendall Houk, chemistry and biochemistry

Yu Huang, materials science and engineering

Steve Jacobsen, moclecular, cell and developmental biology and genetics

Richard Kaner, chemistry and materials science

Ali Khademhosseini, bioengineering

Nathan Kraft, ecology and evolutionary biology

Peter Langfelder, biostatistics

Dennis Lettenmaier, geography, and civil and environmental engineering

Zhaoyang Lin, materials science and chemistry

Roger Lo, dermatology and oncology

Aldons Lusis, medicine

Bengt Muthen, health

Ni Ni, physics

Stanley Osher, mathematics, and chemical and biomolecular engineering

Matteo Pellegrini, computational biology

Dinesh Rao, hematopathology and hematology

Steven Reise, psychology

Antoni Ribas, hematology and oncology

Lawren Sack, ecology and evolutionary biology

Jeffrey Saver, neurology

Michael Sawaya, molecular biology

Ali Sayed, electrical and computer engineering

Michael Sofroniew, neurobiology

Terence Tao, mathematics

Kang Wang, electrical and computer engineering

Edward L. Wright, physics and astronomy

Tian Xia, nanobiology

Yang Yang, materials science and engineering

Wotao Yin, mathematics

Jeffrey Zink, chemistry

source: UCLA Newsroom http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-scientists-among-worlds-most-influential-scholars-based-on-citations-2019

Planning a trip abroad? Before you pack, check the air pollution levels

Newswise — A new study by researchers at UCLA shows that even a short-term visit to a severely polluted city can be detrimental to one’s health. The study involved 26 non-smoking, healthy adults (with a mean age of 23.8 years) who traveled from Los Angeles to Beijing during the summers of 2014 and 2015 over a 10-week period. The study participants were split into two groups and blood samples were taken in the first group at eight weeks and in the second group at six weeks after arrival in Beijing. The study was done in collaboration with Peking University in Beijing.

The study participants experienced significant health changes during their time in Beijing, including higher levels of oxidized fats, causing increased heart inflammation; and a change in enzyme function, which is associated with heart disease. The study also found that these individuals had up to an 800% greater concentration of air pollutants in their bodies than they did when in Los Angeles.

The good news is that when they returned to Los Angeles, most of the negative health effects largely reversed within four to seven weeks. The research was just published in the journal Circulation from the American Heart Association.

“It’s widely known that long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with increased cardiovascular disease. But it was unknown whether a short-term visit to a location with severe air pollution could have any significant impact,” said the lead author of the study, Dr. Jesus Araujo, professor of medicine and director of environmental cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and professor of environmental health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Araujo’s interest in this topic stemmed from previous research he conducted on air pollution exposure in animals. His research showed pronounced health effects in animals within just two weeks of exposure to pollution. His new study is the first to look specifically at the cardiovascular health effects of short-term air pollution exposure in humans, and notably, in healthy humans.

“It’s likely that the health effects would be even more prominent after longer exposure to air pollution, repetitive travels, or among individuals with preexisting health conditions,” said Yan Lin, first author of the study and now a postdoctoral associate at Duke University’s Global Health Institute. Neither Beijing nor Los Angeles is known for its clean air, but Beijing’s air quality is significantly worse. The concentration of airborne particles in Beijing was on average 371% higher than in Los Angeles during the time of the study.

“Los Angeles used to be nearly as polluted as Beijing is today,” said Yifang Zhu, co-lead author of the study and professor of environmental health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “A city’s air quality can improve markedly when effective environmental policies are put into place,” Zhu said.

It’s important to note that Beijing is only one of many highly polluted cities that draws millions of tourists and business travelers each year. Several other cities in China and India are among the most polluted in the world. Even London and Paris have pollution levels that exceed the legal limits set by the World Health Organization.

Frequent travelers may find it reassuring to know that the study’s participants returned almost completely to their normal, healthy states after getting back to Los Angeles. However, some might think twice before boarding a plane for an extended visit to one of the aforementioned cities.

There are some ways to mitigate the risk of developing health issues when traveling to polluted cities. Araujo recommends avoiding intense physical activity, such as running outdoors or hiking. For individuals with preexisting cardiovascular health conditions, avoiding travel to these locations for extended periods of time is another consideration, especially around peak times of high air pollution levels. If one must travel for extended periods of time, the doctor recommends staying indoors as much as possible with air purifiers running.

 

SEE ORIGINAL STUDY

 
Originally published on November 25th 2019 by https://www.newswise.com/articles/new-ucla-study-finds-short-term-visit-to-severely-polluted-city-is-bad-for-your-health
 

 

As of Tuesday evening copy deadline, The Getty Fire had burned 656 acres, destroyed 12 homes and forced the mandatory evacuation of nearly 7,100 homes west of the 405 Freeway, north of Sunset Boulevard, south of Mulholland Drive and east of Temescal Canyon Road. Containment was at 15%, with the voluntary evacuation warning zone extending westward to Topanga Canyon Boulevard and continuing school closures throughout Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and Malibu.

Forecasts of “Extreme Red Flag” winds 30 to 50 miles per hour — with gusts up to 70 miles per hour — threatened to create conditions “as dangerous for fire growth and behavior as we have seen in recent history,” according to a Los Angeles Fire Department briefing. More than 760 firefighters, including 123 fire engines, 14 hand crews and two bulldozers, were stationed overnight in vulnerable areas.

All it took to start the blaze, investigators had already determined, was a tree branch falling on powerlines.

On Monday and Tuesday, smoke advisories stretched for miles, including Santa Monica in particular and other parts of The Argonaut’s coverage area immediately south of the evacuation zones.

Impacts of the Getty Fire and others like it — including the Tick Fire in Santa Clarita and the 76,000-acre Kincade Fire that prompted evacuation orders for 200,000 residents of Sonoma County — will be felt for years, said Loyola Marymount University biology professor Eric Strauss, executive director of the LMU Center for Urban Resilience.

“It can take at least 10 years for [trees] to recover and grow again,” Strauss said. “Also in some cases the soil profile could be damaged, and that slows down the recovery time. During a heavy rain a damaged soil profile can lead to mudslides.”

Early 2018 mudflows in Santa Barbara County that followed the Thomas Fire caused 23 deaths and more than $200 million in property damage.

UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor Michael Jerrett said large fires start impacting the health of those around them immediately.

“Usually within 24 hours we see increases in hospital visits and psychiatric or mental health struggles. We often see these elevations persisting for weeks,” Jerrett said. “Even though atmospheric conditions can clear up quickly, the effects on health can persist.”

— Joe Piasecki and Gary Walker

Originally published by The Argonaut on October 30, 2019 at https://argonautnews.com/california-burning-the-getty-fire/
Photos by Ted Soqui

BY MARKHAM HEID 

 

AUGUST 19, 2019
 
 
 

Most non-electric motor vehicles emit multiple airborne pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, hydrocarbons, and ultrafine chemical particles. Breathing in these pollutants can cause or contribute to a wide range of health problems, from heart and lung disease to neurological, reproductive and immune system dysfunction.

Studies have repeatedly found that people who live near busy roadways are at elevated risks for these health issues. Young children, the elderly, and people with lung disease are especially vulnerable to vehicle-emitted pollution. But anyone who spends a lot of time commuting and sitting in heavy traffic—especially on hot, sunny days, when heat and sunlight speed up the chemical reactions that produce ozone and other airborne pollutants—faces a heightened risk for air-pollution-related illness.

Rolling up the windows can help keep out some of that noxious air, and a car’s cabin filter and A/C settings can reduce the amount of pollutants that get into the vehicle. Most drivers are familiar with the filter that scrubs the air that’s pulled into a vehicle’s engine. (This is the one a mechanic inspects and offers to replace during a routine oil change.) But a cabin filter is something different. It’s usually located behind the glove box, and its job is to clean the air that the vehicle’s occupants breathe. But not all car cabin filters are created equal.

In 2014, the journal Environmental Health published a study finding that factory-installed cabin air filters remove 46% of particulate pollution, but they do not clean the air of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) or hydrocarbon pollutants. To do that, a cabin filter needs an activated carbon (a.k.a. “charcoal”) filtering element, which can cut down levels of NO2 and hydrocarbons by 75% and 50%, respectively, per the study.

 
 

 

 

U.S. Air Quality Slips After Decades of Improvement
After decades of improvement, America’s air may not be getting any cleaner.

 

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These filters are available online and in auto parts stores, and installation is usually easy. (Search for terms like “cabin air filter,” along with “charcoal” or “activated carbon.” Just be sure you’re choosing the right model for your car.) But finding a good one can be tricky. “Unlike HVAC filters for indoor environments, car cabin filters don’t have ratings to show consumers which ones are really effective,” says Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Zhu is referring to high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) and minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) designations, which are regulated standards that make clear an indoor air filter’s ability to clean pollutants in a home or office.

Buying a car cabin filter that’s labeled “high-efficiency” and that includes an activated carbon element should provide an upgrade compared to whatever’s installed in the car by its manufacturer. But there are no guarantees—”high-efficiency” is essentially just marketing copy. In any case, Zhu says changing the cabin filter every six months to a year (depending on how much a person drives) should improve the air quality in that vehicle.

Switching on the A/C system’s “air recirculation” function can also help. “This shuts down the air exchange between the inside of the vehicle and the outside, and instead uses recirculated air,” she says. Some of her research shows that this can cut down the cabin’s levels of particulate pollutants by as much as 90%.

 

 

But it’s important not to recirculate air all the time. Zhu’s study found that, within 15 minutes of turning on this function, exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2) from just one or two people can build up to concentrations of between 2,500 and 4,000 parts per million. At that level, CO2 can cause poor decision-making, as well as drowsiness, headaches, and mild nausea. If you’re stuck in traffic longer than 15 minutes, Zhu recommends turning the recirculation function off for a minute or two so that the CO2 can dissipate, then turning it back on. Taking these measures won’t eradicate your exposure to vehicle pollution. But they can make a big difference.

 

In October 2015, a fragile well casing ruptured at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field in Los Angeles, California—and no one could figure out how to stop it. For 118 days, 100,000 metric tons of methane and other hazardous pollutants seeped into the atmosphere. The single worst natural gas leak in American history was not only a disaster for the climate; it displaced thousands of nearby residents for months. Even after returning home, many complained of headaches, rashes, nosebleeds, and other symptoms they blamed on the lingering airborne chemicals.

And most of these people didn’t see it coming. The majority of residents near Aliso Canyon claimed they had no idea they lived near a natural gas storage field until the 2015 blowout happened. They didn’t know that if any of the wells ruptured, they were at risk of exposure to a host of toxic chemicals, which could cause serious neurological and respiratory problems and even certain kinds of cancer. They could also be at risk of death from a pipeline explosion, like the victims of the Colorado blast in 2017.

The massive Aliso Canyon storage field, which contained more than 110 underground wells, is just a small part of America’s much larger natural gas infrastructure. Approximately 15,000 such wells are active across the United States, and nearly half of them are concentrated in six states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Michigan, New York, and California.

For the many thousands of Americans who live near these wells, as well as federal regulators who are tasked with keeping the public safe, these wells are out of sight, out of mind. And a new study shows their dangers to be far greater than previously believed.

Published Monday in the journal Environmental Health, Drew Michanowicz’s study was directly inspired by Aliso Canyon. After that disaster, he and his research team at Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health wanted to get a better idea of just how many people in America live near similar underground gas storage facilities.

After surveying the surroundings of more than 9,000 active wells in those six states, they found 6,000 located in suburban areas. Some 53,000 people live within 650 feet of a well, about 10,000 more people than previously estimated. The researchers found that most of those people had no idea about the threat lurking sometimes directly under their homes. “Because of suburban encroachment, some of these homes are sitting literally on top of these storage fields, especially in Ohio and Pennsylvania,” Michanowicz said. (For context, the closest home to the Aliso Canyon disaster was a mile away.)

This is especially worrying because most wells at underground storage facilities are more than 50 years old, and most were not even designed to store natural gas, Michanowicz said; his 2017 study estimated that one in five of these wells were built for gas production, not storage, and are thus likely to be missing subsurface safety valves and other equipment needed to store gas under high pressure. (Federal data released after that study also showed Michanowicz’s number was too conservative; two-thirds of these wells are being used in ways they were not intended decades ago.)

Failure to properly maintain wells can lead to disasters like the one in Aliso Canyon. The facility’s owner, Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), was accused in a May report of negligence for not repairing corroded pipes, and for not investigating dozens of smaller leaks dating back to the 1970s. “If there is nobody guaranteeing the safety of these other wells across the U.S., Michanowicz said, “tens of thousands of people don’t realize that they’re one corroded steel casing away from disaster.”

A study published in the June 26 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environment International showed what such disaster looks like: The Aliso Canyon rupture released air pollutants including benzene, toluene, xylene, and other chemicals which can cause neurological problems, respiratory problems, and cancer. Now, many of Aliso Canyon’s neighbors, and Los Angeles County firefighters, are suing SoCalGas for health symptoms they believe were caused by the leak.

But a disaster such as Aliso Canyon’s doesn’t have to occur for nearby communities to be at risk. The June study’s senior author, UCLA Professor Dr. Michael Jerrett, said toxins could be seeping out of gas wells across the country every day, not just during catastrophic well blowouts. The leaks go undetected because few of the wells in the U.S. add mercaptan, a chemical that causes the distinct odor most associate with natural gas.

There are some protections in place. Setback rules, which are enacted by municipalities or states, forbid new oil and gas facilities from being built within a certain distance, typically 650 feet, of existing homes. But old wells are not subject to such rules, and no states, except Texas, have laws mandating that new homes can’t be built within a certain distance from existing wells.

“We are not saying immediately sell your homes if you live near these wells,” said the Monday study’s co-author, Kate Konschnik, director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. “But these facilities do need greater scrutiny than they’ve been getting. This is a manageable hazard, but that’s not the same as being managed.”

In the U.S. every year, 15 percent of the natural gas produced in the U.S. is injected back into the ground, into depleted oil or gas fields, aquifers, even salt caverns. These storage fields are used to manage fluctuations in customer demand; they inject gas into the wells during times of low demand, and withdraw it when demand spikes. Operators also store gas when the price is low, in the hopes of selling when the price is high.

The oil and gas industry maintains that these storage fields, from California to Pennsylvania, are needed for backup, to maintain energy reliability in the case of low supply or high demand. But the necessity of these fields has been disputed. In 2017, an independent report from a California engineering firm concluded that, in the Los Angeles region, storage fields like Aliso Canyon’s are not necessary to prevent blackouts.

But assuming these fields are necessary to energy security, a lot more could be done to ensure their safety, on both the state and federal levels. In California, for example, regulators haven’t recommended, let alone mandated, the closure of Aliso Canyon or any other gas storage facilities.

Federal protections are lagging, too. New rules issued by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration at the end of 2016 established minimum guidelines for underground gas storage but have not been finalized. Also in 2016, a Federal Interagency Task Force released 44 recommendations to regulators to help minimize future leaks, including phasing out the “single point of failure” wells like the one that ruptured at Aliso Canyon. But those recommendations don’t carry the weight of enforcement.

The federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act specifies natural gas facilities that need to engage with first responders in communities, as well as how to write emergency response plans, and conduct trainings. But only facilities that have “extremely hazardous substances” on site have to do this, and methane, which was released in vast quantities during the Aliso Canyon blowout, is not on that list. The Safe Drinking Water Act requires reporting about what’s injected into a well, but that law excludes underground wells.

And there is no federal regulation requiring monitoring of the air around the wells, nor have there been any studies about the health effects on people living near them. One such facility—Playa Del Rey, in the sprawling Los Angeles basin—contains more than half a million residents within a five-mile radius. It’s also in an area prone to seismic activity, just like Aliso Canyon, which puts the pipes at risk of rupturing. But the facility may already be causing harm. “We know from going door to door that many residents have been getting sick, and some have settled with the operator, SoCalGas, for damages,” said Alex Nagy, Southern California Organizer at the Los Angeles branch of Food & Water Watch. SoCalGas denies its facilities are sickening people.

Konschnik was hopeful that stricter regulations would be enacted after the Aliso Canyon disaster, but said that public pressure on the issue has subsided. “I hope there won’t be another Aliso Canyon to make states and the federal government regulate these structures,” she said. “But we are a country that reacts to disaster.” It may take a calamity much worse than the Aliso Canyon rupture to open public officials’ eyes.

By LARRY BUHL

July 8, 2019

Article original appeared at: https://newrepublic.com/article/154425/natural-gas-disaster-underground-storage-wells-suburban-america

TUESDAY, July 2, 2019 (American Heart Association News) — Pregnant women receive a lot of instructions to ensure the healthiest possible baby: what to eat and drink, what to avoid, which vitamins to take, which activities to avoid and more.

But what about breathing?

Researchers have long been concerned about air pollution’s effects on pregnancy, with possible consequences ranging from premature births and low birth weight to elevated blood pressure later in the child’s life.

“We have just scratched the surface on this research,” said Dr. Beate Ritz, professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Ritz, who is president of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology, has conducted studies since the 1990s linking air pollution levels in Southern California to mothers delivering babies before full term at below-average birth weight.

“When we started, some people said the fetus doesn’t breathe air, so how would it be affected?” she said. “It has become clear that whatever is happening to the mother is happening to the baby, and what happens in pregnancy can affect the rest of its life.”

Recent studies in the United States and elsewhere have shown correlations between particulate matter in the air and high blood pressure in mothers and babies, gestational diabetes (an increase in blood sugar that affects pregnant women), and high blood pressure in children who were exposed to pollution in the womb.

The possible dangers for babies who develop in a polluted environment extend to an increased risk of autism, asthma and the ultimate risk: miscarriage.

“It’s very hard to measure, because some women might lose the fetus so early they didn’t even know they were pregnant,” Ritz said. “But once you damage a fetus enough, it doesn’t survive.”

Pollution “seems to particularly affect vulnerable populations, such as those who are elderly or predisposed to disease,” said Dr. Sanjay Rajagopalan, chief of cardiology at the Herrington Heart and Vascular Institute of University Hospital in Cleveland. “And pregnancy is a vulnerable state. The fetus is in an environment where it is growing and vulnerable.”

However, Rajagopalan, who co-authored an American Heart Association scientific statement about air pollution and cardiovascular disease, said most studies so far have established only correlations between polluted air and disease rather than a direct cause-and-effect.

One obstacle, Rajagopalan said, is “it’s difficult to persuade pregnant women to partake in research. But this is becoming widely recognized as a field to explore. It’s just a matter of time.”

Meanwhile, pregnant women shouldn’t breathe easy. For expectant mothers and everyone else, Ritz said, the dangers of pollution should fuel campaigns for better air quality everywhere in the world.

But that’s unlikely to change much in nine months, bringing simple precautions and common sense to the forefront.

Indoor air purifiers are a good idea, Ritz said, as is keeping windows closed that face roadways and heeding health warnings on high-pollution days.

Rajagopalan stresses all the healthy behaviors for pregnancy – eating well, physical activity, prenatal care, avoiding alcohol and tobacco, monitoring blood pressure and other health indicators – as well as reducing exposure to bad air.

“Try to visit green spaces and areas that will probably have low levels of air pollution,” he said. “And if you don’t have to make that crazy car ride to downtown Los Angeles in your convertible, don’t do it.”

Last Updated: Jul 2, 2019

American Heart Association News covers heart and brain health. Not all views expressed in this story reflect the official position of the American Heart Association. Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org.

Original story at: https://consumer.healthday.com/pregnancy-information-29/pregnancy-news-543/aha-news-air-pollution-means-pregnant-women-can-t-breathe-easy-748021.html

June 27, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California regulators on Thursday opened an investigation to consider penalties against Southern California Gas Co. for a massive 2015 natural gas leak blamed for sickening thousands of nearby residents and forcing them from their homes.

The Public Utilities Commission made the decision in the wake of a May investigative report that concluded that the blowout at the Aliso Canyon gas well in Los Angeles resulted from a corroded pipe casing, safety failures by the utility and inadequate regulations.

The gas company failed to investigate previous well failures at the storage and didn’t adequately assess its aging wells for disaster potential before the Oct. 23, 2015, blowout, the report concluded.

SoCalGas has 30 days to submit information to the PUC to show why it shouldn’t be sanctioned, the commission said.

Also Thursday, the PUC opened an investigation against SoCalGas and its parent, Sempra Energy, to determine whether their corporate culture and operations made safety a priority.

“The safety of our employees, the public and the environment is at the heart of everything we do. Safety is not just part of our culture, it is the foundation that has helped our business thrive for more than 150 years,” SoCalGas spokesman Chris Gilbride said in a statement, adding, “We look forward to supporting the Commission’s review and welcome its recommendations.”

The Aliso Canyon blowout lasted nearly four months, led to largest-known release of methane in U.S. history and was blamed for sickening thousands of residents, who moved out of their Porter Ranch homes in the San Fernando Valley to escape a sulfurous stench and a medley of maladies including headaches, nausea and nose bleeds.

In a study that appeared Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Environment International, researchers said air quality samples collected near the site during the blowout showed elevated levels of pollutants “known or suspected to be associated with serious health problems.”

The study was done by the University of California, Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health.

New requirements put into place by state regulators after the blowout led to many of the wells being overhauled and updated and many being sealed. The field is also not allowed to operate at full capacity.

SoCalGas has spent more than $1 billion on the blowout and faces hundreds of lawsuits. It also reached a $120 million court settlement with the state attorney general and agreed to a $4 million settlement with Los Angeles County prosecutors after being convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court of failing to quickly report the leak to state authorities.

Article originally appeared at https://www.apnews.com/7927837ef0df4f66b1669c77ae160da9

 

Air quality samples collected near the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility during the 2015 blowout that led to the largest-known human-caused release of methane in U.S. history showed elevated levels of pollutants known or suspected to be associated with serious health problems, a UCLA Fielding School of Public Health-led study has found.

The study, which appears in the June 26 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environment International, raises concerns about the potential public health impacts resulting from the methane leak at the Southern California Gas Company facility, which is located less than a mile from the Los Angeles residential community of Porter Ranch in the northwest San Fernando Valley.

Although methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that can contribute to climate change, it does not have a federal-level actionable human health benchmark. But the UCLA study found that the high methane levels in Porter Ranch during the final weeks of the event coincided with — and likely influenced —  a broad range of air pollutants known or suspected to cause certain cancers, as well as neurological and respiratory effects.

The study also found evidence that the final attempts to plug the leak in the well at the Aliso Canyon facility were associated with particle emissions that likely came from the well site, and that the well and/or activities associated with attempts to mitigate the leak had a discernible effect on the indoor air environments of homes that were sampled.

“Our findings demonstrate that uncontrolled leaks or blowout events at natural gas storage facilities can release pollutants with the potential to cause not only environmental harm, but also adverse health consequences in surrounding communities,” said study first author Diane A. Garcia-Gonzales, a postdoctoral scholar at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and UCLA Institute of Environment and Sustainability. “This suggests the need for a thorough assessment of the health impact this event had on the Porter Ranch and surrounding communities, both for the benefit of that population and to better understand the potential health risks to communities surrounding the hundreds of other natural gas storage facilities throughout the U.S.”

Southern California Gas operators working at the Aliso Canyon facility first reported the leak on October 23, 2015, and by the time state officials announced that it was permanently plugged, nearly four months later, approximately 97,100 metric tons of methane had been released into the atmosphere. An assessment of more than 100 indoor environments, including homes and schools, adjacent to the storage facility found elevated levels of several air toxins along with a “fingerprint” of metals in dust samples similar to those taken of samples at the blowout site. In a post-leak community survey, 63% of households reported that someone in their home had experienced symptoms persisting after the leak was plugged, including headaches, nausea, and gastrointestinal or respiratory problems.

The UCLA-led team sought to delve further into the previously reported findings by identifying which air pollutants known to be associated with health risks were elevated in conjunction with the high levels of methane measured during the leak. The researchers found evidence that a broad range of hazardous air pollutants were co-emitted during the peak methane emissions, with a spike in the final days when the well was being plugged.

The UCLA team recommended that natural gas storage facilities be required to install equipment that collects air quality and meteorological data, and that closer environmental monitoring be required following severe off-normal operation events.

“More than 300 natural gas storage fields within the United States use depleted oil wells, many of them aging, with very little oversight as to how they should be updated,” said Michael Jerrett, the study’s senior author, who is professor and chair of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences. “Given the potential for future events like the one that occurred at Aliso Canyon, it’s essential that we continue to learn about the health risks both during these active blowout events and as residents who evacuate return to their homes.”

The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, founded in 1961, is dedicated to enhancing the public’s health by conducting innovative research, training future leaders and health professionals from diverse backgrounds, translating research into policy and practice, and serving our local communities and the communities of the nation and the world. The school has 650 students from more than 35 nations engaged in carrying out the vision of building healthy futures in greater Los Angeles, California, the nation and the world.

Contact: 
Carla Denly, Assistant Dean for Communications
 

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Original story at: https://ph.ucla.edu/news/press-release/2019/jun/pollutants-emitted-2015-aliso-canyon-methane-blowout-pose-potentially

With wildfires expected to increase in frequency and intensity in California and elsewhere in the U.S., FSPH faculty address emerging public health concerns. 

 

“During these fires in California, we see pollution levels that are more like Beijing, China, or New Delhi, India.”

— Michael Jerrett

Magazine: 

Magazine Spring/Summer 2019

THE CAMP FIRE that started on November 8, 2018 in Northern California’s Butte County burned through more than 150,000 acres and destroyed more than 18,000 structures over 17 days. Eighty-five lives were lost, making it the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history. The Woolsey Fire, which started the same day, blazed through nearly 100,000 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, destroying more than 1,600 structures and forcing the evacuation of nearly 300,000 people.

The twin wildfire disasters were preceded in July 2018 by the Mendocino Complex Fire, the largest in the state’s history, which covered nearly 460,000 acres across four counties in Northern California. Before that, the largest was the Thomas Fire, which burned more than 280,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, in December 2017.

California’s wildfire season is starting earlier and ending later, and as the run of recent record setters suggests, the fires have increased in severity in recent years. There are reasons to suspect that climate change is an important factor. Most of the state’s hottest and driest years have occurred since 2000, and the longer spells without precipitation give vegetation more time to dry out and become more combustible. “Some areas of California are projecting a 200-300 percent increased risk by 2030 in wildfire events,” notes Michael Jerrett, professor and chair of the Fielding School’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences.

The public health threat from these fires is exacerbated by the considerable amount of real estate development that has occurred in recent years in traditionally fire-prone areas. A 2018 study found a 41 percent increase between 1990 and 2010 in the number of new homes built at the wildland-urban interface — described as where houses and wildland vegetation intermingle, and where wildfire problems are most pronounced.

Beyond the threat to lives and property, these increasingly occurring disasters raise a number of public health concerns that Fielding School faculty are working to address.

Studying the health impacts of exposure to wildfire smoke is challenging given that the smoke levels are constantly shifting, which makes it difficult to determine where and at what levels residents are being exposed. In an effort to tackle the issue, Jerrett is part of a research group that has developed a machine-learning model incorporating satellite imagery, atmospheric chemistry models, ground-based information on pollution levels, and other factors known to influence pollution, such as traffic and land use, to predict with high levels of confidence the location of the smoke plume on a given day. In linking that information to data on hospital visits and admissions, Jerrett and his colleagues have found significant effects on respiratory disease during the wildfire period in the areas that experience steep elevations of fine particular matter — the small particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs.

Beyond the immediate health effects, Jerrett points to the need to better measure the ongoing chronic health impacts of wildfires that are occurring on a regular basis in or near major population areas. “During these fires in California, we see pollution levels that are more like Beijing, China, or New Delhi, India,” he says. “And as the fires are becoming both larger and more frequent, we’re interested in what it means to go through two or three of these events, where people are getting doused with Beijing levels of pollution for a month or so at a time.”

Much of the ash and particulate matter deposited in homes as a result of wildfires has the potential to transform into toxic gases that can affect health, Jerrett adds. “Our concern is that if people return to their homes without having them professionally cleaned by an industrial hygienist, they  could unknowingly expose themselves to unhealthy indoor air for months at a time.”

Jerrett is also working with Sudipto Banerjee, professor and chair of the Fielding School’s Department of Biostatistics, along with doctoral students Jonah Lipsitt and Gregory Watson (MS ’11), to develop so-called counterfactual models that would help to guide policies and strategic decisions during the fires. The FSPH researchers hope to shed light on issues such as the health impact of investing additional resources in reducing pollution levels during the wildfire, the optimal time to call for evacuations, and the public health consequences of residents ignoring those calls.

Dr. David Eisenman (MS ’02), professor in residence in the Fielding School’s Department of Community Health Sciences and director of the FSPH-basedCenter for Public Health and Disasters, is a practicing physician who has studied the public health impacts of wildfires and other disasters in an effort to inform strategies that enhance the preparedness for and response to these events. The distress that occurs in the wake of a wildfire — being displaced from one’s community and losing social supports, along with the associated psychological trauma — often endures long after the flames have been extinguished, Eisenman notes. He points out that although media coverage often shows fires affecting wealthy areas, the reality is that many communities in areas susceptible to wildfires consist of significant numbers of low-income workers and older adults on fixed incomes. “Often people will say we shouldn’t rebuild, that these are dangerous places, but to these residents this is their community and might be the only place they can afford to live,” Eisenman says.

Eisenman has learned that there can be significant longterm mental health effects from wildfires, even for people who experience no noticeable physical effects or property damage. When he was in Arizona immediately following the2011 Wallow Fire, the largest in that state’s history, Eisenman was struck by the strong attachment residents of the affected communities felt to the surrounding area that had been burned. “Everywhere we went, people said essentially the same thing — ‘I am mourning for the loss of the forest,’” Eisenman recalls. “What they meant was that they had moved to this beautiful U.S. Forest Service land to be part of nature, and it felt like they had lost something very deep and close to them.”

In the aftermath of the Wallow Fire, Eisenman and his colleagues found that “solastalgia” — a term referring to the loss of the solace people derive from their environment when it is damaged — was a strong predictor of poor mental health.

“This is important to recognize because in the case of wildfires, it can take a long time for the land to return to that level of function and beauty that brings the solace back to people,” he says. “And as climate change causes more and more longterm alterations to the environment, we might see solastalgia in other forms.”

Eisenman notes that during the Woolsey Fire, many residents chose to stay and defend their homes despite the urgings of public officials and firefighters that they evacuate. “These are people who might not have had any firefighter training or done anything to make their properties less flammable, but for the most part they are being applauded for their courage in getting on the roof to put out embers,” Eisenman says. “From the public health perspective, if this is going to become more of a phenomenon we should better understand the risks for everyone involved.”

The mental health effects of surviving a wildfire or other natural disaster tend to endure long after the television cameras have left. Vickie Mays, a professor in the Fielding School’s Department of Health Policy and Management, spent five years as part of a response and resiliency team that helped to rebuild the mental health infrastructure after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. “Being there several times a year over the course of several years provided a perspective on some of the scars that are left from these types of events,” Mays says.

She notes that in the weeks following a disaster, much of the focus is appropriately on tending to people’s short-term needs through counseling and social services, but long-term mental health consequences are too often overlooked. In many cases, Mays says, these relate to actions residents take during and immediately after the event. “It’s heartbreaking to see people haunted over decisions about whether to evacuate, particularly if it ends up going awry and affects other members of their family,” Mays says. After the disaster, she notes, survivors are often forced to quickly reach decisions about rebuilding, and many end up making commitments they later regret.

The level of cohesiveness within a community is a key factor in the post-disaster healing process, Mays adds. “When people’s lives are upended, the extent to which they are able to cope, make good decisions and return to normalcy has a lot to do with how well the neighborhood pulls together and supports each other,” she says. Support is needed not just for homeowners and renters, but also for others who are integral to the community but tend to be forgotten, including members of the informal economy such as gardeners and housecleaners, Mays adds.

Given all of these realities, Mays believes public health efforts should emphasize planning to assist people in making informed judgments during and after a disaster, and to ensure that neighborhoods build the social infrastructure that will facilitate a successful recovery process. “Offering counseling right after a disaster is certainly important,” Mays says. “But from a public health perspective we can do more by preparing communities in ways that limit the damage and enhance the recovery from these events.”  

Photo credit: U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife Service

 

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