Tag: Pollution

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Microplastics by Tom Lagasse

The microplastics
Swim in the ocean like fish
Straight to the heart

By Tom Lagasse

According to projections, there will be more microplastics in the ocean than fish by 2050.  And we are what we eat. As research is increasingly showing, microplastics are already being found in our bodies.

Further reading:

‘More plastic than fish’, Plastic Soup Foundation, available: https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/plastic-problem/plastic-soup/more-plastic-than-fish/

‘With microplastics, scientists are in a race against time’, 2024, Osaka, S., The Washington Post, available: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/03/11/microplastics-health-impacts-unknown/

Author bio:

Tom’s poetry has appeared in The Silver Birch Poetry Series, Freshwater Literary Journal, The Eunoia Review, and in numerous anthologies. He will be one of the Writers in Residence at the Edwin Way Teale House at Trail Wood this summer. He lives in Bristol, Connecticut, USA. You can follow him on X/Twitter at @tomlagasse.

See more sciku by Tom: Geological Maps.

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Planetarium by John Hawkhead

planetarium
she reaches across space
to find my hand

by John Hawkhead

In the 2008 USA presidential election, Senator John McCain criticised the value (and cost) of planetariums, as being little more than “overhead projectors”.

Yet planetariums, as well as being a unique form of entertainment, are valuable science communication tools: interactive and immersive pedagogic instruments for astronomical education.

For example, research by Plummer (2008) suggests that attending a planetarium program increased understanding of celestial motion in students aged 6 to 8 years old. Planetariums are also especially valuable for those living in large towns and cities, where light-pollution prevents most stars from being visible.

To celebrate the value and power of planetariums, the second Sunday of every March is International Day of Planetariums.

Further reading:

‘The Value of Education in the Planetarium’, The International Planetarium Society: https://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/planetariumeducationvalue

‘International Day of Planetariums’, AnydayGuide: https://anydayguide.com/calendar/3858

‘Early elementary students’ development of astronomy concepts in the planetarium’, Journal of Research in Science Teaching: https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20280

Author bio:

John Hawkhead (@HawkheadJohn) has been writing haiku and illustrating for over 25 years. His work has been published all over the world and he has won a number of haiku competitions. John’s books of haiku and senryu, ‘Small Shadows’ and ‘Bone Moon’, are now available from Alba Publishing (http://www.albapublishing.com/). Read more of John’s sciku here!

‘Planetarium’ was previously published in Poetry Pea – podcast (June 2022); Journal 2:22 (Sept 2022).

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The Burden of Bushfire Smoke in Contemporary Australia by Dr Michael J. Leach

summer wildfires taint
our air…hospital visits
and deaths exceed norms

by Dr Michael J. Leach

In contemporary Australia, the frequency and intensity of bushfire events have increased alongside the rate of global warming. This disastrous consequence of climate change is illustrated by the 2019-20 Australian bushfire season: the so-called ‘Black Summer’. Over the course of that bushfire season, hundreds of wildfires burned across 24 million hectares of land inhabited by diverse flora, fauna, and humans, primarily in the southeast of Australia. Bushfire events peaked during December 2019 and January 2020.

Bushfire smoke has multiple real-world impacts, including adverse effects on public health. In order to gain a preliminary understanding of the public health burden of bushfire smoke generated by the 2019-20 Australian bushfire season, Arriagada et al. (2020) undertook a quantitative analysis of publicly available air quality, demographic, and health data over the period 1/10/2019-10/2/2020. Population-level exposure to particulate matter below a known critical level of 2.5 micrometres in diameter (i.e. PM2.5) was estimated for the four most bushfire-affected jurisdictions of Australia: New South Wales (NSW), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Queensland, and Victoria. PM2.5 concentrations were compared with past average values recorded by air quality stations. The authors also determined, for each jurisdiction, the incidence of several relevant health outcomes: hospital admission for respiratory or cardiovascular issues, asthma-related visits to emergency departments (EDs), and excess deaths. The PM2.5 data and incidence rates were used to calculate a measure of exposure-response risk.

The authors’ analysis revealed that, across the four Australian jurisdictions under investigation, bushfire smoke led to an estimated 2,027 hospital admissions for respiratory issues, 1,305 asthma-related visits to EDs, 1,124 hospital admissions for cardiovascular issues, and 417 excess deaths. For each of these health outcomes, the public health burden was greatest for NSW followed by Victoria, Queensland, and then the ACT. It is important to note, however, that there are levels of uncertainty attached to these estimates: they may be underestimates or overestimates of the true values. The authors highlighted the importance of more detailed epidemiological analyses of the public health burden associated with bushfire smoke in Australia. While such studies would build the evidence base in this area, the preliminary statistics reported here are still substantial in magnitude and suggestive of the need for bushfire prevention and preparedness strategies in contemporary Australia.

The original research article described here is available open access online:

Arriagada NB, Palmer AJ, Bowman DMJS, Morgan GG, Jalaludin BB, Johnston FH. (2020). Unprecedented smoke-related health burden associated with the 2019-20 bushfires in eastern Australia. Medical Journal of Australia. 213(6): 282-283. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2020/213/6/unprecedented-smoke-related-health-burden-associated-2019-20-bushfires-eastern   

Michael J. Leach (@m_jleach) is an Australian epidemiologist, biostatistician, and poet who works at Monash University. His poetry collections include Chronicity (MPU, 2020) and Natural Philosophies (Recent Work Press, forthcoming).

Check out more sciku by Michael, including ‘The Core Correlate of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance‘, ‘Drug-Induced Hip Fractures‘, ‘The Psychopharmacological Revolution‘, ‘Quality of Life at Seven Years Post-Stroke‘, ‘The Early Impacts of COVID-19 on Australian General Practice‘, and ‘Australian Science Poetry‘ with science communicator Rachel Rayner. Michael also has another Covid-19-related sciku published in Pulse which is well worth checking out: ‘flu shot announcement‘.

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Plastic, Pollution, Policy

Accumulating.
Reject virgin, manage waste
before it’s too late.

Global annual emissions of plastic pollution are estimated to be between 22 and 48 million metric tons. If current trends continue then these 2016 estimates will double by 2025, and even current proposals for plastic management still predict emissions increasing annually.

Plastic can take anywhere between decades and centuries for it to be removed from the environment naturally through decomposition. When pollution exceeds removal plastic accumulates in the environment. Active removal of plastic from the environment is often very difficult, meaning that plastic is a “poorly reversible pollutant”.

Yet the damage that plastic can cause to the environment and to humans is vast, from plastics accumulating in food chains to the impact plastic pollution can have on the carbon cycle, and a whole range of other negative effects.

All of this is known. Much has been known for decades.

Yet our reliance on virgin plastic materials and our poor waste management strategies are doing little to stem the problem. Indeed, rich countries frequently send their plastic waste to poorer countries that have worse facilities for recycling plastics.

In a review of research into plastic pollution MacLeod et al. (2021) suggest that it may soon be too late to stop or reverse some of the catastrophic damage that plastic pollution causes. The researchers identify areas that are particularly threatened and demonstrate the complex process that plastic goes through as it degrades and just how far reaching and impactful plastic pollution can be.

Their analysis of the research concludes that plastic pollution is a “planetary boundary threat” and that the only “rational policy response” is to take rapid action to curb plastic emissions and improve global and national waste management.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abg5433

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Hadal Mercury

Quicksilver sinking.
Sediments sequestering
in the cold, dark deep.

Mercury pollution can cause huge environmental damage, accumulating in the food chain and causing harm to wildlife and humans. Reducing mercury pollution is vitally important and monitoring mercury levels in the environment is crucial for understanding how mercury travels through ecosystems. Yet measuring mercury levels isn’t always easy.

Recent research by Sanei et al. (2021) examined some of the most challenging areas to access on the planet – the deep-ocean trenches. The researchers collected sediment core samples from areas of the Kermadec and Atacama Trench Systems in the Pacific Ocean, over 6km below the surface in the hadal zone.

The researchers found that some areas were mercury hotspots, with levels 6–56 times higher than the previously inferred deep-ocean average. Whilst the hadal zone comprises only around 1% of the deep-ocean area, the findings suggest that it may account for 12–30% of the mercury estimate for the entire deep-ocean.

The findings raise serious questions about levels of mercury pollution in the oceans, highlighting the need for further research into deep-ocean mercury pollution. There is one bright spark in this worrying cold, dark news – mercury in trench sediments is effectively locked away, buried for millions of years as plate tectonics shifts it deep into the earth’s upper mantle.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-90459-1

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Wildfire’s Secrets

Hidden harm of smoke.
Microbial long-haul flights.
Lurking, infecting.

Wildfires cause huge amounts of long-term harm, including human, other animal and plant deaths, habitat loss, property and infrastructure destruction, the loss of carbon reservoirs and increased chances of flooding and landslides. Small airborne particles in smoke can be inhaled and cause fatal problems within the respiratory system, whilst the high levels of carbon monoxide produced can result in long-term brain damage, heart problems and even suffocation.

Yet researchers are revealing a new potential health threat as a result of wildfires – some microbes and fungi known to cause human infections are able to survive in the smoke plumes. Wildfires disturb soils causing these microbes to become airborne. Within the smoke the microbes ‘travel’ on particulate matter which is likely to protect them from ultraviolet radiation.

Kobziar & Thompson (2020) argue that the ability of microbes to survive in smoke plumes means that wildfires could play a role in geographical patterns of infection and that more research is needed to understand this threat. Particulate matter from wildfire smoke has been found to travel inter-continental distances. Those living close to wildfires, and even more so those firefighters working on the front lines are likely to be most at risk to such microbes – the US Centre for Disease Control has already stated that firefighting is an at-risk profession for coccidioidomycosis, a fungal infection also known as Valley fever.

The researchers argue that too little is currently known about microbe survival and spread in wildfire smoke. Essential questions remain, the answers to which will only be more important as the likelihood of wildfires increases as a result of climate change.

Original research: Kobziar & Thompson, 2020, Science, ‘Wildfire smoke, a potential infectious agent’ https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.abe8116

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Chess-ing perfection

Take a breath and think:

What move to make? How to win?

Hope the air was clean.

Chess demands players think strategically about their next moves, the possible ramifications and the potential responses of their opponents. It’s a high cognitive load with a lack of randomness or hidden information, meaning that players succeed or fail based entirely on their mental performance.

But research by Künn et al. (2019) suggests that whilst players may take steps to ensure an optimal cognitive performance (such as being rested or mental training exercises) the air they breathe can also influence the quality of decisions made.

The researchers found that air quality affected player decisions during several tournaments held in Germany over 3 years. The researchers used a chess engine to evaluate the quality of around 30,000 moves made during 596 games and then compared this with measures of air quality at the tournaments. They found that:

“An increase in the indoor concentration of fine particular matter by 10 µg/m3 increases a player’s probability of making an erroneous move by 26.3%.”

Happily this finding should have little impact in most chess games, where players sitting across from one another will be exposed to the same levels of air pollution.

Original research: http://ftp.iza.org/dp12632.pdf

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Carbon negative

Save planet and lives –
carbon negative power.
Economic too.

Whilst parts of the world move slowly towards carbon-neutral energy sources, others lag behind, heavily reliant on coal power stations and other power sources that release greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere and have negative impacts upon air quality. Yet increasingly it seems that carbon-neutral isn’t enough: in order to limit global temperature increases carbon-negative technologies are required.

One route for carbon-negative power generation is to convert biomass into energy and then capture and store the waste carbon dioxide. By removing the carbon in the biomass from the environment this is a carbon-negative process. Yet currently this isn’t efficient and requires too much land to grow the plants, land that is then unavailable for much needed food production.

Research by Lu et al (2019) has used China as a case study to address this issue since China is heavily dependent on coal power stations. Instead of relying exclusively on biomass, the researchers propose using a combination of biomass and coal to develop a pure source of hydrogen fuel. They found that a minimum of 35% biomass could result in carbon-negative power generation. Not only that but the biomass used in the process could be plant material leftover after harvesting, plant material which is currently burnt in the fields and is a major source of air pollution. What’s more the researchers suggest that the process would be as cost effective, and thus competitive, with the current coal fired power stations.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1812239116

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Winter driving

Safe winter driving.

Does the bad outweigh the good?

Costs of studded tyres.

 

Studded tyres are commonly used in many countries in winter to increase road safety when driving in icy and snowy conditions. Yet there are increasing concerns over the costs of using studded tyres.

Research by Furberg et al (2018) examined the impacts of studded tyres, across their whole lifecycle, from production to usage. Impacts of studded tyres measured were the number of lives saved, particulate emissions during use, emissions whilst the tyres are being produced, accidents during the mining of cobalt used in the studs, as well as casualties as a result of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the cobalt mining occurs and which the revenues of mining effects.

When taken together the researchers found that using studded tyres cost far more lives than they saved: in Sweden it’s estimated that studded tyres save between 60 and 770 life-years, whilst the costs are between 570 and 2200 life-years. In particular, whilst the benefits of studded tyres are primarily found in the countries that use them, 23-33% of the costs are found outside of those countries.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081774

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Lingering threat

PCB. Lingering threat.

Slinking up food chains, silent.

Killing the killers.

 

PCBs – polychlorinated biphenyls – were widely used in a variety of manufacturing techniques until they were linked to health problems such as increasing the risk of cancer, disrupting the immune system and impairing reproduction. Despite a ban on their use, the compounds remain an environmental contamination and can accumulate in the tissues of animals, passing up the food chain to accumulate in dangerous levels in apex predators.

Whilst killer whales are one of the most populous mammal species on the planet, research by Desforges et al (2018) suggests that PCB pollution could result in a collapse in over 50% of the world’s killer whale populations. The researchers amalgamated data on PCB concentrations in killer whale tissues from across the world and modelled the predicted impacts of PCB pollution over the next 100 years. The results highlight how important it is to be aware of potential environmental issues, even with species that appear to be thriving.

Original research: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6409/1373

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Dynamic toll

Dynamic toll roads.

Prices fluctuate with load,

save time, money, health.

 

Traffic congestion damages health, the environment and the economy. Whilst more roads might seem like the answer, history shows that additional roads don’t reduce traffic jams. Now Cramton et al (2018) suggest that smart toll roads – roads that track usage and charge accordingly – could be the solution.

By increasing prices in real time on roads that are busy, the authors suggest that road users would look to alternative routes and modes of transport or choose to travel at a different time. It would also reduce the financial burden on those individuals that rarely use road travel but still pay taxes to maintain road links.

Original source: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05836-0