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URL: http://www.avianflutalk.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=36128 Printed Date: April 26 2024 at 6:52am
Topic: pollution kills 12.6 million per yearPosted By: Dutch Josh
Subject: pollution kills 12.6 million per year
Date Posted: January 07 2017 at 4:54am
DJ sealevelrise will worsen the situation.Most urban regions are close to the sea.
There are many compelling reasons why
we need to clean up the global environment.
One of the most pressing is that
a polluted environment is a deadly one.
Every year, almost 12.6 million people
die from diseases associated with environmental
hazards, such as air, water or
soil pollution, and climate change.
That
is one in four deaths worldwide.1
We now know that the single greatest
environmental risk to human health
is through our most basic need – the air
that we breathe. For years, governments
have struggled to improve access to
energy so they can promote economic
development. But the largely unsustainable
energy path that the world has
followed has come at an unacceptable
cost. Air pollution, overwhelmingly
resulting from energy production and
use, causes heart and lung diseases and
cancer, resulting in approximately 6.5
million deaths each year.
------------- We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
Replies: Posted By: Satori
Date Posted: January 07 2017 at 5:30am
every time I hear Trump use the phrase "clean coal" I think what a freaking IDIOT
my state has phased out several coal fired plants good riddance some of us actually like clean air
Posted By: Dutch Josh
Date Posted: January 07 2017 at 6:25am
Clean air is a human right, the only thing is that it is often quite impossible to get your rights. Politicians do not work for the common good but for those who pay them. Citizens in several countries are looking for legal ways to get their basic rights for clean air, drinkable water etc.
My impression is that organized civil rights groups are facing the mix of traditional "political"parties and their sponsors; the weapons, fossil fuel, bank-industry.
Renewal of the political process is needed to deal with enviromental issues, climate change etc. The problem is much bigger then Trump, Clinton, Le Pen or Putin. Calling independent reporting "fake news" is another step towards "totalitarian democracy".
The idea of "trias politica" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_powers" rel="nofollow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_powers that was the basics of both the US and French revolution (1776, 1789) with legisletive, executive and juridical powers seperated has collapsed under the pressure of to much money in to few hands.
History will provide correction for that-it alwas has.
------------- We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
Posted By: Dutch Josh
Date Posted: January 12 2017 at 6:22am
Link between autism and mercury, arsenic and lead http://www.ecowatch.com/lead-mercury-arsenic-autism-kennedy-2181997944.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.ecowatch.com/lead-mercury-arsenic-autism-kennedy-2181997944.html
The new pandemics are man-made and far worse than the 1918 flu-pandemic.
------------- We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
Posted By: Technophobe
Date Posted: March 21 2018 at 4:31pm
More joy from the Trump administration's love of "nice clean coal".
It’s 2018, and black lung disease is on the rise in Appalachia.
https://jamanetwork-com.proxy.library.nyu.edu/journals/jama/fullarticle/2671456" rel="nofollow - Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) looked at three federally funded clinics between 2013 and 2017 and
documented the largest cluster of advanced black lung disease — ever.
In that time period, the clinics treated 416 coal miners primarily from
Virginia and Kentucky with complicated black lung, the most advanced
stage of the disease.
Not only are coal miners experiencing an uptick in the most fatal
form of black lung, they’re also being diagnosed at a younger age.
“There’s an unacceptably large number of younger miners who have end-stage disease,” lead researcher David J. Blackley https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/22/climate/black-lung-resurgence.html" rel="nofollow - told the New York Times . “The only choice is to get a lung transplant or wait it out and die.”
This new study follows https://www.npr.org/2016/12/15/505577680/advanced-black-lung-cases-surge-in-appalachia" rel="nofollow - a 2016 NPR investigation revealing that the number of cases of black lung in central Appalachia was likely much higher than NIOSH’s official count.
The disease declined throughout the 1990s, but now the clinics’ black lung specialist https://www.npr.org/2018/02/06/583456129/black-lung-study-biggest-cluster-ever-of-fatal-coal-miners-disease" rel="nofollow - - r .
Why? After exhausting thicker seams, today’s miners have to dig more
deeply into rock to unearth coal. The combination of coal dust and
silica dust from cutting into rock is a deadlier concoction than what
plagued miners in the past.
Technophobe's comment: To vote for Trump was to vote for better economic strength for your country, that is unarguable. But, how big a price for that is too high?
The yellow highlights were mine.
------------- How do you tell if a politician is lying? His lips or pen are moving.
Posted By: Dutch Josh
Date Posted: March 21 2018 at 10:39pm
Technophobe, I think a vote for trump may have been a vote against h.clinton, the way the "democrats" did "deal"with Bernie Sanders. The world with president Sanders may have been a better place than it is now.
The major "east-west"conflict is on fossil fuel. When you control "energy" you control the world.
Fracking is causing earthquakes, pollution is causing all kind of disease (direct-lungs, indirect by effecting a healthy enviroment, disturbing a natural balance). Humans are killing themselves high speed in many different ways.
------------- We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
Posted By: Technophobe
Date Posted: March 31 2018 at 11:54am
Black lung may be on the rise, but you may not hear about it.
How do you hide the nasty effects of your latest policies? Easy! Change the law so people can't get a diagnosis.
But that will mean lots of people can't sue the company that is killing them.
BONUS!! More money for the rich - and they pay the White house's bills.
Kentucky Lawmakers Limit Black Lung Claims Reviews Despite Epidemic
A measure signed into law in Kentucky this past week would prevent
federally-certified radiologists from judging X-rays in state black lung
compensation claims, leaving diagnoses of the disease mostly to
physicians who typically work for coal companies.
The new law
requires that only pulmonologists — doctors who specialize in the lungs
and respiratory system — assess diagnostic black lung X-rays when state
black lung claims are filed.
Up until now, radiologists, who
work in evaluating all types of X-rays and other diagnostic images, had
been allowed to diagnose the disease as well.
Just six
pulmonologists in Kentucky have the federal certification to read black
lung X-rays and four of them routinely are hired by coal companies or
their insurers, according to an NPR review of federal black lung cases.
The
two remaining pulmonologists have generally assessed X-rays on behalf
of coal miners but one is semi-retired and his federal certification
expires June 1.
Among the radiologists excluded by the law is Dr. Brandon Crum, who helped expose the https://www.npr.org/2018/02/06/583456129/black-lung-study-biggest-cluster-ever-of-fatal-coal-miners-disease" rel="nofollow - biggest clusters ever documented of complicated black lung, the advanced stage of the fatal disease that strikes coal miners.
"I do believe the coal industry is writing this bill to
exclude certain doctors that they don't like," said Phillip Wheeler, an
attorney in Pikeville, Ky., who represents coal miners seeking state
black lung benefits.
Experts in reading X-rays
The changes are part of sweeping reforms to Kentucky workers' compensation law, known as http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/18RS/HB2.htm" rel="nofollow - House Bill 2 . Workers' comp provides medical and wage replacement benefits for miners suffering from black lung.
Dr. Crum is the most visible of the excluded radiologists. His clinic in Coal Run Village, Ky., was the focus of a https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6549a1.htm" rel="nofollow - 2016 study
by epidemiologists from the National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health (NIOSH). They verified 60 cases of complicated black lung
that had been diagnosed in a period of about 20 months in 2015 and 2016.
NIOSH had previously reported 99 cases nationwide over a five-year period.
At the same time, https://www.npr.org/2016/12/15/505577680/advanced-black-lung-cases-surge-in-appalachia" rel="nofollow - NPR and Ohio Valley ReSource reported
nearly 1,000 cases across central Appalachia, prompting NIOSH
epidemiologists to declare it the worst epidemic of complicated black
lung they'd ever seen. Our ongoing survey of black lung clinics and law
offices has the current count of advanced black lung diagnoses at more
than 2,200 since 2010.
"Throughout the United States, I know of
nowhere where radiologists are taken completely out of the evaluation
for potential black lung disease," Dr. Crum said. "That's what we're
primarily trained in."
Physicians who read chest X-rays for
work-related diseases like black lung are known as "B readers" and are
certified by NIOSH for both federal and state compensation claims. B
readers do not specifically have to be pulmonologists or radiologists,
though they can be both.
Radiologists, on the other hand, focus entirely on reading multiple types of X-rays and other diagnostic images.
The
law also bars out-of-state radiologists who are both NIOSH-certified B
readers and medically-licensed in Kentucky. That includes Dr. Kathleen
DePonte, a radiologist in Norton, Va., who has read more than 100,000
black lung X-rays in the past 30 years.
"It is curious to me
that the legislators feel that the pulmonologist is more qualified to
interpret a chest radiograph than a radiologist is," Dr. DePonte said.
"This
is primarily what radiologists do. It is radiologists who receive all
the special training in reading X-rays and other imaging."
Dr.
Edward Petsonk, a pulmonologist at West Virginia University with
decades of experience and research focused on black lung, points to a
1999 report of pass-fail statistics for physicians taking the NIOSH B
reader examination. Two-thirds of the radiologists passed, while the
success rate for pulmonologists was 54 percent.
Relying on the expertise of industry
Radiologists,
pulmonologists and other physicians don't necessarily read X-rays the
same way. Those who work for coal companies tend to be conservative in
assessing black lung because the coal companies or their insurers pay
black lung benefits. Those reading X-rays on behalf of coal miners are
often accused of being too liberal in their assessments.
Judges often decide which assessments count most.
This seemed to frustrate http://www.lrc.ky.gov/legislator/H069.htm" rel="nofollow - Rep. Adam Koenig , a Republican from Erlanger and the primary sponsor of the changes in the law.
During
the House floor debate on the measure, Koenig said one B reader finds
black lung 41 percent of the time while another's rate is 91 percent.
"Obviously
we do not have a standardized process so we are trying to standardize
it," Koenig said. "No one here is trying to deny anyone who does that
work from getting their black lung claims."
That's precisely what the new law will do, argued http://www.lrc.ky.gov/legislator/H094.htm" rel="nofollow - Rep. Angie Hatton , a Democrat from Whitesburg.
"When
we're finding increased amounts of this illness it seems to me that
this is when they need us the most," Hatton said. "Why are we making it
tougher for them to prove their illness?"
In an interview with
NPR, Koenig said he "relied on the expertise of those who understand the
issue — the industry, coal companies and attorneys."
He'd heard "anecdotal stories," he said, about lung cancer being misdiagnosed as black lung.
Early
stages of lung cancer and black lung can leave similar masses on lungs,
according to West Virginia University's Dr. Petsonk.
But Dr.
Petsonk also noted that coal miners exposed to silica dust "are at an
increased risk of lung cancer. They do get lung cancer. Silica is a
carcinogen."
A miner reacts
Former coal miner William
McCool believes he would have been denied state black lung benefits if
the new law had been in place when he applied for compensation.
"It'd be pretty much impossible," McCool said. "I've had lung doctors tell me I don't have black lung."
McCool
said it took two years to win his state claim because the doctors
working on behalf of a coal company were conservative in assessing his
disease. But the 64-year-old from Letcher County ultimately prevailed
and has been diagnosed with advanced disease.
The https://www.dol.gov/owcp/dcmwc/" rel="nofollow - federal black lung compensation program
continues to rely on all NIOSH-certified B readers, whether they are
pulmonologists, radiologists or other physicians. But seeking federal
benefits instead of state workers' compensation is not necessarily an
easy option.
Dueling assessments in the federal system mean
that some miners have waited more than a decade for decisions on federal
benefits. Some die before receiving them. State benefits have
traditionally been quicker and more generous to miners.
That seems to be changing, said Evan Smith, an attorney at the https://appalachianlawcenter.org/" rel="nofollow - Appalachian Citizens' Law Center in Whitesburg.
Smith
said the new state law "keeps Kentucky coal miners from using highly
qualified and reliable experts to prove their state black lung claims
[and] looks like just another step in the race to the bottom to gut
worker protections."
Koenig insisted that's not the case.
"All
we're doing is making sure that qualified doctors are making these
determinations," Koenig said. "And if this process doesn't work, I'll be
the first in line to figure out how to do it better."