Air Pollution and The Great London Smog

[Rose]

Coke Oven Emissions

Known to be a human carcinogen
First Listed in the Second Annual Report on Carcinogens (1981)Carcinogenicity
Coke oven emissions are known to be human carcinogens based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans that indicates a causal relationship between exposure and cancer in humans.

Prior to 1950, there were numerous case reports that linked employment in coke production with cancers of the skin, bladder, and respiratory tract. Since then, several cohort studies conducted in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and Sweden have reported an increased risk of lung
cancer in humans exposed to coke oven emissions.
Smoking was accounted for in some of these studies and was not found to be a significant confounding factor."

A large cohort study of 59,000 steelworkers reported that lung cancer risk increased with increasing duration of exposure to coke-oven fumes or intensity of exposure. Several studies
of coke plant workers have reported an increased risk for kidney cancer.
An excess of cancer at other sites (prostate, large intestine, and pancreas) was reported in single studies (IARC 1984, 1987).

Coke oven emission samples applied weekly to the skin of mice for up to 52 weeks caused malignant skin tumors. These samples also showed tumor-initiating activity in mice. Several inhalation studies, using coal tar aerosols generated by samples collected from coke ovens, caused both benign and malignant lung tumors in rats and mice, and skin tumors in female mice.
Chemical analyses of coke oven emissions revealed the presence of numerous known carcinogens and potentially carcinogenic chemicals, including several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitrosamines, coal tar,arsenic compounds, and benzene. In addition to these carcinogens, coke oven emissions contain several agents known to enhance the effect of
chemical carcinogens, especially on the respiratory tract.

Exposure
The primary routes of potential human exposure to coke oven emissions are inhalation and dermal contact. Occupational exposure may occur during the production of coke from coal or while using coke to extract metals from their ores, to synthesize calcium carbide, or to manufacture graphite and electrodes.
Workers at coking plants and coal tar production plants, as well as the residents surrounding these plants, have a high risk of possible exposure to coke oven emissions.
http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/eleven ... 49coke.pdf


"In fact the first observations on an appreciable rise in the frequency of lung cancer were reported from the highly industrialized cities of densely populated Saxony during the first two decades of this century. Some years later it was found that high lung cancer rates existed for the population of the industrialized territory of the Ruhr valley, while they were below average for the agricultural region of the Main valley."
http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/reprint/30/2/141

[Rose]

Yorkshire Post-1962

"In the great London smog of 1952, some 4,000 people, mostly elderly, died. It was said to be the worst peace-time disaster in the capital since the Great Fire of London.

Lessons were learned but on the 10th anniversary, the smog descended on Yorkshire and it was found not too much seemed to have changed. On December 6, in certain parts of Leeds, the sulphur dioxide concentrations were higher than the lethal levels recorded in London a decade earlier."

"LONDON and Leeds were the areas worst hit by smog yesterday. In London last night the number of deaths neared the 70 mark and in Leeds over 50 people were in hospital "acutely ill" with respiratory illness"

"The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research also said that the sulphur dioxide concentration was six and five times higher than normal.

Pollution compared to that of the 1952 smog, the experts said. But without the Clean Air Act conditions would have been worse than in 1952.
In the Kirkstall Road area of Leeds, the sulphur dioxide concentration was greater than that registered in London in 1952. At 5,185 microgrammes per cubic metre it was the highest ever registered in the city.
The smoke content of the air has decreased since the last bad smog in 1959 said Mr RA Dalley the city's analyst. This was due to the smoke control zone."

"Fog mixed with smoke, chemicals and fumes, such as the major industrial conurbations and London have suffered in the last three days, damages lung tissue, stomach lining, nasal passages.
Children's lungs so damaged "will never be the same again".

"United States has turned many once grim, grimy, lethal industrial cities into shining, clean places where it is not only a joy to live but is also safe to live. Not so Britain. The Clean Air Act was passed over six years ago. Local authorities were vested with full powers to enforce smokeless zones.

They have done very little. They have preferred to enlarge small difficulties into major obstacles; they have temporised. By so doing, they have put the health and well-being of those to whom and for whom they are responsible in hazard. They are responsible for deaths by smog"
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/250th-an ... eID=896717

[Rose]

Germany's Synthetic Fuel Industry 1927-45
"First, Germany became increasingly dependent on gasoline and diesel oil engines.The appearance of automobiles, trucks and then airplanes made a plentiful supply of gasoline essential. Moreover, ocean going ships increasingly used diesel oil rather than coal as their energy source"
http://www.caer.uky.edu/caerseminar/fsstrang.shtml

"This development is comparable with the direct liquefaction of coal (developed by IG Farben in the thirties), which also has greater thermal efficiency (up to 63%) than gasification of coal followed by FT synthesis (about 44 % with coal, but about 70% with natural gas). Both processes, the direct liquefaction and the Fischer-Tropsch technology, are currently going through a renaissance in China because the low raw material and wage costs allow economic coal liquefaction."
http://www.volkswagenag.com/vwag/vwcorp ... _tank.html

" But liquid coal comes with substantial environmental and economic negatives. On the environmental side, the polluting properties of coal—starting with mining and lasting long after burning—and the large amounts of energy required to liquefy it mean that liquid coal produces more than twice the global warming emissions as regular gasoline and almost double those of ordinary diesel. As pundits have pointed out, driving a Prius on liquid coal makes it as dirty as a Hummer on regular gasoline"
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=worse-than-gasoline

The fact that about one third of the subjects surveyes smoked moderately or not at all indicates the presence of other cancerigenic factors besides smoking, such as influenza and industrial working conditions.
The great significance of the latter can be inferred from various indications but needs further study
http://tobaccodocuments.org/ness/4164.html

Franz H Muller's 1939 case control study Cologne page8
Includes dye worker who had breathed in aniline vapours
http://www.environmentaloncology.org/fi ... roctor.pdf

Who Owns Aniline?
"But it was formed under the auspices of I. G. Farbenindustrie, the great German dye trust, and it has prospered with the help of Farben skills and patents. Two years ago General Aniline—until then known as American I. G. Chemical Corp. —reorganized, and has since denied or minimized any Nazi affiliations. But it cannot seem to convince the U.S. Government that its ownership is in trustworthy hands."

"General Aniline had some distinguished American directors when the Germans set it up in '27. But Walter Clark Teagle, chairman of Standard Oil of N.J. (with which the Farben used to share patents) resigned from the Aniline board last year, and Edgar M. Clark (a Standard Oil man) and Edsel Ford followed suit early this month"
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... -1,00.html

[Rose]

Aniline

Uses
Aniline is predominantly used as a chemical intermediate for the dye, agricultural, polymer, and rubber industries. It is also used as a solvent, and has been used as an antiknock compound for gasolines.

Sources and Potential Exposure
Aniline can be formed from the breakdown of certain pollutants found in outdoor air, from the burning of plastics, or from burning tobacco.
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/aniline.html

"Diesel exhaust is a mixture containing over 450 different components, including vapors and fine particles coated with organic substances. The State of California considers over 40 chemicals in diesel exhaust as toxic air contaminants (see Table 1).
Exposure to this mixture may result in cancer, respiratory effects and other health problems.

California’s Scientific Review Panel has unanimously endorsed the official listing of diesel exhaust as a toxic air contaminant, due to its cancer and non-cancer health effects.
Diesel exhaust has been listed as a known carcinogen under California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act (Prop. 65) since 1990. Many components of diesel exhaust, such as benzene, arsenic, dioxins, and formaldehyde, are also known carcinogens in California. Other components, such as toluene and dioxins, are known reproductive toxicants"

Table 1: Substances in Diesel Exhaust Listed by Cal EPA as Toxic Air Contaminants

acetaldehyde
acrolein
aniline
http://www.ccaej.org/projects/dangers_diesel.htm


"Recent research has shown that a class of carcinogenic (cancer-causing) compounds known as tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) may be formed in flue-cured tobacco leaves during the curing process. These compounds are not found in green (uncured) tobacco"

"The direct-fire curing systems currently in use in most U.S. curing barns are considered to be the major factor contributing to elevated levels of TSNAs in U.S. flue-cured tobacco. Further, there is no known fuel treatment or burner design that can eliminate these nitrogen compounds from combustion gases without the use of a heat exchanger (found in all indirect-fired systems). It is believed that reducing the levels of TSNAs in tobacco products would reduce some of the health concerns associated with tobacco use"
http://www.cpes.peachnet.edu/tobacco/retrofitinfo.htm

What About Existing Diesel Burners??

Orginal fuel oil heat exchanger models were not solid welded and have the potential for leaking combustion gases in the curing chamber. Current models are solid welded
http://www.cpes.peachnet.edu/tobacco/fueloil.htm

Benzopyrene
"By the early 20th century, the toxicity of benzo[a]pyrene was demonstrated when malignant skin tumors were produced in laboratory animals by repeatedly painting them with coal tar."

Sources of Benzo[a]pyrene
Benzo[a]pyrene is found in coal tar, in automobile exhaust fumes (especially from diesel engines), tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke, incense smoke, wood smoke, and in charbroiled food
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzopyrene

[Rose]

1974

Long-term effect:

"The tobacco industry is becoming increasingly disturbed by industries which are using smoking as a cover-up for their problems in complying with the Clean Air Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Tobacco executives have noted efforts by the oil industry, the automobile industry and others to hide their pollution behind a tobacco smoke screen.

Democrats, labor unions and environmental activists may also see this cover-up as a potential issue to be used against Republicans in 1976, labeling them as "protectors of the polluters." Adding to their suspicion is foot dragging of the National Cancer Advisory Board in acting on environmental and occupational cancer, which some scientists and environmental activists regard as ignored and "unindicted co-conspirators" in the case against cancer.
The NCAB is much more vigorous in its almost single-minded persecution of smoking.

Precedent effect:
Yielding to pressure from the NCAB in regulating cigarettes will open a Pandora's Box
http://tobaccodocuments.org/ti/TIMN0141199-1201.html

[Rose]

THE HISTORY OF THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY

"Certain streams came to be named from the quantities of the substance found on the surface of the water, as "Oil Creek' in Northwestern Pennsylvania, "Old Greasy" or Kanawha in West Virginia. The belief in the substance as a cure-all increased as time went on and in various part of the country it was regularly skimmed from the surface of the water as cream from a pan, or soaked up by woollen blankets, bottled, and peddled as a medicine for man and beast."
http://www.history.rochester.edu/fuels/tarbell/MAIN.HTM

"Sometime in the 1930s, Standard Oil and IG Farben had come to an agreement that Standard would not compete in rubber in Germany whilst IG Farben would neglect oil in the United States. Certain valuable patents, such as that for making a gasoline or kerosene equivalent from coal, were shared. This arrangement became something of a legal and public-relations problem when Standard and Farben found themselves on opposite sides of World War II shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In February 1942, Ass't Att'y Gen'l Thurman Arnold, Navy Sec'y Franklin Knox, and Army Sec'y Henry Stimson confronted Farish with the charge that, by continuing to favor Hitler in rubber deal and patent arrangements, Standard Oil had acted against US interests. They suggested a M$1.5 fine, which Farish rejected out of hand, essentially promising to turn off the US' oil supply. Arnold, Stimson, and Knox soon realized they had no power to compare with that of Standard and settled for a ‘no contest’ plea, which avoided a public trial, and a trivial fine of a few grand"
http://www.biographybase.com/biography/ ... ps_II.html

The Exxon Mobil Corporation, or ExxonMobil, is an American oil and gas corporation and a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMobil

Scientists' Report Documents ExxonMobil’s Tobacco-like Disinformation Campaign on Global Warming Science
"ExxonMobil has manufactured uncertainty about the human causes of global warming just as tobacco companies denied their product caused lung cancer," said Alden Meyer, the Union of Concerned Scientists' Director of Strategy & Policy. "A modest but effective investment has allowed the oil giant to fuel doubt about global warming to delay government action just as Big Tobacco did for over 40 years."
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_releas ... bacco.html

The original biters bit?

[Rose]

Policemen on point duty to get gas masks

VADODARA, Dec 1: The 300 odd traffic policemen in the city will soon have gas-masks to guard against inhalation of emission laden air while on point duty.

The Indian Oil Corporation will provide the masks in a week, said Assistant Commissioner Siddharth Khatri on Wednesday.

He said that the sharp increase in use of vehicles has increased emission levels in the air, especially in cities.

Every year, 52,000 air-pollution related deaths take place in India. ``It is worst at crossings, and the man on point duty is exposed to emissions for long hours,'' he said.

Traffic policemen on duty have so far not complained about this. ``But the exposure to emissions for long durations leaves them open to the risk of respiratory disease. The masks will be an important preventive device,'' he said. Appealing people to keep their vehicles in proper condition in order to ensure minimum emission levels, he said that regular cleaning of spark plugs and tuning of the carburetors and engines in two wheelers and air filters in four-wheelers could check smoke emission to a great extent.

Khatri said that people could also reduce vehicular pollution by using the right quantity of lubricant, of the right specifications. The city police also plans to pasting posters with messages on reducing emissions on buses.
http://www.expressindia.com/news/ie/dai ... 2097p.html


Sharp Rise In Number of Lung Cancer Patients

"Cancer specialists are alarmed as the figures seem to have touched an all time high. Dr Ashutosh Pathak of the Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital in AIIMS said, ``90 per cent of the patients are men. While most are from the lower economic strata of society, there are some who are quite well-to-do.''
"``The worst thing about smoking is that it has become a fashion statement. The young are specially gullible to fall for such things.'' . .
http://www.tobacco.org/news/59780.html

[Rose]

Bus workers file suit against diesel companies

"For 32 years, Connor Hartnett worked in bus depots throughout the city with little or no ventilation. Diesel fumes from hundreds of idling buses were so thick he often couldn't read the identification numbers on the vehicles.

"There were times you couldn't see the buses," said Hartnett, 73, who retired in 1992 and now has inoperable lung cancer and a heart condition.

Yesterday, Hartnett and 17 others filed suit against diesel engine manufacturers, claiming that exposure to the particulate matter in the emissions caused their severe illnesses. Hartnett's attorneys estimate that he was exposed for 42,960 hours during his time as a bus driver and shifter. Other in the case had more exposure, like mechanics Vincenzo Mancio and Joseph Ganz, who are now deceased from cancer and heart problems and are represented by family in the law suit.

At the end of his shift Emidio DeStefano, 71, drove his bus into the back entrance of a depot he worked at for 20 years at 126th Street near the East River. He and the others then had to walk the length of the massive structure, some three blocks, to the other side. It was a slow walk because he often had to squeeze between the buses parked cheek by jowl. "There was no air whatsoever," he said. He said they complained to supervisors but nothing was ever changed.

Today he has throat cancer. All the doctors at the hospital ask him, how many packs a day do you smoke. "I never smoked in my life," he said.
http://www.amny.com/news/local/transpor ... 0452.story

[Rose]

"According to the most recent Environmental Protection Agency data, New York City has the dirtiest air in America. In the whole country, no city population has a greater risk of getting cancer from breathing air than residents of our five boroughs. "

"History also plays a part. After WWII, General Motors bought up most of America’s railways and destroyed them or left them unused, forcing interstate commerce to shift away from trains and become mostly dependent upon the trucking industry.

GM admitted this in a document entitled “The Truth About American Ground Transport,” which was submitted to the U.S. Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate in April 1974.

GM was convicted along with Standard Oil and Firestone for this conspiracy in 1949. This conspiracy led to more emissions from cars and trucks, especially in California where these oil and car companies battled against transportation alternatives not powered by petroleum. As a frightening result, all over the country, pollution became concentrated in high-traffic urban areas.

In 1963, a phenomenon called thermal inversion occurred in New York City’s atmosphere. Warm air trapped cooler air below it. Pollutants were trapped in the lower layer and 405 people died, mainly from carbon monoxide poisoning. Inversion struck again in November 1966, with 168 fatalities.

The worst incident of thermal inversion happened in London in December 1952, resulting in 4,000 deaths. Thermal inversion spurred the swift passage of the Clean Air Act in 1963.
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2007/01/82308.shtml

[Rose]

Diesel–the Dark Side of Industry

"On Thursday, industry representatives, environmentalists and scientists spent the day debating the link between diesel exhaust and lung cancer and the implications for California’s economy and public health."
"From truckers to farmers to manufacturers, industry leaders descended Thursday on the California Air Resources Board in an effort to stop the board from declaring diesel exhaust a potent cancer-causing danger to the public."

"Trucking companies and engine manufacturers worry that if the air board implicates diesel exhaust as a potent carcinogen, they could be held liable for paying massive damages for causing people’s cancers. Even without an outright ban on diesel, the air board’s decision would make it difficult to operate a wide variety of businesses that depend on the engines, from grocery stores to construction firms, industry officials say"

"In April, the state’s Scientific Review Panel concluded that diesels could be killing more than 14,000 Californians by causing 450 lung cancers among every 1 million people exposed to average concentrations over a lifetime. Based on that risk estimate, diesel exhaust ranks sixth in potency of 19 air pollutants now identified as hazardous.

More than 30 human health studies from around the world show a link between diesel exhaust and cancer–more so than with any other substance reviewed by the state in 15 years, said John Froines, a leading environmental health specialist at UCLA who heads the Scientific Review Panel. In the studies, railroad crews and other workers regularly exposed to large doses of the fumes suffered 40% more lung cancer than average."
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/jul/31/news/mn-8918

Diesel–the Dark Side of Industry
"For two days in a row, as he unloaded baggage from jets at Los Angeles International Airport, clouds of soot poured out of a malfunctioning diesel-powered loading machine. For 23 years Lewis worked for airlines, taking pride in hardly ever calling in sick. But now his head ached, his eyes burned and his nose ran. Coughs racked his body. Suddenly he could barely breathe.

Examined by a doctor, Lewis was shocked to learn, according to court documents, that his airways were severely scarred. A specialist told him he was suffering the sudden onset of an unusual respiratory disease, an “industrial asthma,” caused by the intense bouts of diesel smoke exposure.
“An irreversible condition,” the pulmonologist said, “with a poor prognosis.” The fumes had eaten away at the lining of his airways, leaving them so hypersensitive he had to live on oxygen 24 hours a day, confined to his home"

"The danger is not just from the sort of sudden, extreme exposure that afflicted Lewis, but from everyday, lower doses as well. Exactly how much the public is endangered and how best to protect people from trucks and other machinery is now among the most contentious issues facing environmental officials."

"The 4 million Americans who operate diesel machines on the job face the most serious risks.

Their chances of dying from lung cancer rise 20% to 40% compared with the general population, according to a Health Effects Institute review of about 40 studies by epidemiologists"

"At the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles–massive operations that are filled with trucks, ships, trains and cranes–workers breathe some of the most severe doses of diesel exhaust found anyplace in California."
"Studies show that truck cabs contain the same amount of carbon particles as the surrounding highway air. But because truckers spend more time on highways than the general population, they probably breathe more pollutants into their lungs.

In one federal study, truckers with more than 35 years on the job faced an 89% increase in lung cancer compared with the general public. The study controlled for both smoking and diet.

A Harvard University study that tracked 55,000 railroad workers who died before 1980 found that their cancer rate increased with years of exposure–those with more than 15 years on the job had a 72% greater rate of dying from lung cancer than the general population"
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/may/30/news/mn-42608

[Rose]

Pollution link to asthma in womb

"Traffic pollution causes genetic changes in the womb which increase a child's risk of developing asthma, research suggests.
A study of umbilical cord blood from 56 children found "reprogramming" of a gene associated with exposure to compounds in traffic fumes."

"They also recorded the mothers' exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - a by-product of combustion present in high levels in heavy-traffic areas - during their pregnancy with backpack air monitors.
The researchers found a significant association between chemical changes which control activation of the gene and high levels of maternal PAH exposure.

Although the finding needs to be confirmed in larger studies, researchers say changes in the ACSL3 gene may be help early diagnosis of pollution-related asthma."

"We know that children living in polluted areas have a higher incidence of asthma but what we didn't know was it was affecting a gene"

"We do know however that pollution triggers symptoms in two thirds of people with asthma, and many say that a reduction in air pollution would make the single biggest difference to their quality of life."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7888735.stm

[Rose]

Ho Ho Ho

A KILLER ON THE LOOSE Repace

An Action on Smoking and Healthspecial investigationinto the threat of passive smoking to the U.K. workforce
"An estimated 12,000 U.K. nonsmokers die annually from secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure at home, at work, and in social venues. In fact, SHS pollution now causes as many
deaths annually as did the great London Smog 50 years ago and triple the annual number of road deaths from traffic accidents.

Attempts to control the toxic and carcinogenic properties ofsecondhand smoke by ventilation are futile, requiring tornado-strength rates of air flow.

• The intent of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, whichplaces a general duty of care for employers to provide a safe working environment, is not being satisfied for passive
smoking.
Without an Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) or legislation to ensure smoke-free workplaces, nonsmoking workers will continue to die needlessly.
http://www.repace.com/pdf/killer1.pdf

I think I prefer Thin Lizzy's version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n51-xrYr ... re=related

[gary k]

""An estimated 12,000 U.K. nonsmokers die annually from secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure at home, at work, and in social venues. In fact, SHS pollution now causes as many deaths annually as did the great London Smog 50 years ago "
.............
The Great London Fog lasted less than a week and caused about 10,000 deaths.

If it had lasted for a year, it might have killed 500,000 or so.

Saying that 12,000 is the same as about 500,000 is utter and total stupidity!!!

Yet,not one media outlet questioned the statement?

Repace is the South End of a North bound horse.

[Rose]

Gary
It rips like tissue paper as soon as anyone look at it sideways.

I hope you and everyone else will take anything you want from this collection and do with it whatever you like.
I can't do the maths, I can't write coherently, but at least I can attempt to do some of the research.

[gary k]

"It rips like tissue paper as soon as anyone look at it sideways."

Rose,
You have a very nice way with words and your phrases are a delight!!