Clean Air News

 

Pollution estimated to have caused 50 infant deaths, 100,000 child asthma attacks, 300,000 missed school days

RALEIGH—Air pollution causes 50 infant deaths, 100,000 child asthma attacks, and 300,000 missed school days annually in North Carolina, according to estimates from a new report released today. The study, entitled “Air Pollution and Public Health in North Carolina,” was released today by Environment North Carolina, the new home of NCPIRG’s environmental work, along with the American Lung Association, Southern Environmental Law Center, and others.

“It has been said that we ought to judge each society by how it treats the most vulnerable and weakest of its members,” said Elizabeth Ouzts, State Director for Environment North Carolina. “If that is true, North Carolina should be judged harshly. Air pollution is causing missed school days, asthma attacks, and in the worst cases, death, for the state’s most vulnerable—our children.”

Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. First, children are developing into adults. Their lungs are growing. Injuries sustained during this time can cause permanent damage that will have life-long effects. Second, children breathe more air per pound of body weight and thus inhale larger doses of pollutants than adults. The results are missed school days, increased doctor visits, hospitalizations, and for a small group, death. The study estimates that air pollution kills 50 infants a year, causes 1500 emergency room visits for childhood asthma, triggers 100,000 asthma attacks and results in 300,000 missed school days each year.

The elderly, those with respiratory disease, and even normal, healthy adults are also vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. Air pollution’s impacts for these populations range from restricted activity days, to missed work days, to even premature death. According to the report, air pollution is estimated to have triggered 500,000 missed work days, more than 200,000 asthma attacks, and 3,000 premature deaths.

“Children aren’t the only ones paying the price of air pollution,” said Ouzts. “Dirty air is also causing hundreds of thousands of missed work days and thousands of premature deaths in North Carolina.”

The estimates in the report cover particulate pollution (or soot), which comes from smokestacks and vehicle exhaust, and ground-level ozone (or smog), which develops across much of the state on hot summer days as a result of emissions from cars, trucks, smokestacks and other sources. The report used estimates from 2003, a year in which a wet, cold summer meant that 14 high ozone days were recorded across the state by the NC Division of Air Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In the past five years, ozone levels in North Carolina have exceeded federal health standards on as few as 5 days and as many as 51, with an average of 25.

Soot and smog cause damage when they come in contact with lungs. Ozone quickly reacts with airway tissues and produces inflammation similar to sunburn on the inside of the lungs. Particulates travel deep into the lower passages of the lungs and become trapped there, delivering a payload of toxic chemicals. Constant exposure to these pollutants over time permanently damages lung tissues, decreases the ability to breathe normally, and exacerbates or even causes chronic disease.

Environment North Carolina and other advocates recommended a suite of policies to reduce air pollution and its public health impacts in North Carolina. Among them, advocates called for the establishment of the Clean Cars program in North Carolina, which would make more of the cars on the state’s roads super-clean, emitting up to 90 less smog and toxic pollution. Sens. Clodfelter and Nesbitt and Reps. Alexander, Carney, Hackney and Harrison have championed bills in both houses in North Carolina to bring the Clean Cars program to the state.

Advocates also called for reducing car-dependent land use practices and sprawl, increasing transportation funding for transit, rail freight, and other alternative transportation projects, and aggressive enforcement of the state’s “Clean Smokestacks Act.”

“North Carolina leaders have already taken important steps to curb air pollution,” said Ouzts. “But when the state’s children are still suffering because of dirty air, North Carolina can do better. With so many solutions readily available, we have no excuse not to.”