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August 24-September 20, 2001 |
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If you choose to follow any links to the abstracts and/or complete text of articles, books, and documents listed below, you will be leaving the Strategian Web site. If you wish to return to this page from the Web page you are sent to, please use the Back option of your browser. Feature Items: Luis Cifuentes, Victor H. Borja-Aburto, Nelson Gouveia, George Thurston, and Devra Lee Davis Climate Change: Hidden Health Benefits of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation. (... an interesting review of a number of current studies--including the authors' own study--covering both developing and developed countries that examine the apparent fact that the same actions that can reduce the long-term buildup of greenhouse gases [GHG]--reductions in burning of fossil fuels--can also yield powerful, immediate benefits to public health by reducing the adverse effects of local air pollution. Most of the public and scientific debate concerning the increase of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere and potential climate change as a result has principally considered more long-term consequences such as raised temperatures and sea level, extremes of weather, alterations in the ecology of infectious diseases, or radical changes in land use. The authors assert that if the public health benefits to local areas--especially densely-populated urban areas around the world--of reductions in greenhouse gases and air pollution become more widely recognized, and their full economic and social impact are integrated into discussions of climate policy, that could change the scope and course of the present debate about global warming and climate change. Other keywords and phrases -- carbon, combustion, effects, greenhouse effect, mitigate, morbidity, mortality -- from the text of the article; please see the bibliography) Science Volume 293, Number 5533 (August 17, 2001): 1257-1259. Luis Cifuentes, Victor H. Borja-Aburto, Nelson Gouveia, George Thurston, and Devra Lee Davis Assessing the Health Benefits of Urban Air Pollution Reductions Associated with Climate Change Mitigation (2000-2020): Santiago, São Paulo, México City, and New York City. (... the present debate about the long-term consequences to our planet and ourselves of activities that cause the discharge of greenhouse gases--like carbon dioxide--into Earth's atmosphere has mainly centered on possible global climate change and associated effects--increased air temperatures, higher sea levels, weather extremes, the spread of infectious diseases, etc. While it is recognized that efforts and policies to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases [GHG] can also have near-term positive and negative ancillary side effects on public health, ecosystems, land use, and materials, these effects tend not to be mentioned or taken into account in the present debate. The authors of this study take a look at the relatively immediate public health consequences of reductions in ambient [in the air surrounding us] concentrations of particulate matter [PM] and ozone [O3] associated with policies to reduce GHG emissions. The authors developed scenarios that estimate the cumulative public health impacts of reducing GHG emissions from 2000 to 2020 in four cities: Mexico City, Mexico; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; and New York, New York. Using their methods, the authors estimate that the adoption of readily available technologies to lessen fossil fuel emissions over the next two decades in these four cities alone will reduce particulate matter and ozone and avoid approximately 64,000 [95% confidence interval [CI] 18,000-116,000] premature deaths [including infant deaths], 65,000 [95% CI 22,000-108,000] chronic bronchitis cases, and 46 million [95% CI 35-58 million] person-days of work loss or other restricted activity. The authors of this study admit that it is difficult to measure the total effects on human health of air pollution in any particular town or city given the many uncertainties involved and the uneven nature or absence of needed information. Given that, the authors assert that public health consequences related to air pollution need to be a part of the current debate and discussion about policies to reduce or not reduce greenhouse gases. Decision makers need to be well informed about the extent to which global climate policies adopted today can be expected to affect public health in both the near and long term. Other keywords and phrases -- combustion, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse effect, mitigate, morbidity, mortality -- from the text of the abstract and the article; please see the bibliography) Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 109, Supplement 3 (June 2001): 419-425. **An abstract of the article is currently available through the Web site of Environmental Health Perspectives** Donald Kennedy Editorial: Going It Alone. (... an editorial that discusses the position and role of the United States and the current status of agreement by nations around the world on a strategy to try to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases [GHG] to assist in mitigating their part in contributing to global climate change. The author suggests that the United States can do a number of things on its own--such as modernizing industrial and power-generating facilities and moving to less carbon-intensive fuels [from coal to oil and from oil to gas] help with the global climate objective; efficiency improvements, if made carefully, can yield both local and global benefits--though any actions require careful thought beforehand. The author further states that we are now undertaking a vast experiment with Earth's climate. We're not doing it to test a hypothesis or achieve a result, and it doesn't have a design. We're doing it because we can't help it. But since we are doing it, we can at least start behaving like good experimenters: collect the data carefully, examine the background factors that have taken us to where we are, and prepare ourselves for mid-course modification in the protocol if the need for that becomes clear. Other keywords and phrases -- Bonn, carbon, combustion, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse effect, mitigate, mitigation -- from the text of the article) Science Volume 293, Number 5533 (August 17, 2001): 1221. How to find the above journals, magazines, and other publications? See Step 3: Locate of the Information Strategy for details. Questions about any or all of the above? Please let me know. |
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