Study Links Trucks’ Exhaust to Bronx Schoolchildren’s Asthma

[SOS]

NYT - 10/29/06

"In the South Bronx, from 2002 to 2005, air pollution monitors went mobile. They went to the playground, to the gritty sidewalks, even to the movies. A group of schoolchildren carried the monitors everywhere they went. The instruments, attached to the backpacks of children with asthma, allowed researchers at New York University to measure the pollution the children were exposed to, morning to night.
The South Bronx is home to miles of expressways, more than a dozen waste-transfer stations, a sewage-treatment plant and truck traffic from some of the busiest wholesale markets in the world. It is also home to some of the highest asthma hospitalization rates for children in the city.

The N.Y.U. study found that the students were exposed to high levels of air pollutants in their neighborhoods.
The findings paint a bleak picture of the air quality in one of the poorest sections of the city and have focused renewed attention on curbing pollution from truck exhaust.

Airborne particles like dust, soot and smoke that are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter are small enough to lodge themselves deep in the lungs. Studies have linked pollution of this sort to respiratory problems, decreased lung function, nonfatal heart attacks and aggravated asthma, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
E.P.A. officials said these fine particles, a significant portion of which are produced by diesel engine emissions, lead to 15,000 premature deaths a year nationwide.

At the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center, the Bronx, there were 7,000 admissions last year; of those, 1,200 were asthma related. “It’s definitely a crisis,” Dr. Deepa Rastogi, director of the hospital’s Asthma Center, said of the borough’s asthma rates."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/nyregion/29asthma.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

As secondhand tobacco smoke grabs the headlines, thousands are quietly hospitalized and buried due to auto/truck/industrial air pollution.
It would be nice to see some action on behalf of these kids too.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. surely not

it had to have been the second-hand smoke, it's so much worse!

:sarcasm:

[devilgrrl]

2. beat me to it...

eom

[MADem]

3. Why, I am just SHOCKED, I tell you....SHOCKED!!!!!

I mean, who KNEW? Everyone was so busy beating up on the sorry fucks standing on the corner sucking on a butt that no one NOTICED the filthy air around them!!!

NYC and LA make me sick, the air quality is so lousy. For some reason, though, that's "acceptable" and no one does say jack about it.

[devilgrrl]

4. but but but but second hand smoke is preventable!!!!!

:eyes:

[MADem]

7. Ah, silly me! I forgot that those truck exhausts grew on trees, like

apples or oranges, and were completely 'natural!'

:thumbsup:




:thumbsdown:

[devilgrrl]

8. Truck exhaust works better and faster...

unless those kids live in a pool hall.

[SidDithers]

5. I agree, we need cleaner burning fuels for truck traffic...

and the elimination of pollutants that serve no purpose (like cigarettes)

Sid

[jmowreader]

12. Fuel alone won't do it

The really big problem here is the diesel engine itself...or at least a lot of the old ones.

There are two basic ways to put fuel into a diesel engine: old mechanical fuel injection systems with "indirect" fuel injection, and new "common rail" electronically-controlled fuel injection that squirts directly into the cylinder.

New engines put out a hell of a lot less pollution than old ones, and they'll produce even less with ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel.

The problem is that diesel engines are very durable, and lots of old-tech ones are still on the road. One of my vendors ships freight to me via a line called "Dark and Lovely Trucking." (I am NOT shitting. That's its name. A 26-year-old black female Marine veteran started the company. She's got six trucks now, and yes she is dark and lovely.) Dark and Lovely Trucking, unfortunately, seems to specialize in buying old shitbox trucks and running the wheels off them. The newest truck they've got is a 1977 International--and the company's only three years old. When these guys crank up after I drop a load from one of their trucks, this 100-foot-high cloud of black smoke comes rolling out of both stacks. But they can pick up these beaters for under $25,000. The new Freightliners my concrete company runs cost about $90,000. Hell of a difference, but when these guys crank up their 2006-model Cat engines, nothing comes out of the stack but warm air. They say they've got a 2007 in the fleet that's even cleaner.

Hey Dubya! You love tax cuts so much, how about this: 100-percent refundable tax credit for replacing a mechanical-injection diesel with a common-rail EFI engine? They're cleaner so pollution will go down, and they burn less fuel so they'll reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

[Chemical Bill]

22. Low sulfur fuel will be better.

Biodiesel is much better. The trucking industry fought tooth and nail against low sulfur fuel, at our kids expense. I use biodiesel, which is much cleaner than even low sulfur fuel. I feel terrible when I have to put petro-diesel in my tank.

Bill

[HockeyMom]

6. Free Pass for Commercial Vehicles

We have very often questioned how these trucks pass State Inspections. If it was a private car, you can bet it would have failed emissions inspection.

[bleedingheart]

9. The first thing I would do would register all their parents to vote

cuz nothing is going to get done unless that entire neighborhood is registered and is a threat to some politician.

Here in PA I have walked poor neighborhoods and they have the worst registration rates and the worst voter turnout rates. When they don't vote, the power is then unbalanced towards those who do actually vote and a lot of those neighborhoods are middle class neighborhoods that don't worry about anyone but themselves and their issues....and the poor get left out.

[Jed Dilligan]

10. Diesel exhaust is fucking disgusting

I was living on a major truck route during Katrina. When we left the house one morning I said, "Ugh--they must have dropped the standards because of the crisis." I was right.

Buy local!

[spoony]

11. If you smokers could stop patting yourselves

on the back for a minute, this is actually a very sad story and an indictment of the squalid air and water we've left our poor to live in. This isn't about making you feel better for your vice--which is still harmful, this doesn't change that!--it's about a national health crisis.

These kids are going to have to live with this the rest of their lives, and it's happening more and more, and all some of you can see in it is a pass for smoking! Shit!

[MADem]

13. I'm not a smoker, and I think the disparity in discussion is bullshit

No one is suggesting that smoking should get a pass, but the fact of the matter is that some self-righteous asswipes take every opportunity to make that THE big issue while ignoring the disgusting crap being puked in their faces by diesel engines. They'll gasp and wheeze and clutch the pearls at the slightest scent of a Newport Light, and totally ignore the black shit engulfing them as they stroll down city sidewalks, eagerly looking for someone at whom to direct a vicious look and a snide, superior comment. I've seen it happen in NYC and have been, well, fucking ASTOUNDED.

The poor addicted shitbird on the corner smoking the butt in the freezing cold, minding his own business is an object of scorn, but no one says jackshit about the trucks spewing crap everywhere. Why? Because they're bringing in all that IKEA shit, the Whole Foods groceries, and in addition to all the high end fancy shit that yuppies favor, the everyday, pedestrian junk that the rank and file buy every day. No one addresses it. No one even MENTIONS it. But boy, they've got plenty to say about the bastard standing next to the truck having a butt. And I'd wager those trucks do more to fuck up kids' lungs than the pathetic idiot with the Marlboros.

I'm guessing it's easier to yell at some poor clown on the corner with an addiction than some mean bastard in a big rig--the odds of getting run over are far less with the smoker.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. Well tell you what...

if I'm enjoying my dinner in a restaurant and the guy next to me fires up a diesel engine, I'll get mad at him too.

Fair enough, ya?

[MADem]

15. Well, I've no idea where you live...

But I've lived in tobaccy country, I've lived in European, Middle Eastern and Asian countries where people smoke EVERYWHERE, as well as states with 'no indoor smoking' regs, and I've never been to a restaurant where I couldn't avoid smokers by either sitting far from them, or asking for a seat in the nonsmoking section...of course, in many states, like mine, they don't let the smokers do it indoors at all anymore.

I've never found it difficult to avoid smokers, to be honest, and I've never been so horribly annoyed by smokers that I felt a need to gripe at them or insult them. I have noticed, though, that people who DO make a stink about it seem to me to be attention seekers who get excessively dramatic so that everyone will look at them and their display of high dudgeon. The voices go UP, the attitude towards the waiter/ess gets massively shirty (like they are personally responsible for the smoker sitting a hundred tables away in the smoking section), and the entire restaurant is made uncomfortable and just wants to kick the whiner out so they can enjoy their meal in peace. People like that shouldn't be surprised if their steak gets dropped on the floor a few times before it hits the grill. Frankly, I'm of the "Can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen (or the restaurant)" mindset. Don't give them business if their policy bugs you.

I don't like metal music, it hurts my ears, it's too loud and can contribute to deafness, so I don't go to places that feature it. I certainly don't think there should be a law against it, though, or people who like it should be denigrated, even though it's not good for their hearing.

People who don't like smoke should vote with their wallets and not go to places that permit it, if it bugs them so much, rather than insist upon enforcing their desires on everyone. Surely if enough people did this, then sufficient numbers of businesses would accomodate this large segment of the population that doesn't want to be near people who are smoking. In many places, it's pretty much the norm, anyway.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. LOL

"I've never been to a restaurant where I couldn't avoid smokers by either sitting far from them, or asking for a seat in the nonsmoking section"

Really? Because I've never been to a restaurant that was able to defy the laws of diffusion.

:rofl:

"many states, like mine, they don't let the smokers do it indoors at all anymore."

:nopity:

[MADem]

18. Aaaaah.....DIFFUSION!!!!

The same diffusion that miraculously stops the diesel exhaust fumes from the truck that offloaded that box of steaks delivered to the restaurant at the DOOR!! The same diffusion that blankets half our nation with the byproducts of clean :rofl: coal!!!!

I don't get the violin...it seems you need one more than I do. Here's two: :nopity: :nopity:

I'm not the one doing the complaining, you see. I live and let live...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. Um, last I checked...

doors do block diffusion. In fact, that's sort of their point.

"I'm not the one doing the complaining, you see. I live and let live..."

I agree. If it isn't these smoking nazis telling you you can't smoke in hospitals, it's these damn exhaust nazis telling you you have to install catalytic converters on your car.

Oooo, they make me so mad!

[MADem]

21. Gee, even when they're OPENED????? Wowie!

No one is talking about car exhausts or catalytic converters. Or rules in hospitals.

Except maybe you, to change the subject from a failed argument.

We're talking about the sort of fumes pictured upthread.

[BlackVelvet04]

23. thank you.....

well said.

[spoony]

16. Yeah, clasp at their pearls.

Or their inhaler, as it were, given the OP. You know, the article? Those snotty people though, eh?

And if you honestly think people like truck/bus/jalopee fumes any more than smoke, or that no one thinks about such things too, you must have quite a life. Doing only one thing at a time, unable to process more than one concept. You should sign up for a study or something.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.