Air has elevated cancer risk in 600 neighborhoods

Although air quality is much better than it used to be when cars ran leaded gas, and nothing had emissions controls, we still have a lot to clean up

 

Thanks so much for posting this. Any idea where we can find the details about the 600 neighborhoods? Specifically, I'm interested in which Los Angeles neighborhoods were cited....

 

How do they know cancer increased rates are positively due to the air?!?
Maybe there are other factors. Often researchers fail to exclude variables. Most profound, was early coffee studies that linked it to cancer. Later the recant came. "Sorry ... er we forgot to factor in all the smokers that also drink coffee". Maybe this study is dead on ... but who knows.

 

I think they are basing this on specfic chemicals tested in labs, usually on animals. Then if those chemicals are found in the air in high enough percentages then they can assume that it is unhealthy. One thing we rarely take into consideration is synergistic effects of multiple chemicals that are combined.

It is kinda like a "chocolate cake shot". Neither Frangelico liqueur, Smirnoff vanilla vodka, lemon or sugar taste like chocolate cake but when you combine those ingredients you cannot deny that it tastes like chocolate cake. Don't believe me? Try it! Just tell the wife or husband this is a scientific study you are performing for the folks at Prius Chat.

 

Ah! you know, I HAVE been meaning to try Patrón tequila ... um, I mean that cake recipe. Thanks for the experiment details!

 

Hill, you must be precise when you perform this experiment!

Instructions:

1. Prepare lemon slices
2. Coat lemon slices with plain granulated sugar
3. Pour Frangelico till shot glass is half full
4. Add vanilla vodka to same shot glass until full
5. Repeat steps 1-4 with multiple shot glasses so everyone in the room can witness and take part in the experiment!
6. On the count of 3 everyone takes a lemon slice, sucks the sugar and juices out of the lemon, swallows then slams the shot.
7. Savor the chocolatey flavor.

Remember this is performed in the name of science so no giggling until after the shots are downed!

 

detailed data on the areas cited would be nice. i spent 10 minutes clicking on one link after another and best i could get is a color coded 6" map covering the entire US. on most its pretty clearly separated where i live, but not always the case.

 

The only unpolluted air in LA would be about 200 miles offshore in a really strong Westerly.

 

I bet you could take a look at the demographics of each city listed and figure out the most polluted areas by proxy. The areas with the most polluting factories, plants, and vehicle exhaust (most poor people don't drive low emissions vehicles) will usually by located in the areas of low income. I know this sounds like an environmental justice plea for help but the statistics don't lie.

 

Good, I can explain to the neighbors I'm doing a "science experiment"

 

That's awesome. You must be so proud of yourself. Clearly you didn't understand the article, because it wasn't referring to "polluted" vs. "no-polluted" air. But thanks anyway!

Does anyone have a non-douchebag response?

 

ok, then we will call it cancer-causing air and non cancer-causing air. is that better? and having lived in the LA area much longer than i care to admit, he is probably right...in LA, it aint a question of whether its polluted, its a question of how high up in the hills you have to live to reduce your exposure by a target percentage.

 

Hey, nice to meet you too, prioki.

 

Precisely why I am interested in more specifics with regard to this particular, specific study. Not broad, generalized, obnoxious responses from Hyo. I understand, though, that it is difficult for certain people to make distinctions like that. ;-)

 

well the study obviously alludes to the fact that the LA area is bounded by hills that create several basins and pollution which tends to be heavy collects here with only people collecting there is greater amounts which creates more pollution, etc. therefore even if you live at Malibu, you still have exposure (granted it is passing exposure and the reason people live there at a premium is so they dont have to stew in it like the low elevation inlanders do) due to the 20 million sources of pollution living inland as that polluted air eventually escapes to the sea, of course not counting the pollution that manages to travel farther inland.

now, i think as this thread has developed, i think we can safely assume (since it has already been commented on several times) that getting precise block by block details of pollution levels is not going to be an easy task to accomplish...

now, we can sit here and bitch to the OP for posting a link that provides nothing but a bare bones synopsis of the premise of the story or we can make a little light of a situation we are all already fully aware of. i think the bottom line is that we pretty much already knew it (being the link between air pollution and increased cancer risks...after all, isnt smoking just air pollution at an exponentially higher level?...lots of common chemicals, benzene et al.) and the teeny little map they do provide could also be looked at as population density map with very few if any exceptions.

now, one reason i visit (some say "live") PC is that its flush with people with all kinds of knowledge with all kinds of skills and background. i hope that someone who has intimate details of the study can post a link (or a PDF that has more than a bare map) that will give us the answer we seek.

 

Do you generally walk into a room in which you know no one and announce your presence in such ways? I can tell you are going to get a long with the rest of us very well....

Fortunately Hyo has plenty of friends in here. LOL

 

Thank you, F8L.

Sorry, prioki, I don't have specific information for your neighbourhood. I did read and understand the article, actually, and the link at the bottom leads to many more specifics of the "Air Toxics Assessment", some of which may well tell you what you're looking for. Generally, the risks were lowest in parts of Arizona and Nevada, along with Hawaii and Montana. Which isn't surprising, really, given the relatively low populations and possibly maybe something to do with all that wind over the wide open spaces. Los Angeles, in contrast, has the highest risks, quite likely the result of too many people and cars in a natural basin that hampers wind flow, along with strong sunshine that worsens the pollution. (Sorry, I mean it exacerbates the toxicity of the air, which leads inexorably to an elevated risk of cancer.) Having observed from offshore the brown cloud that hangs over a city, and remembering how the air in LA stung my eyes and throat, I thought maybe getting out of the toxic cloud altogether might be the most statistically significant method of reducing the cancer risk. Yeah, that's a chunk to put into a one-liner, but hey, why use lotsa big words when a lesser quantity of sufficiently demonstrative diminutives will suffice.

Sure, I could have said that asking 'where's the cleanest air in LA' is like asking 'where's the coolest place to stand in a fire', but I knew that would be taken as crassly flippant. And we wouldn't want that.

 

If you want specifics, don't be so lazy. In 10 minutes I had information on my subdivision. My cancer risk is 40 in a million.

• Click on the Yahoo link
• At the bottom of the story clink the link to the EPA page for this study
• In the top right corner of your screen you will see a box that says "MAPS"
• Clink the link, go to the bottom of the page, select your state, and download the country by county results. These are google earth files so you will need to have google earth to use them. This program is free to download. (If you don't want to download google earth, the raw data is available in excel and access files that are also available for download.)

Here is a direct link: 2002 Assessment Results | 2002 National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment | Technology Transfer Network Air Toxics Web site | US EPA

 

c'mon hyho ... from one douchebag to another, 99.9% of us understand a joke when we see/hear one. The question is can we woo the other .1% over to grasp our weird humor. I hereby recognize prioki officially as understanding us as friends now.