A healthier future for all Australians: final report

Source: National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission
"A Healthier Future For All Australians – the final report of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission – provides the governments of Australia with a practical national plan for health reform that will benefit Australians, not just now but well into the future. Major access and equity issues include:
Improving health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ; Improved care for people with serious mental illness; Support for people living in remote and rural areas; Improved access to dental health care; Timely access to quality care in public hospitals."

Getting the lead out kills small businesses, doesn't save children

Source: National Center for Policy Analyis (U.S.)
"Products intended for use by children may not contain lead amounts greater than 100 parts per million (ppm) starting in 2011. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has ordered manufacturers, distributors and retailers to reduce the lead content of children’s products from the current standard of 600 ppm. The new regulations were required by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which was passed hastily in response to 2007 recalls of toys imported from China. The law was intended to protect children (12 years old and younger) from lead poisoning, however, it targets products that pose a miniscule risk to children."

Expansion of the Tropics: evidence and implications

Source: James Cook University
"Growing scientific evidence shows the earth's tropical zone is expanding towards the north and south poles with the potential to radically change regional climates, researchers from James Cook Uni (JCU) in Townsville say. Dr Joanne Isaac and Prof Steve Turton said the trend had "immense" social, political, economic and environmental implications. They based their analysis on 70 previously published peer-reviewed research reports from scientists and institutions around the world using long-term satellite measurements, weather balloon data, climate models and studies of sea surface temperatures. The data suggested the pole-ward movement of the tropical zone could deliver drier conditions in some areas, eg southern Aust, southern Africa, the southern Europe-Mediterranean-Middle East region, south-western USA, northern Mexico and southern South America. At the same time, expansion north and south of the high-precipitation equatorial region could cause extreme rainfall events and floods in areas not previously exposed to such conditions. The researchers said the shift could also cause cyclonic activity over a wider range and increase the spread of tropical diseases and pests, eg malaria and dengue fever."

2002 National-scale air toxics assessment

Source: U.S. EPA
"EPA has released the latest version of a state-of-the-science tool that estimates health risks from breathing air toxics in the United States. The National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA), based on 2002 air emissions data, helps federal, state, local and tribal governments identify areas and specific pollutants for further evaluation to better understand risks they may pose. Air toxics are of concern because they are known to or are suspected of causing cancer and other serious health problems, including birth defects. The report assessed 180 air toxics plus diesel particulate matter from stationary sources of all sizes and from mobile sources such as cars, trucks, buses and construction equipment. The 2002 NATA estimates that most people in the United States have an average cancer risk of 36 in 1 million if exposed to 2002 emissions levels over the course of their lifetime. In addition, 2 million people—less than one percent of the total U.S. population—have an increased cancer risk of greater than 100 in 1 million. Benzene was the largest contributor to the increased cancer risks."

Human Impact Report: Climate Change – The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis

Source: Global Humanitarian Forum
"Climate Change is here. It has a human face. This report details the silent crisis occurring around the world today as a result of a global climate change. It is a comprehensive account of the key impacts of climate change on human society. Long regarded as a distant, environmental or future problem, climate change is already today a major constraint on all human efforts. It has been creeping up on the world for years, doing its deadly work in the dark by aggravating a host of other major problems affection society, such as malnutrition, malaria and poverty. This report aims at breaking the silent suffering of millions. Its findings indicate that the impacts of climate change are each year responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths with hundreds of millions of lives affected. Climate change is a serious threat to close to three quarters of the world population. Half a billion people are at extreme risk. Worst affected are the world´s poorest groups, who lack any responsibility for causing climate change."

Use of Polycarbonate Bottles and Urinary Bisphenol A Concentrations

Source: Environmental health perspectives, May 09
"A new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that participants who drank for a week from polycarbonate bottles, the popular, hard-plastic drinking bottles and baby bottles, showed a two-thirds increase in their urine of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA). Exposure to BPA, used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and other plastics, has been shown to interfere with reproductive development in animals and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans."

Exposure as part of a systems approach for assessing risk

Source: Environmental Health Perspectives, April 2009
"Exposure science, when applied in an integrated systems approach for risk assessment, can be used to inform and prioritize toxicity testing, describe risks, and verify the outcomes of testing. Exposure research in several areas will be needed to achieve the NRC vision. For example, models are needed to screen chemicals based on exposure. Exposure, dose-response, and biological pathway models must be developed and seamlessly linked. Advanced computational approaches are required for dose reconstruction. Monitoring methods are needed that easily measure exposure, internal dose, susceptibility, and biological outcome. Finally, population monitoring studies are needed to interpret toxicity test results in terms of real-world risk."

Climate change in Australia: risks to human wellbeing and health

Source: Nautilus Institute
Anthony McMichael from the Australian National University writes that "climate change belongs to a wider range of human-induced global environmental changes that are now assuming great and urgent importance. Collectively, these changes signify that human pressures are weakening and endangering the planet’s life support systems. Climate change will have many, and diverse, effects on human biological processes, risks of injury, and hence on health." McMichael discusses the adverse health impacts of climate change on those most likely to bear the greatest burden: low-income, poorly-resourced and geographically vulnerable populations.

Exposure to traffic pollution and increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis

Source: Environmental Health Perspectives
"The observed association between exposure to traffic pollution and RA, suggests that pollution from traffic in adulthood may be a newly identified environmental risk factor for RA. This association study should be followed by further research into whether fine particles or chemicals are associated with RA risk and to discern if there are time windows of exposure that may be particularly important."

The direct impact of regional climate change on labour productivity

Source: Trinity College
"Global climate change will increase outdoor and indoor heat loads, and may impair
health and productivity for millions of working people. This study applies physiological evidence about effects of heat, climate guidelines for safe work environments, climate modelling and global distributions of working populations, to estimate the impact of two climate scenarios on future labour productivity. In most regions, climate change will decrease labour productivity, under the simple assumption of no specific adaptation. By the 2080s, the greatest absolute losses of population based labour work ability as compared with a situation of no heat impact (11-27%) are seen under the A2 scenario in South-East Asia, Andean and Central America, and the Caribbean. Climate change will significantly impact on labour productivity unless farmers, self-employed and employers invest in adaptive measures. Workers may need to work longer hours to achieve the same output and there will be economic costs of occupational health interventions against heat exposures."

Climate change and health costs of air emissions from biofuels and gasoline

source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 106,no.6 (Feb.2009)
"A new study from the University of Minnesota finds that biofuel made from corn can be as harmful to the environment as gasoline, and that the combined costs to climate-change and health exceed that of gas. The study notes that the environmental impacts of energy use can impose large costs on society. It quantifies and monetizes the life-cycle climate-change and health effects of greenhouse gas (GHG) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions from gasoline, corn ethanol, and cellulosic ethanol."

California wildfires of 2008:coarse and fine particulate matter toxicity

Source: Environmental Health Perspectives, Online 9 Feb 2009
"Background: During the last week of June in 2008, Central and Northern California experienced thousands of forest and brush fires, giving rise to a week of severe fire- related particulate air pollution throughout the region. California experienced PM10-2.5 (coarse) and PM2.5 (fine) concentrations greatly in excess of the air quality standards and among the highest values reported at these stations since data have been collected. Results: Concentrations of PM were not only higher during the wildfire episodes, but the PM was much more toxic to the lung on an equal weight basis than was PM collected from normal ambient air in the region. Toxicity was manifested as increased neutrophils and protein in lung lavage, and by histological indicators of increased cell influx and edema in the lung."

Fine-particulate air pollution and life-expectancy in the United States

source: New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 360 (4) Jan 2009
"Exposure to fine-particulate air pollution has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality, suggesting that sustained reductions in pollution exposure should result in improved life expectancy. This study directly evaluated the changes in life expectancy associated with differential changes in fine particulate air pollution that occurred in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. A reduction in exposure to ambient fine-particulate air pollution contributed to significant and measurable improvements in life expectancy in the United States."

NOx budget trading program: compliance and environmental results

Source: US EPA
"More than 102 million Americans are breathing cleaner air due to decreases in smog-forming emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) according to the NOx Budget Trading Program annual report. The 2007 summertime NOx emissions from power plants and industrial sources were down by 60 percent compared to 2000 levels and 74 percent below 1990 levels in 20 eastern states and the District of Columbia. The program helped improve air quality in 95 percent of nonattainment areas in the east, with 64 percent of these areas now below the ozone standard."

Over the limit: eating too much high-mercury fish

Source: Oceana
"Real people have been sickened by mercury in fish according to a new report released today, demonstrating the importance of strong FDA advice about mercury in fish. The new report, Over the Limit, shares stories like those of Dan Deeter, Will Smith and Wendy Moro, who each ate enough store-bought fish to suffer mercury’s effects, according to their physicians. From New Jersey to Wisconsin to California, these stories show that seafood contamination is a very real problem that should not be ignored."

The sting of climate change

Source: Lowy Institute
"Climate change is not only affecting where people live and prosper but also where mosquitoes do. This is bad news for northern Australia and Australia's northern neighbours. In a new policy brief, Dr Sarah Potter, a malaria research scientist, analyses how climate change will likely affect the spread of malaria and dengue in maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands and how Australia itself is at greater risk of outbreaks of these diseases."

Climate change and extreme heat events

Source: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol.35,no.5 (2008)
"The association between climate change and the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events is now well established. General circulation models of climate change predict that heatwaves will become more frequent and intense, especially in the higher latitudes, affecting large metropolitan areas that are not well adapted to them. Exposure to extreme heat is already a significant public health problem and the primary cause of weather-related mortality in the U.S. This article reviews major epidemiologic risk factors associated with mortality from extreme heat exposure and discusses future drivers of heat-related mortality, including a warming climate, the urban heat island effect, and an aging population. In addition, it considers critical areas of an effective public health response including heat response plans, the use of remote sensing and GIS methodologies, and the importance of effective communications strategies."

Air quality in and around traffic tunnels

source: NHMRC
"This Report evaluates the factors associated with poor air quality in and around traffic tunnels and the subsequent health effects resulting from exposure to air pollution."

Chemicals and plastics regulation

Source: Productivity Commission
"Chemicals and plastics play an essential role in our modern economy, but they can present risks for public health, workplace safety, the environment, and national security. Regulation is an important tool in managing these risks, to help ensure that the net benefits to the community of using chemicals and plastics are maximised. Yet chemicals and plastics regulation has long been criticised for its inconsistencies, particularly across jurisdictions, and the impacts these have on effectiveness and efficiency.
In 2006 COAG identified chemicals and plastics as a ‘regulatory hotspot’, and a Ministerial Taskforce was established to develop a streamlined and harmonised national system of chemicals and plastics regulation. COAG also agreed that the Productivity Commission would undertake a study to assist the work of the Taskforce. This report is the culmination of the Commission’s study."

Estimating mortality risk reduction and economic benefits from controlling ozone air pollution

source: National Academies Press
"In light of recent evidence on the relationship of ozone to mortality and questions about its implications for benefit analysis, the Environmental Protection Agency asked the National Research Council to establish a committee of experts to evaluate independently the contributions of recent epidemiologic studies to understanding the size of the ozone-mortality effect in the context of benefit analysis. The committee was also asked to assess methods for estimating how much a reduction in short-term exposure to ozone would reduce premature deaths, to assess methods for estimating associated increases in life expectancy, and to assess methods for estimating the monetary value of the reduced risk of premature death and increased life expectancy in the context of health-benefits analysis."