{"id":116956,"date":"2017-06-26T16:36:12","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T16:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/?p=116956"},"modified":"2017-06-26T16:36:12","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T16:36:12","slug":"breathing-toxic-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/index.php\/2017\/06\/26\/breathing-toxic-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Breathing Toxic Air"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Swapping out coal energy for solar would prevent 52,000 premature deaths in the United States every year, according to a <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mtu.edu\/news\/stories\/2017\/june\/saving-lives-money-potential-solar-replace-coal.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">new analysis from Michigan Technological University<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I recently shared an <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailyclimate.org\/tdc-newsroom\/2017\/june\/coal-to-solar-switch-could-save-52-000-us-lives?utm_content=buffer5b305&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">article<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Climate<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on social media about this staggering statistic. If you follow me on social media, then you see a lot of statistics that I share about our exposure to environmental toxins and air pollution:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than 90% of our world\u2019s population is sickened by air pollution. \u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">World Health Organization<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aside from war, crime, and accidents, all human disease and premature death is caused by the genes we are born with and the environment we are exposed to. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1 in 20 city deaths are caused by air pollution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since 1950, at least 70,000 new chemical compounds have been invented and dispersed into our environment. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Raising Children Toxic Free<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As much as 24% of global disease is caused by environmental exposures which can be averted. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">World Health Organization<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Burning coal causes air pollution which causes tens of thousands of premature deaths. \u00a0We are breathing toxic air.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Specifically, benzene, is a volatile chemical that is a product of coal and petroleum production. It\u2019s also added to unleaded gasoline and industrial solvents, and it&#8217;s a byproduct of tobacco smoke. The compound off-gasses from building materials and also occurs naturally.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Humans typically inhale benzene in ambient air. The body absorbs it readily and sends particles to the brain, fatty tissue and, in pregnant women, across the placenta.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Exposure to high concentrations of benzene vapor can depress the central nervous system and lead to death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Genetic and acquired susceptibility to pulmonary and cardiovascular disease is caused by environmental exposures to toxins that include exposure to chemicals and the particles produced by coal-burning power plants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check the quality of the air you breathe and make sure that you and your loved ones aren\u2019t breathing toxic air at <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scorecard.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">scorecard.org<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not only would a switch to solar electricity save lives, but the value of solar would also help the United States save money.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Swapping out coal energy for solar would prevent 52,000 premature deaths in the United States every year, according to a new analysis from Michigan Technological University. I recently shared an article from the Daily Climate on social media about this staggering statistic. If you follow me on social media, then you see a lot of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47,5,3],"tags":[56,57,55],"class_list":["post-116956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chemicals","category-environment","category-health","tag-air","tag-air-quality","tag-toxic"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116958,"href":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116956\/revisions\/116958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanbell.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}