April 2, 2007
Summary of Findings and Recommendations
Dr. Brian Moench --
• Many Utahns are sick and dying, with children and future generations being severely affected.
• A prominent group of physicians have diagnosed the major cause to be Utah’s increasingly contaminated air.
• It is expected to get much worse with the anticipated growth in Utah’s population and the increased use of automobiles.
Dr. Brian Moench --
• Many Utahns are sick and dying, with children and future generations being severely affected.
• A prominent group of physicians have diagnosed the major cause to be Utah’s increasingly contaminated air.
• It is expected to get much worse with the anticipated growth in Utah’s population and the increased use of automobiles.
• Studies show that fine particulates cause an increase in morbidity and mortality in people with heart and lung disease. There is no threshold value.
• Ozone is an oxidizing agent that damages the airways and lungs and results in inflammatory mediator enter the blood, thereby resulting in potential injury in other parts of the body.
Dr. Maunsel Pearce --
• Coal fired power plants are the major source of U.S. mercury emissions.
• Methyl mercury in the environment is a neurotoxin that crosses the placenta, concentrating in fetal blood up to 1.9 times the level of maternal blood and causes measurable and permanent brain injury to the developing fetus and young child.
• Mercury contamination in Utah waters is widespread with mercury advisories limiting consumption of freshwater fish in three different areas of the state and waterfowl on the Great Salt Lake.
• Both humans and wildlife are at risk from consumption of food contaminated with mercury.
• Mercury emissions in Utah and Nevada are excessive. The sources of this mercury contamination must be thoroughly investigated and controlled.
Dr. Gerald H. Ross --
• A Texas study of 1200 school districts (over 200,000 students) showed a 61% increase in the rate of autism for each 1,000 lb. of environmentally released mercury within a geographic area, when comparing it with county–by-county mercury emissions, mostly from coal-fired power plants.
• A Polish study showed that infants with cord blood mercury greater than of 0.80 (still a very low level) were 3.8 times more likely to have delayed neurological function, than infants with mercury levels lower than this level.
Dr. Shelly Ring
• Children and infants are the most vulnerable to the many air pollutants due to the fact that they have an increased exposure to air pollutants when compared to adults
• Studies have demonstrated a clear association between infant mortality and ambient air pollution.
• Asthma rates in the U.S. have increased over 100% since 1980. In Utah, approximately 61,000 children are afflicted with asthma
• Motor vehicle traffic along the Wasatch Front is predicted to double within 20 years.
• Salt Lake City already ranks 5th among the most polluted U.S. cities.
2 comments:
Action to reduce our regional air pollution must be taken at all levels:
1) residents need to reduce their energy consumption (switching from incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescents can drop your power demand and bill by 30-50%);
2) commuters should support emissions controls and should combine trips such as shopping on the way home rather than making a separate trips:
3) businesses and building owners should increase the efficiencies of their spaces and operations;
4) the power company should move towards cleaner sources of energy - and since they're 95% coal based now, a small shift can have a big impact.
Currently, there is an effort afoot to get Rocky Mountain Power's owner's owner (a small company called Berkshire Hathaway) to push their subsidiary to diversify their energy generation sources to other Utah based energy sources such as natural gas, geothermal, wind, solar and biomass and help generate a statewide jobs bonanza while also cleaning up our inversions.
Please visit www.LessCoal.com to sign on!
The problem is that your government is completely corrupt. We have placed an offer to put a 50 MILLION dollar clean energy facility in Utah and every party of responsiblity refuses to perform in Utah.
Our investor is disgusted at your hypocrisy.
MARNI ZOLLINGER, ZESC 877-300-0187
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