Air Pollution Risks
A journalists' information web site
Seminar in Risk Communication
Communications 553, Fall 1997Glynn R. Wilson
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Visit my home pageCopyright 1997 Glynn R. Wilson. All rights reserved. Last updated December 8, 1997
A Web Information Guide for Working Journalists
When working on deadline, daily journalists need concise, accurate information--and they need it fast. Journalists working for weekly or monthly publications, on the other hand, need in-depth information and well informed sources. The purpose of this section is to provide the best available information on some key issues related to covering air pollution risks, with links to other quick, reliable sources. More in-depth information will be provided for journalists who want to take more time to fully explore one of the most covered environmental issues in the last half of the twentieth century.
Society of Environmental Journalists
For starters, one of the best sources in the country for working environmental journalists is the Society of Environmental Journalists . This professional organization has an on-line newsletter which provides a primer for working journalists on a host of issues, including air pollution.
Major sources of air pollution
How do you explain to readers what the major sources of air pullution are? You might start by explaining the two most significant contributors of air pollution in industrial societies: automobiles and power plants. This site provides the science of mapping major sources of air pollution.
Health effects
You will want to explain how air pollution can hurt your health. According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's research on the subject, air pollution can affect our health in many ways with both short-term and long-term effects. Different groups seem to be affected in different ways. Some individuals are much more sensitive to pollutants than are others. Young children and elderly people often suffer more from the effects of air pollution. People with health problems such as asthma, heart and lung disease may also suffer more when the air is polluted. The extent to which an individual is harmed usually depends on the total exposure to the damaging chemicals, duration of exposure, and the concentration of the chemicals at the time and place of exposure.
Short-term effects:
- irritation to the eyes, nose and throat;
- upper respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia;
- headaches;
- nausea;
- allergic reactions;
Short-term air pollution can aggravate the medical conditions of individuals with asthma and emphysema. In the great "Smog Disaster" in London in 1952, for example, four thousand people died in a few days due to the high concentrations of pollution.
Long-term health effects:
- chronic respiratory disease;
- lung cancer;
- heart disease;
- even damage to the brain, nerves, liver, or kidneys.
Continual exposure to air pollution affects the lungs of growing children and may aggravate or complicate medical conditions in the elderly.
Ongoing research
Research into the health effects of air pollution is ongoing. Medical conditions arising from air pollution can be very expensive. Healthcare costs, lost productivity in the workplace, and human welfare impacts cost billions of dollars each year. For more information, visit the ELSI in Science program at Berkely.
What readers can do to reduce air pollution
You might also tell readers what they can do about reducing air pollution. This online booklet tells you everything you always wanted to know and more about what you can do to reduce air pollution.
A set of driving tips recommends car pooling, driving at a steady speed, using cleaner fuels and multi-grade oil, traveling light, and no unnecessary idling, especially in traffic jams and drive through windows. Contrary to popular belief, starting and stopping engines uses less gas than idling for 30 seconds.
Automobile maintenance is also crucial. Regular tune ups and new spark plugs is most important, along with consistent tire pressure, clean filters, and not overfilling or "topping off" gas tanks, or spilling gas. The fumes contribute to smog. The EPA recommends buying fuel efficient cars, and using air conditioners only when they are truly needed.
At home and work, consumers can conserve energy in a number of ways, and become involved in community projects. Statistics are provided on how individual action can make a difference, and a comprehensive list of national and state level contacts are provided with addresses and phone numbers.
New air quality standards
If you've got more time, and want a detailed web history of the latest proposed ambient air quality standards, along with a bibliography of scientific reports on the effects of air pollution, you may want to look back at this collection of documents from EPA's Proposed New Air Quality Standard.
From the academy
To learn more about how to cover air pollution and other environmental issues from a science perspective, I've designed a page for the Science Communication program at the University of Tennessee School of Journalism. This page is on it's way to becoming the best site of it's kind in the nation, and contains information and links any working journalist could use to get information about reporting and writing about science. After all, the two best ways to become highly informed about these issues is to read the major news media regularly, and by going to school for specialized training in science and environmental issues.
To better zero in on environmental issues, I've created a web page for a course I'm co-teaching here at the University of Tennessee called Environmental Reporting. Sources are the lifeblood of journalists. Under the schedule, a journalist in the East Tennessee area can find the names of credible sources to contact on the big environmental issues of our time, including air pollution. Links are provided to the best newspapers in the country and the state for covering science and environmental issues, as well as magazines, journals, government agencies, and environmental organizations.
The web is the quickest way for new journalists, or those new to an area or issue, to develop sources and download background materials. To become more fully informed, take college courses from professional journalists and teachers who study these issues in great depth.
For more detailed information from the academic community, you might want to take the time to visit some of these guides to covering some of the most important issues on the science of air pollution.
- Reporting on Risk: A Journalists Handbook on Envirnomental Risk Assessement. Produced by Foundation for American Communications and National Sea Grant College Program. (http://www.facsnet.org/report_tools/guides_primers/risk/main.html)
- Technical Risk in the Mass Media. Eleven Articles from the Franklin Pierce Law Center. (http://www.fplc.edu/risk/medIndx.htm)
- Reporters' Guide to Particulates, a chapter in Environmental Reporting: a Guide for Reporters, (U.N. ESCAP) by Sharon Friedman and Kenneth Friedman (1988, 1996).
- Lehigh University also put together a comprehensive list of links on environmental issues by subject.
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