Air pollution knows no boundaries

And its not just air pollution from China. Dust clouds from the African Sahara can travel thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean every year and in large quantities. Scientists found that the average air concentrations of inhalable particles more than doubled during a major Saharan dust intrusion in Houston, Texas. The researchers were able to distinguish between particles transported across the Atlantic and those from local sources in the Houston region. In this way they established the 'fingerprint' of the African dust. To their knowledge, this is the first study that isolates, differentiates, and quantifies air contaminants in the US during the incursion of African dust. (2) Kimberly Prather and her colleagues at the University of San Diego, found that tiny particles of dust and bacteria from thousands of kilometers away in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia—not local pollution—helped kick start winter precipitation. “On the days where there was a lot of snow on the ground, every time, we found that there were these dust and biological particles that were coming across the Pacific,” Prather says. This study provides the first evidence of dust and bacteria from Africa and the Middle East reaching the Western US. Previously, many experts thought that this kind of aerosol movement didn't happen until spring, when Asian soils thaw. But Prather's research shows that desert aerosols can help to seed precipitation all winter long. (3)

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report a link between hurricane frequency in the Atlantic and thick clouds of dust that periodically rise from the Sahara Desert and blow off Africa's western coast. During periods of intense hurricane activity, dust was relatively scarce in the atmosphere. In years when stronger dust storms rose up, on the other hand, fewer hurricanes swept through the Atlantic. (4) Of particular interest is that a large fraction of Chinese emissions is due to manufacture of goods for foreign consumption. Researchers found in 2006, 36% of anthropogenic sulfur dioxide, 27% of nitrogen dioxides, 22% of carbon monoxide, and 17% of black carbon emitted in China were associated with production of goods for export. For each of these pollutants, about 21% of export-related Chinese emissions were attributed to China-to-US export. Atmospheric modeling showed that transport of export-related Chinese pollution contributed 3-10% of annual mean surface sulfate concentrations and 0.5-1.5% of ozone over the western United States in 2006. This Chinese pollution also resulted in one extra day or more of noncompliance with the US ozone standard in 2006 over the Los Angeles area and many regions in the eastern United States. This study is the first to quantify how much of the pollution reaching the American West Coast is from the production in China of cellphones, televisions and other consumer items imported here and elsewhere. However, China is not responsible for the lion's share of pollution in the US. Cars, triucks and refineries pump out far more. (5) Other instances of air pollution transferred across regions:

• Numerous wildfires have dotted the Russian landscape this past summer fire season. The smoke from these fires has drifted from Eastern Russia to the Arctic Sea. (6)
• Each summer, microscopic dust particles kicked up by African sandstorms blow thousands of miles across the Atlantic to arrive in the Caribbean, limiting airplane pilots' visibility to just a few miles. (7)
• Peat burning can spew massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Emissions from the 1997-1998 wildfires in Indonesia consumed vast amounts of peat and released a total of 0.81 to 2.57 billion tons of carbon into the air. This amounts to 13 to 40 percent of the average annual amount produced globally from combustion of fossil fuels. The Indonesia fires contributed greatly to the largest annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration detected since records began in 1957. These fires also led to the death of all the Mentawai Island coral reefs (400 km long). (8) The emissions from the Indonesia fires were comparable to the global carbon uptake by the terrestrial biosphere in a typical year, yet they came from a relatively tiny area of the globe. (9)
• The EPA is blaming power plants in Texas for Illinois air pollution and is using the accusation to justify restrictions on Texas power plants. EPA claims its cross-state pollution rule, intended to protect communities in one state from pollution drifting from other states, justifies placing restrictions on Texas power plants EPA claims are polluting Granite City, Illinois. (10)

What about health effects? There's no evidence to support the EPA's long-standing claim that fine airborne particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrograms or less (PM2.5) is killing thousands of Americans every year, according to the first comprehensive study of its kind. The study compared air quality data collected statewide by the California Air Resources Board on 854,109 death certificates issued by the State Department of Public Health documenting 94 percent of all deaths in California between 2007 and 2010. No correlation was found between changes in ambient PM2.5 and mortality from any cause of death. The study also found 'no evidence' to support EPA claims that the elderly and those with heart and lung disease were more vulnerable than the general population to the effects of PM2.5. (11) The findings are at odds with EPA's longstanding claim that breathing particles 1/30th the diameter of a human hair is deadly. Since 1997, that claim has been central to EPA's regulation of particulate matter under the Clean Air Act, and is currently used to justify additional stringent regulations on emissions from vehicles, factories, farms, power plants, and even wood-burning stoves. (11) In another report, average ground level ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) measurements were not correlated with 19,237 patient emissions for asthma at the University of California-Davis Medical Center during 2010-2012. (12) So, while the US is cutting its own emissions, some nations are belching out more and more dirty air. Traci Watson notes the following: “Overseas pollution could partly cancel out improvements in US air air quality that have cost billions of dollars. Pollution wafting into the US accounts for 30% for the nation's ozone, an important component of smog. By the year 2020 says Harvard University's David Parrish, imported pollution will be the primary factor degrading visibility in our national parks. The EPA estimates that 40% of the mercury that sinks out of the air and lands in the US comes from overseas.” (13) Air emissions emanating from outside the US (and some from neighboring states) can cause states and counties to violate the Clean Air Act air quality attainment standards. What's more, the scientific literature clearly demonstrates that in many instances, states or counties would be able to comply with attainment standards, but for emissions originating from outside the nation's borders. Jack Dini Livermore, CA References 1. Yuan Want et al.,”Assessing the effects of anthropogenic aerosols on Pacific storm track using a multiscale global climate model,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 6894-6899, doi:10.1073/pnas.1403364111 2. Ayse Bozlaker et al., “Quantifying the contribution of long-range Saharan dust transport on particulate matter concentration in Houston, Texas using detailed elemental analysis,” Environmental Science & Technology 47(18), 10179, 20 3. Sam Lemonick, “Sahara dust brings rain and snow to California,” earthmagazine.org, March 1, 2013 4. “Dust may dampen hurricane fury,” sciencedaily.com, October 11, 2006 5. Jintai Lin et al., “China's international trade and air pollution in the United States,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1736-1741, doi:10.1073/pnas.1312860111 6. Anthony Watts, “Smoke from Russian fires over Arctic Sea,” wattsupwiththat, August 14, 2014 7. Andrea Rodriguez, “African dust clouds worry Caribbean scientists,” Associated Press, August 28, 2013 8. Gretchen Randall, “EPA releases new dioxin report,” Environment & Climate News, 3, 2, September 2000 9. Pirjo Isosarri et al., “PCDD/F and PCB history in dated sediments of a rural lake,” Chemosphere, 47, 575, 2002 10. H. Sterling Burnett, “EPA blames Texas for Illinois air pollution”, Environment & Climate News, 17, 12, September 2014 11. Barbara Hollingsworth, “Study: no statistical correlation between fine airborne particles, premature death,” cnsnews.com, January 7, 2014 12. Steve Milloy, “Ozone and PM2.5 not linked with asthma hospitalizations in major California hospital network,” calcontrk.org, Spetember 3, 2013 13. Traci Watson, “Air pollution from other countries drifts into USA,” USA Today, March 14, 2005, Page 1