Hawthorne, Michael. (January 20, 2022). “Chicago Ranks 3rd in US in Deaths and Health Costs Related to Diesel Pollution, Analysis Shows.” Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/environment/ct-diesel-pollution-death-disease-chicago-20220120-42du4qrnjrd2lmeya2egc4xrbu-story.html. 

Chicago ranked 3rd in the United States in deaths and health costs related to diesel pollution. While people all around the world benefited from cleaner air for a short period of time due to coronavirus pandemic shut downs, Chicago’s air pollution stayed high the whole time. Diesel is thicker than gasoline and evaporates slower, but it has greater energy density, resulting in a big use from trucks. As Chicago serves as one of the nation’s major freight hubs, pollution from diesel trucks produces a staggering amount of pollution. Breathing this pollution causes diseases that trigger high death rates.

I did not know the difference between diesel and gasoline until recently, but now understand that while both have very harmful effects on the environment, diesel is even worse. Though I do not personally use diesel when filling up my car, I definitely contribute to the use of it, encouraging truck services that use it. Thinking about how many big trucks I see on the freeway in just a 30 minute drive is only part of how many diesel trucks there are around the United States and world. This article is worrisome as I think of the impacts that this diesel is having on people in Chicago, yet it is relevant to everywhere, including my city. We must save our environment and ourselves. One way to do this is to reduce diesel use (and gasoline). I can do this myself by driving less and thinking about all the services that possibly drive diesel trucks to bring me products. 

Choi-schagrin, Winston. (January 19, 2022). “New Research Shows How Health Risks to Children Mount as Temperatures Rise.” Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/climate/children-climate-change.html. 

As temperatures rise due to global warming, health risks and diseases in American children are rising consequently. Children are commonly more at risk to these effects than adults, due to their differing body surface areas, body fat composition, and hydration. Nearly 12 percent of the four million children emergency department visits during late spring and summer from 2016 to 2018 were due to higher temperatures. These high temperatures change behavior among people, and increase internal body temperature, leading to blood, immune, and nervous-system diseases. These current heat-related diseases in children could have life-long effects and we must act now.

As this is new research, I have not heard or thought much about how the negative health effects of global warming may differ between different age groups, harming children the most. It is interesting to think about the fact that young children will be the most affected by global warming, yet they were not the ones to initiate it. It is worrying to think that if we continue the current trends of climate change, rising generations will be more and more in danger, affecting their whole lives. The diseases that come from global warming are due to our negative impacts on our environment, such as emission of greenhouse gasses. There are many ways we can reduce our impacts on the environment, which will slow, and hopefully at some point reverse, global warming. If we can slow and reverse these rising temperatures, we can lower heat related diseases and increase health of everyone, not only children. We can all change small things in our everyday life that can have a big impact if enough people do them. So while we may not be able to have a huge impact on government and world decisions relating to saving our planet and ourselves, we can have a bigger impact, with little cost, than we may notice.

Deutsch, Kevin. (January 13, 2022). “Local Firefighter’s Death Raises Awareness of Cancer Risk.” Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://coralspringstalk.com/firefighters-death-awareness-cancer-risk-37211. 

James Leonard, a Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department firefighter and paramedic, died on January 12, 2022 from cancer. His death is helping to spread awareness of the risks firefighters face as first responders. From 2015 to 2020, 75 percent of firefighter deaths were due to occupational cancer. Firefighters are exposed to hundreds of different chemicals, some known to cause cancer. These chemicals are inhaled, go in their eyes, or are ingested. Though it is quite common for firefighters to get cancer from their work, cancer from fires is not limited to those who fight them.

This article addressed a topic I have not heard often. Hearing about Leonard and his 2 year fight with cancer from 15 years of firefighting was very eye opening. I did not know that this month was Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month until reading this article. This is disappointing to just learn about this and I can only imagine many others have not heard much about cancer in firefighters either. It is amazing what these firefighters do, putting their lives at such a risk to help save us and our environment. While reading this article, I thought about the countless recent fires throughout the world, specifically in California. Hearing about the diseases that fires cause firefighters, it can be assumed that this is an issue for everyone when fires breakout, especially during fire season, and smoke is everywhere. Even though I have not had a fire in my area, I have experienced effects from intense smoke in the air. We need to spread more awareness of the effects of fires and stop global warming to save us and our planet. 

McNeill, Bridgette. (November 8, 2021). “Reduced Air Pollution in U.S. during Pandemic Shutdown Linked to Fewer Heart Attacks.” Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://newsroom.heart.org/news/reduced-air-pollution-in-u-s-during-pandemic-shutdown-linked-to-fewer-heart-attacks.  

Due to shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, air pollution was reduced and was linked to fewer heart attacks. As restrictions were placed on the amount people were allowed to leave their homes and places that were open for people to travel to, people drove much less, therefore there was a noticeable decrease in fossil fuel emissions from cars. Ambient air pollution is widely recognized as a significant contributor to cardiovascular disease and death. A reduction of this air pollution is translated into the 374 fewer heart attacks per 10,000 person-years.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic shut downs was definitely not fun, it is interesting to read articles like this which point out the positive effects from it. I was not surprised by this relationship between the reduced air pollution and heart attacks, but I think this is an important relationship that should be emphasized and discussed. We can definitely learn a lot from this shut-down and think about the impact we are making on our own lives as our carbon footprint is increasing heart attacks. I feel like many people do not think about the health impacts that air pollution causes, mainly hearing about only the environmental impacts. Spreading awareness of the broadness of its effects is important to encouraging people to make a change. Thinking of how much I drive, often taking my own car when I could have carpooled or biked, I realize the positive impact I could make myself by only changing a few ways I get around.

Fonger, Ron. (2021, October 17). “Fueled by Recent Cases in Flint, Legionnaires’ Disease Numbers Rise in Genesee County.” Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2021/10/fueled-by-recent-cases-in-flint-legionnaires-disease-numbers-rise-in-genesee-county.html. 

Legionnaires’ disease cases in the United States in 2021 were higher than that in 2020, matching 2019 numbers. This was fueled form the increase in number of cases reported in Flint, Michigan. Legionnaires’ disease is a severe form of pneumonia, lung inflammation that is usually caused by infection. This can be caught by inhaling bacteria from water, as many in Flint, Michigan did during the Flint water crisis. Though there has been a recent increase in cases, it doesn’t match the high cases from this water crisis. Warmer than usual fall weather could be a reason for this recent spike. 

Before reading this article, I had not heard of the Flint, Michigan water crisis. It is a worrying idea to think of the diseases that could come from just drinking water. We must take further precautions to make sure our drinking water is safe. This article also talked about the impact that warmer weather has had on this sudden spike in Legionnaires’ disease cases. This article is just one more of many other stories I have heard recently of the dangerous, worrying effect that climate change and global warming is having on our world and humans. We need to take action now to slow climate change or we will see a trend of diseases continue.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. (2021, July 16). Global Environmental Health and Sustainable Development. Retrieved August 15, 2021, from https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/population/global/index.cfm. 

Most diseases closely related to poverty have a connection to the environment. The World Health Organization has estimated about 25% of diseases are due to environmental factors. Low-income communities are greatly affected by this. Poorer people are more likely to be exposed to environmental hazards, such as air pollution, which generates diseases, and then economic development is slowed, only increasing air pollution. A cycle is created as sickness is expensive and disables people from working, which continues to weaken the chance of these communities becoming wealthy. Through the help of higher-income communities and sustainable development, this cycle could be broken.

Cycles such as the one mentioned in this article are not only damaging ourselves, but the environment. These environmental diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, are deepening the decrease in human health worldwide, and increasing poverty. It is important that we acknowledge these problems and work to come up with solutions. I found this article very interesting as it mentioned the huge impact that wealth and money has on the health of your surrounding environment and yourself. I think that to solve the problems in our world’s environment, we must work together and share some of our wealth to help lower-income communities (and this would help solve the issue of poverty as well!).  

Brody, Jane E. (2021, February 1). How Climate Change May Affect Your Health. Retrieved August 15, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/well/eat/climate-change-health.html. 

Many people only see how the consequences of climate change impact others and their own environment, when it can endanger everyone’s health. As the planet is warming, heat waves, droughts, wildfires, warmer oceans, and much more are increasing the risk of sicknesses. Strong links have been found between high air pollution and dementia. Other illnesses, such as asthma and respiratory allergies, are also threatening. Warm weather also raises infectious diseases carried by vectors like ticks and mosquitoes. Global warming endangers the safety of food with food poisoning and contamination, which opens up an even bigger variety of diseases to humans.

The article explains the threat climate change poses on the environment and how this shift in the environment affects our own health through diseases and sicknesses. I think this article could benefit our world and our own health greatly by informing people of the changes they can make to help. I feel pressured to change my light bulbs to solar panels as they rely on non polluting renewable energy and drive less. If everyone made these simple changes, our climate change would decrease and health would improve.

Jennings, Viniece, Reid. (2021, August 3). Green Infrastructure Can Limit but Not Solve Air Pollution Injustice. Retrieved August 15, 2021, from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24892-1. 

Air pollution is the leading contributor to environmental related diseases as it contributes to millions of deaths worldwide. Green infrastructure may not be able to eliminate air pollution completely, but it can definitely limit it, while improving overall health. Evidence shows unequal access to green infrastructure limits the chance for air quality improvements in more marginalized areas. During the COVID-19 pandemic, statistics have proved that there are higher Coronavirus deaths among people who have health conditions related to exposure to air pollution.

This article sheds light on how significant the impact of air pollution has on diseases and health worldwide. It explains that communities suffer different amounts from air pollution related diseases and the factors, such as race and class, that cause this uneven spread. I found this article interesting and gained a new perspective on the influence from where you live. I am more grateful for my home and community after reading about the lack of access to enough green infrastructure for so many people that is the source for such low air quality. I think that through more communication and raising awareness about this issue, we could help save the environment, and ourselves, through more green infrastructure and other resources.

NIH. (2021, August 13). Environmental Diseases from A to Z. Retrieved August 15, 2021, from https://www.ehso.com/environmentaldiseases.htm .

There are many diseases related to the environment that surround us and threaten us in our everyday life. These diseases’ causes range from air pollution from everyday lives to chemical exposure in work places. Humans are responsible for many of our sicknesses that are related to the environment as the cause for many of these diseases are from man-made toxins. These diseases can be avoided through careful and thoughtful control of our impact on the environment, and using our resources wisely to filter water, protect against the sun, stay healthy, etc..

This article was a great overview and introduction to environmental related diseases. It listed and explained many common diseases and how they are related to the environment. I felt pressure put on me and other humans to do better and work to avoid releasing toxins and pollution into the air. I wonder how many of these diseases would disappear and how much the world would change if people stopped polluting the air. I was especially interested in heart diseases and how it is not only bad eating habits or lack of exercise that may cause heart disease, but environmental chemicals also have a role. This article inspired, and in a way scared, me to help our world lower our emissions and other toxins that are being released into the environment.

Cockburn, Harry. (2021, August 15). Can Going Vegan Save the World? Retrieved August 15, 2021, from www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/veganism-meat-environmental-impact-diet-b1901628.html.

Can going vegan save the world? Improvements in farming techniques have increased emissions, threatening our world’s environment more everyday. This air pollution and release of toxins is not only directly causing diseases in humans, but also in animals, which are then being eaten. Transitioning to a vegan or overall more plant-based diet would reduce diet-related diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, and strokes. Meat production alone produces 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. The world’s environmental health and human’s health would both benefit greatly from vegan diets.

This article puts a stress on the relationship between meat and dairy consumption and the health of humans and the environment. It can give people a new perspective on their food consumption as it is explained that cutting meat and dairy products out of your own diet can reduce up to 73 percent of your individual carbon footprint from food. The reader can only imagine the impact if everyone took on this diet. I found this article very interesting and found a new perspective on my own food consumption. In a way, we are making ourselves suffer as our own technology and lifestyle is creating the diseases so many of us suffer from. After reading this article, I feel a big responsibility to help reduce our destruction of the environment and reduce diseases our food production is creating and spreading. Although it would be a sacrifice to give up meat and dairy, I understand the impact that it could make. The article also brings up the idea of a vegetarian or pescatarian diet and how much these could save our planet too. It makes me question is my own enjoyment of food worth the destruction of our planet and animals?