#5thperiodAPES

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Southern Californian Cancer Rate

Since the year 2005, Southern Californian’s cancer rate has dropped by a titanic rate of 65 percent. While this number seems like a tremendous success and step in the right direction, regional air quality regulators still say this number is way too high. The recent 2015 analysis found that the constant exposure to toxic air contaminants in Southern California could result in 418 cancer cases for every 1 million people’s lifetimes. This number is down from the 1,194 cases per million found in the same study during 2005. Health experts conclude that 10 cases per every million qualifies healthy air.

 

The statistics presented in this article where very astonishing and disgusting in my opinion. The fact that over 1,000 people out of every million would obtain cancer from simply living in Southern California is horrendous and changes must continue to be made at a rapid pace. While health experts conclude that 10 cases per every million qualifies healthy air, that number still seems too high to me.   However, if Southern California could make it to that number in the relatively near future it would be a tremendous success.

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The Road Less Traveled

“Cut Air Pollution in Half by Taking Road Less Travelled.” The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group,            07 Sept. 2014. Web. 07 Sept. 2014.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/11078065/Cut-air-pollution-in-half-by-taking-road-less-travelled.html

Commuters in big cities could cut their pollution intake down by fifty percent simply by avoiding main streets on their commutes. Inhaling air pollution in big cities can be as harmful to one’s lungs as smoking half a cigarette per day. This doesn’t appear to be a significant number, however cummitively this would have a large effect on the lungs of these commuters, especially if they are children. Public Health England states that 5.3 percent of all deaths in people of 25 years of age occur because of pollution, however this number skyrockets to 8.3 percent in inner London. The author believes these rates can be cut down by simply taking alternative, non-mainstream routes while commuting.

 

This article suggested that air pollution intake could be severely cut down by everyday commuters in England simply by avoiding the main streets. There is an easy alternative in taking side streets which in most cases can even be quicker than the congested streets of a downtown. I was shocked to hear that commuting to work is often times as harmful to the lungs as smoking a cigarette. Taking side streets is an easy alternative that can cut down around 50 percent of ones air pollution intake.