A new report ranks New Orleans as one of the top 30 cities most vulnerable to urban air pollution. Unreported fugitive emissions thicken the pot.
NEW ORLEANS — Toxic, ground-level ozone is expected to increase as extreme heat waves hit the United States in the coming century, causing significant health problems and even premature death for residents in cities such as New Orleans, according to a recent report released by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).
Stroke, cardiovascular disease, asthma and other respiratory ailments are all made worse by rising world temperatures and ground-level ozone, a key component of smog. Conditions that create toxic ozone, a product of chemicals reacting in sunlight, are exacerbated by extreme heat.
Urban dwellers in cities including New Orleans, Atlanta and Houston could be dealt a strong blow because of their hotter climate and the relatively large number of residents living in poverty, many without air conditioning, according to the NWF report, “More Extreme Heat Waves: Global Warming’s Wake Up Call.”
“Global warming is one of the gravest health emergencies facing us today,” said Dr. Peter Wilk, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility in a recent teleconference about the National Wildlife Federation‘s report. “Cutting greenhouse gases is a medical necessity,” says Wilk.
The report calls for measures to curb global warming pollution “as quickly as possible” to lessen the threat to human health as well as natural habitat and agriculture.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” said Dr. Wilks.
The NWF report warns that warmer temperatures accelerate the chemical reactions in the atmosphere that create ground-level ozone. At the same time, warmer conditions increase emissions from things that create ozone. For example, greater use of air conditioning to combat those warm days produces even more ozone. The heat waves also tend to be stagnant air masses, which trap the ozone pollution, causing an even larger impact on human health.
In Louisiana, Texas and eight other states the situation is even more dire. In those states ground level ozone is made worse because by unreported, or “fugitive” emissions. A 1999 report from House of Representatives Government Reform Committee found that oil refineries add millions unreported pounds of harmful pollutants to the atmosphere each year, including more than 80 million pounds of volatile organic compounds (VOC) a main ingredient of ground-level ozone. That includes 12,700,00 pounds of unreported VOCs each year from Louisiana, according to the EPA.
“I can tell you things haven’t gotten any better,” since 1999, said Anna Riveck, a researcher with the clear air advocacy group, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, in a recent telephone interview.
Even if fugitive and other polluting emissions improved, as required by the Clean Air Act 2009, global warming alone could add an extra 10-parts per billion of ozone during heat waves in certain regions of the country — including the South — according to the NWF report.
Despite the numerous factors that can impact ground level ozone — from wind to soil emissions — all of the EPA’s recent modeling shows that global climate change will increase summertime ozone concentrations over substantial regions of the country.
In order to reduce the health impacts, the NWF report says that, “Cities must implement public health measures to reduce the impact of extreme heat that we cannot avoid.” Those measures include tighter, more protective ozone and particle pollution standards.
Along the Gulf Coast, projections made by the International Panel for Climate Change indicate that south Louisiana will have more than 150 days per year over 90° F by the end of this century, up from roughly 75 days in the 1970s. North Florida will have more than 165 days per year over 90° F up from roughly 60 days in the 1960s and 1970s.
“Our choices about greenhouse gasses matter,” says Dr. Amanda Staudt, an NWF climate scientist. Heats days are expected to as much as quadruple. “Lower emissions pathways could curb those heat days by half,” says Staudt.
Mollie Day
GULF COAST PRESS 