This is one of my Kindle books. I read this book pretty fast, Not a great deal there that I was totally unfamiliar with but a lot more detail about things than I previously knew.Though I did notice a tendency to mix measurements like In the UK, most people drive less than 16 kilometres (10 miles) to work, while in the United States, the average travel-to-work time is 25.4 minutes. Driving, in short, is a much smaller part of our lives than we’re led to believe." And I also noticed a tendency to be a bit fast and loose with some facts. For example on p 99 he says "it's impossible to say how many people die from volcanic ash and smoke each year but it seems several hundred are killed in explosions alone so let's take that as a (not very reliable) proxy figure instead". Well it seems to me that this is patently ridiculous .....but at this point he is trying to down play the significance of natural pollution (such as volcanoes) so he picks deaths by volcanic explosions.....and ignores the premature deaths or even the rapid deaths from people who've breathed in large quantities of ash etc.
But I'm being a bit harsh, because, on the whole, I think he brings a reasonable sense of balance to the topic. He doesn't downplay the pollution actually caused by trees for example and he does discuss a really wide range of pollutants (such as Radon and Ozone) which tend to get overlooked. Also I was rather unaware of the pollution caused by brake linings, and tyres on roads ....I knew it was an issue but not as much of an issue as Woodford describes.He says, for example: a recent book by Spanish researcher Fulvio and his colleagues makes clear. What they discovered was that vehicles generate at least as much coarse particulate dust (PM10s) and a third as much fine particulate dust (PM2.5) from brake and tyre wear, road surface disintegration and the disturbance of dust already lying on the road as they do from their exhausts.
Nor was I aware that indoor pollution was of such importance. "Roughly half the world’s total air pollution deaths are caused by dirty indoor air. "Worldwide, for all ages and sexes, household air pollution is the eighth leading cause of death, after things like high blood pressure, smoking and outdoor particulate pollution (which comes in at number six). It ends 3.8 million lives too soon, each year." According to Woodford roughly half the world’s total air pollution deaths are caused by dirty indoor air.....the major culprit being smoky indoor fires where people are cooking or trying to keep warm. (I was reminded of a traditional farmhouse that I visited in the mountains of Japan and I was able to climb up into the loft sort of area and it was all glossy black from countless years of smoky fires....I guess the lungs of the inhabitants looked similar).
The other scary thing about indoor pollution is from household chemicals. " When Professor Anne Steinemann of the University of Washington studied a range of household detergents, cleaners and other personal care products–including some described as ‘green’ or ‘natural....she found they emitted an average of seventeen VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), including up to eight toxic or hazardous chemicals with no safe levels of exposure." Woodford's rule of thumb is that if you can smell it, then it's giving off VOC's. And," perhaps surprisingly, breathing-related health issues don’t cause the majority of outdoor air pollution deaths. According to the World Health Organization, most (some 80 per cent) are actually caused by ischaemic (blood-flow-related) heart disease and strokes. Given that a million people a year also die early from ischaemic heart disease caused by indoor air pollution, it’s easy to see that the heart is incredibly significant when it comes to understanding why dirty air is such a prolific global killer".
Especially worrying is that "several recent studies have found links between exposure to air pollution and the most serious psychotic mental illnesses, including depression and schizophrenia. It’s unclear, however, whether the connection is biological (something toxic in pollution produces, perhaps, inflammation of the brain or interferes with neurotransmitters), psychological (polluted urban environments leading to more stress and anxiety, which then leads to mental health problems), or both".
And pollution becomes a neighbour's problem too. "One recent study by scientists from the English universities of Leeds and York estimated that ozone produced in North America is responsible for the loss of 1.2 million tonnes of wheat each year in Europe, thousands of kilometres away". In a similar vein: "You can’t crow that New York is cleaner than at any time since the Industrial Revolution if New Yorkers are driving round in Chinese-made cars and the clean-up has been achieved, in part, by making cities in China dirtier or more dangerous–at least, not if you’re being honest". And, in Australia, we are difgging up and exporting coal at an every increasing rate...whilst giving lip service to reducing our carbon footprint. The Australian coal that it burnt in China and India become their problem and their contribution to pollution ....not Australia's. In practice, it's not quite as simple as banning exports because India and China actually need the coal right now to sustain growth and lift people out of poverty.
Clearly transportation is a major contributor to pollution: "When the British Parliament’s Environment Select Committee last studied the issue, it concluded that road transport is ‘the biggest single contributor to two of the most harmful and widespread sources of air pollution.....nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) … [and causes] 42 per cent of carbon monoxide, 46 per cent of nitrogen oxides and 26 per cent particulate matter in England". Though when it comes to urban air pollution, diesel engines tend to dominate the headlines, but in Sydney, wood burners make 75 per cent of the city’s particulate pollution. In the UK, they blow out 2.4 times more PM2.5 emissions than traffic. In Sydney, we are having increasingly severe and extensive bushfires which really loads the atmosphere with small particle pollution. And the cure (which is low temperature back-burns in the winter) is about as bad....with a smoky atmosphere hanging around for weeks at a time.
On the whole a really good book. Not too "breathless" in his approach....in fact rather measured and factual but the points made are very powerful. Happy to give it five stars. ( )