Air Pollution Takes a Toll on Young Lungs

Here's some lovely news from Discovery for new parents:

New parents already have plenty of potential hazards to worry about, from flame-retardants in footed pajamas to hormone-disruptors in breast milk. A new study now adds air to the list of environmental concerns.

Chronic exposure to air pollution, the study found, increases a baby's chance of developing bronchiolitis -- a lung infection that is the most common cause of hospitalizations in the first year of life.

The findings suggest that parents and pediatricians need to work together to reduce infants' exposure to traffic and other sources of dirty air, said study author Catherine Karr, an academic pediatrician at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Please repeat after me:

• Solving our energy and Peak Oil crises via a clean energy and transport revolution will help solve the crisis of our skyrocketing health care insurance costs.  
• Solving our energy crisis will help solve our economic crisis by creating millions of jobs, and will help solve climate change.  
• Solving our energy and health care crises with clean energy and transport technologies will revitalize our economy and help solve climate change. 

Get the drift? 

We've cataloged -- both here on this blog and on CVI's online library of sustainability -- overwhelming evidence in support of these ideas, which has lead us to these conclusions.  Please send us your favorite supporting details -- we always love to learn more about how sustainability is benefiting people!

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