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Donnie Dann's
Conservation Alerts
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Donnie Dann's Conservation Alerts
donniebird@yahoo.com
Health Care and the Environment
Volume 13 Number 6 November, 2009
No current issue is more controversial nor generates more heated opinions than health care. Can we afford to cover almost everyone? Should we have a public option? Should there be government sponsored co-ops? Although what we have is not perfect should we stick with it because anything the government runs would be worse? The purpose of this newsletter is not to debate these questions but to consider the impact of simply using less of our health care system by needing less of it. Wouldn’t that be an approach on which everyone can agree?
To be clear, we probably can achieve even greater savings in health care through lifestyle changes and preventive medicine. Just to cite one example, the American Institute for Cancer Research tells us that women can cut their risk of breast cancer by almost half if they watch their weight, exercise daily, breast-feed their babies and limit alcoholic beverages to one drink per day.
Focusing on the environment, there are a variety of steps we can take so that our nation’s health care bill will be less by staying out of hospitals, doctor’s offices and requiring fewer expensive drugs. Here are just a few:
Climate Change
The respected British medical Journal Lancet, after an extensive year-long study reported that global warming will have devastating consequences for human health from:
- changed patterns of infections and insect-borne diseases, and increased deaths due to heat waves
- reduced water and food security, leading to malnutrition and diarrheal disease
- increased frequency and magnitude of extreme climate events, including hurricanes and other storms
- increased vulnerability for those living in urban slums and where shelter and human settlements are poor
- large scale population migration and the likelihood of civil unrest
It’s essential either through cap and trade or a carbon tax we lessen all contributors to greenhouse gasses.
Air pollutants including mercury from coal-fired power plants
These plants are a major source of air pollution, annually contributing 59% of our sulfur dioxide, and 18% of nitrogen oxide. Coal plants are also the largest source of toxic mercury and release about 50% of particle pollutants. No less damaging is that coal power plants release over 40% of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, only worsening global warming.
Some of these pollutants combine to form smog, which when inhaled will contribute to respiratory problems including wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest pain as well as cause many more serious problems like increased risk of asthma attacks and lung inflammation. Recently, scientists concluded that exposure to smog can be deadly, affecting everyone, but is especially dangerous for children, the elderly, and everyone with breathing problems.
Pesticides
In only one example, in a recent report in Scientific American, the so-called inert ingredients in Monsanto’s popular product Roundup can kill human cells even when used at low levels, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells. This herbicide is widely used by landscapers and on home lawns as well as on almost all of our nation’s corn and soybean fields.
Bottom line: do your part by living healthier and less carbon producing lives. If we don’t need health care we won’t have to pay for it!
This Newsletter may be excerpted, reproduced or circulated without limitation. |
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