Volatile Organic Compound Emissions

The date of data from this list on scorecard.org is not known to me (yet). I was curious about volatile organic compounds, since they are known to be problematic for asthmatics. I started looking at all the bay area counties, and added the top 5 up. Looks like we are getting, by this data, 8047 TONS of Volatile Organic Compounds in the air in a year from the top 5 polluters per county alone. I would need to work with a researcher to find out if there any known effects from these quantities, and I need to find out from the EPA the most current data. Of course that isn't easy, I have been searching around epa.gov, and do not see a user-friendly data list as made available for the 6 common pollutants (Ozone, Particulate Matter, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Lead). Perhaps the California Air Resources Board will be able to tell me.

Here is a a link to information on Volatile Organic Compounds from the Minnesota Department of Health

Lastly, I am curious about the dispersion rate of previous year's pollutants. For example, let's say 8047 TONS of VOCs were release into the air in 2000. That doesn't necessarily mean in 2001 those pollutants dissapated! There *must* be a cumulative effect taken into consideration and included in calculations. So if out of 8047 TONS of VOCs, 7500 of that blew north or east to our neighbors, that still leaves 500 EXTRA tons on top of next year's VOC count. So if in 2001 there was another 8000 tons of VOCs emitted, there should be a count of 8500 tons in the air. These numbers are completely hypothetical, of course, I am merely pointing out that I want to know if there is latency included in the measurements of VOC's. Are VOC's counted in PM10 and PM2.5 or somewhere else? I have to find out. Sigh. I feel like this is going to take a lot of work. And I must admit, being on the road for 6 weeks now is tough.

Besides being alone on the road, driving around, back and forth, is a bit draining, as is staying in hotels. However, it's something that needs to be done, and I'm willing to do it. I have a crappy travel schedule next... driving from Flagstaff to Phoenix, then Phoenix flying to Kuaui, then coming back to Phoenix, then flying out to Seattle, then back to Phoenix, then driving to San Luis Obispo, then finally, home. I need to always come back to Phoenix because if I do develop asthma in Kuaui or Seattle, I need to be able to 'reset' my asthma in Flagstaff, make it go away essentially, to test out the next city. I miss home, and can't wait for this to be over! I actually do not want to go to Seattle, but it so happens my childhood friend, Craig (who also has bad allergies like me) moved there and all of his allergies disappeared. That means there's a good chance that Seattle could have an effect on my allergies which will be real interesting to notate - how does it effect my general well being, and how does it effect my asthma? I leave for Hawaii on Monday, I will be in Kuaui, where the air is supposed to clean. From there I will be able to tell if my asthma is humidity related, or pollution related, or both.

Refinery Emissions

In order to track down the 3% of winter PM2.5 generated by refinery emissions, I am going to contact the California Air Resources Board, and Chevron's Richmond Refinery.

Wish me luck in getting the data! I don't know if some of the chemicals from the refinery could be triggering my asthma, but I thought it's good the public knows what toxic, carcinogens, or otherwise unhealthy chemicals and particulates are being dumped into our air that we breathe. On the charts the EPA provides, the mark particulates in matter of parts per millions and parts per billion, and so in a 24 hour time period the amounts may seem small. However, day in and day out, hour after hour, breathe after breathe, as our bodies collect those chemicals, what are the effects after 10 years? Perhaps the general public is not too concerned, but with 1 in 10 children having asthma (estimate - see previous specified reports on exact reported asthma rates on children), I think there is a significant possibility there are specific particulates that are having a huge negeative effect on the health of our population!

I will look at specific particulates in each city and compare them - San Francisco's chemicals, pollution, particulates, etc, versus Albuquerque. Perhaps it is merely humidity, or perhaps there are chemicals present in San Francisco that are not present in Albuquerque.

Bay Area Pollution Symmary

This is the Bay Area Pollution Summary. It measures Ozone, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, Sulfur Dioxide, PM10, and PM2.5. If I have time I would like to compare these amounts per year to asthma rates in the Bay Area per year for the last 10 years, and see if there is any correlation. However - for PM10, and PM2.5 I still don't know what the specific particulates and chemicals are. You can download the report at http://www.baaqmd.gov/pio/aq_summaries/index.htm. I spoke to someone there, and he said the standard have gotten stricter so in the 2008 report the number of days over the standard will be higher, although to be honest I have to review the chart more thoroughly to comment on it more. I did find it interesting that on page 2 it shows we are getting WORSE at PM2.5 - exceeding standards! And we are also exceeding California standards for PM10!



I got the sources of winter PM2.5 from the Bay Area Air Quality Management team, but I still would like more info as to individual chemical names from the refining and power plant particulates sources.



It lists wood smoke as the biggest contributor, but when you combine exhaust, irrelevant of the source, you have off-road (20%) + on-road (23%) + aircraft (3%) = 46% of our particulates of winter PM2.5 are VEHICLE-EXHAUST related and that is the biggest contributor, not wood smoke!

Also - the chart does not relate the toxicity of each exhaust. For example, is wood smoke as toxic as let's say, refining exhaust? I am sorry, but I believe that it is *essential* to understand the toxicity of each to the respiratory system. I know I shouldn't assume, but my question is simple: what chemicals are being release, how much of them, what levels are toxic to humans, and what are the effects of the chemicals being released? A gram of wood smoke particulate and a gram of refinery emissions in a cubic meter of air might have very different toxicity levels in a human. I also am not sure about the toxicity levels of vehicle exhaust, I must find out about that as well. Sigh...so much to do.

Albuquerque, NM

I have just returned to Flagstaff, AZ, from Albuquerque, a good 5.5-6 hour drive, due to the rain. Here's what I found out of personal experience. I could run in Albuquerque for 4 days, without any asthma.. yayyy! While I would rate my breathing a little below Flagstaff, it still was way better than San Francisco! In Santa Fe, surprisingly, I had a bit of trouble breathing, even though the air is supposed to be one of the cleanest in the country. In fact I did have to take a puff of my inhaler. I am curious if it was something along the lines of pollens or perhaps the air was cold and dry enough that it actually irritated my lungs. Cold, dry air is known as an asthma trigger. However it did rule out that altitude was somehow the reason my asthma went away, as Flagstaff and Santa Fe share the same altitude. Here's some stats on Albuquerque:

Altitude: 5280
Humidity: 58AM, 29PM
Ozone: A (American Lung Association State of the air report.)
Particulates: B & C (American Lung Association State of the Air report). This is for Sandoval and Bernalillo. I was told my hotel was on the Sandoval side, which is supposed to be the 'cleaner' side.
The EPA has this data for Sandoval: 94 days where PM2.5 exceeded the limit, 7 unhealthy days, and 14 unhealthy days for sensitive people. I am not sure what to make of this yet. You can see the data here.
This does lend some credibility to the idea that humidity plays a factor but I won't be sure until I am in Hawaii, where I will compare clean, humid air to Flagstaff's air.

*However, until I can actually compare the actual specific particulates being used to generate the PM10, and PM2.5 data, I won't be able to compare apples to apples. For example - there could be more particulates in Albuquerque, but those particulates could be less apt to generate an asthmatic response than the particulates that we breathe in San Francisco.

I will leave for Hawaii on Saturday or Sunday, and might not be able to post any information for 4-5 days. If this trip provides any information that could help a researcher, I would be very happy. It would be fantastic if a there was some definitive research done on where is the best place for asthmatics to live, and why! Up till now, no doctor, ENT specialist, allergy & asthma specialist has been able to provide me with that information.

Criteria Air Pollutant Report: SAN FRANCISCO County, CA

This site is awesome - very thorough information on pollution

scorecard.org

However it ranks San Francisco's air as very dirty! This is in stark contrast to what the Bay Area Air Quality Management people told me...

What is particle pollution?

This is quoted from http://www.stateoftheair.org/2008/health-risks/health-risks-pm.html

What Is Particle Pollution?
Particle pollution refers to a mix of very tiny solid and liquid particles that are in the air we breathe. But nothing about particle pollution is simple. First of all, the particles themselves are different sizes. Some are one-tenth the diameter of a strand of hair. Many are even tinier; some are so small they can only be seen with an electron microscope. Because of their size, you can’t see the individual particles. You can only see the haze that forms when millions of particles blur the spread of sunlight. You may not be able to tell when you’re breathing particle pollution. Yet it is so dangerous it can shorten your life.

The differences in size make a big difference in how they affect us. Our natural defenses help us to cough or sneeze larger particles out of our bodies. But those defenses don’t keep out smaller particles, those that are smaller than 10 microns (or micrometers) in diameter, or about one-seventh the diameter of a single human hair. These particles get trapped in the lungs, while the smallest are so minutethat they can pass through the lungs into the blood stream, just like the essential oxygen molecules we need to survive.

Researchers categorize particles according to size, grouping them as coarse, fine and ultrafine. Coarse particles fall between 2.5 microns and 10 microns in diameter and are called PM10-2.5. Fine particles are 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller and are called PM2.5. Ultrafine particles are smaller than 0.1 micron in diameter¹¹ and are small enough to pass through the lung tissue into the blood stream, circulating like the oxygen molecules themselves. No matter what the size, particles can be harmful to your health.

Because particles are formed in so many different ways, they also can be composed of many different compounds. Although we often think of particles as solids, not all are. Some are completely liquid; some are solids suspended in liquids. As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency puts it, particles are really “a mixture of mixtures.”¹² The mixtures differ between the eastern and western United States. For example, the eastern states have more sulfate particles than the west, largely due to the high levels of sulfur dioxide emitted by large, coal-fired power plants. By contrast, in Southern California, nitrate particles from motor vehicle exhaust form a larger proportion of the unhealthful mix.¹³

State of the Air Report

http://www.stateoftheair.org/ provides a map to your state and city's air quality!
San Francisco got an 'A' grade for ozone, so ozone is not the cause for my asthma.
However San Francisco got an 'F' for particle pollution... so that may be a contributing factor.

http://www.stateoftheair.org/2008/states/california/particle-pollution.html

I need however a breakdown of how that value was calculated.

Air Pollution Basics

Two types of air pollution are especially dangerous to breathe—ozone (smog) and particle pollution (soot). The American Lung Association State of the Air 2008 report ranks cities most affected by ozone pollution, short-term and year-round particle pollution.

Ozone (O3)

• Ozone is an invisible gas that is formed most often by a reaction of sunlight and vapors emitted when fuel is burned by cars and trucks, factories, power plants and other sources. Ozone usually peaks in the summer months, from May through October, when temperatures are highest and sunlight is strongest.
• Ozone reacts chemically ("oxidizes") with internal body tissues with which it comes in contact. Like sunburn irritates the skin, it especially irritates the respiratory tract, and can cause health problems the day you breathe in high levels of smog or after long-term exposure.
• Ozone is particularly dangerous for people with asthma and other chronic lung diseases, senior citizens, children and teens. It can cause asthma attacks, coughing and wheezing, shortness of breath, chest pain when inhaling deeply, and even premature death. Breathing high levels of ozone repeatedly over the long term may also lead to impaired lung function, inflamed lung lining, and increased breathing problems.

Particle Pollution

• Particle pollution is the most dangerous of the widespread outdoor air pollutants. It is typically made up of ash, soot, diesel exhaust, chemicals, metals and aerosols. Particle levels can spike dangerously for hours to weeks on end (short-term) or reach high levels for most of the year (year-round).
• Breathing particle pollution can kill. Breathing particle pollution year-round can shorten life by one to three years. It triggers heart attacks, strokes, irregular heartbeats, and causes lung cancer and premature births. Particle pollution harms people in many ways, even when the particle levels are very low. Particle pollution worsens serious respiratory disorders, including asthma and causes wheezing and coughing.
• In the eastern U.S., many particles come from power plants that burn coal to produce electricity. In the western U.S., particles come from diesel buses, trucks and heavy equipment, agriculture and wood burning.
• The body’s natural defenses help to cough or sneeze larger particles out of our bodies. But smaller particles can be so tiny that they can become lodged deep in the lungs and cause major damage, or pass from the lungs into the blood stream and then throughout the rest of the body.

Bay Area Air Quality Management District Office

Bay Area Air Quality Management
District Office
939 Ellis Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 771-6000

Trying to get some answers from them, but got transferred to the Lung Association. Their rep told me to talk to the Bay Area Air Quality Management office :(

I called back and left a message with one of their reps.... wish me luck.

EPA Grants and Fellowship Information

For those of you who may have ideas on how to help clean our air quality, or for funding on your research, here is the page for EPA Grants and Fellowship Information

Santa Fe

I have driven all the way from San Francisco to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to see how my asthma is. Along the way I stopped in Flagstaff to detox off my pharmaceutical drugs that I was taking 2X a day, everyday, for many, many years. By my second week in Flagstaff, I was drug & asthma free. After 2 weeks of being asthma free I drove to Santa Fe, to see if there are any changes in my condition, or if I will still be asthma free here, and to research why. What is amazing to me is how used to, as a society, we are to being medicated for simple things like breathing. Shouldn't our priority be on cleaning our air, and not on medicating the citizens of this country? An analogy is this: If I had a goldfish inside a bowl of very polluted, dirty water, and the goldfish was getting sick..... should I start medicating the goldfish to survive in the dirty water, or should I clean out its bowl!?!? I think in our society, we are just medicating our citizens in our dirty, polluted air. I know it would be very difficult for most people to drop everything and travel the country for a couple months, to find out which air in our country is better for their asthma symptoms. Hopefully what I find can be of benefit to others.

EPA Asthma statistics

The EPA has Asthma Statistics published on their site. Scroll down to the area that says "Asthma Fact Sheet". There you will find the latest report.

These figures are taken from the latest report, which is dated January 2009.

In short asthma affects millions of lives and costs us billions of dollars. It is also shown that ozone and particle pollution makes people more sensitive to asthma triggers. Isn't it time we stop dumping particle pollution into our environment!?



Asthma facts
Asthma is a rapidly growing public health problem. According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention:
About 23 million people, including 6.8 million children, have asthma.
• Asthma prevalence is higher among families with lower incomes.
*12 million people report having an asthma attack in the past year.
•Asthma accounts for nearly 17 million physician office and hospital visits,
3 and nearly 2 million emergency department visits each year. 2
African Americans continue to have higher rates of asthma emergency department visits,
hospitalizations, and deaths than do Caucasians:
The rate of emergency department visits is 350% higher.
* The hospitalization rate is 240% higher.
* The asthma death rate is 200% higher.
* Approximately 2 million Hispanics in the U.S. have asthma and Puerto Ricans are
disproportionately impacted:
The rate of asthma among Puerto Ricans is 125% higher than non-Hispanic white
people and 80% higher than non-Hispanic black people. 2
The prevalence of asthma attacks is highest among Puerto Ricans.
• Asthma in Children:
Asthma is one of the most common serious chronic diseases of childhood.
• Asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among children under 15.
• Asthma in children is the cause of seven million physician visits and nearly 200,000
hospitalizations.
An average of one out of every 10 school-aged child has asthma.
• 13 million school days are missed each year due to asthma.
• The Cost of Asthma:
Annual expenditures for health and lost productivity due to asthma are estimated at nearly
$20 billion, according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

Ozone and particle pollution can cause asthma attacks.
When ozone levels are high, more people with asthma have attacks that require a
doctor’s attention.

Ozone makes people more sensitive to asthma triggers such as pet dander, pollen,
dust mites, and mold.

Trying to get humidity data

I am trying to get the official humidity data for Flagstaff, San Francisco, Boulder, Honolulu, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque. It hasn't been that easy. So far the sites I've been comparing data to show different numbers.

Tomorrow I will contact the
Air Resources Laboratory to see how/where I can get data.

Director - Dr. Steven S. Fine

NOAA/OAR/ARL

Silver Spring Metro Center #3, Rm. 3316
1315 East West Highway
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
Phone: (301) 713-0295
E-mail: arl.webmaster@noaa.gov

The National Climate Data Center provides this list... it doesn't have every city, but many, the last two columns are the yearly averages. The RELATIVE HUMIDITY DATA has San Francisco listed with an average morning and afternoon relative humidity of 61.

SAN FRANCISCO C.O., CA             8   8  63  63  63  63  62  61
62  61  68  68  64  63  65  65  65  64  58  58  53  53  56  55  56  55  61  61

.

Contacting elected officials - Make a difference!

The only way we are going to get our air quality improved is by contacting our representatives in government and demanding change.

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml Has links to contact your representatives in government.

There are approximately 20 million Americans with asthma. If asthmatics and their loved ones band together we can influence our government for stricter environmental regulations for better air quality.

Demand cleaner air!

Climate and the prevalence of symptoms of asthma

This study was focused on children. It found that INDOOR humidity increases did have an effect on asthma. However, it also concludes that altitude and OUTDOOR humidity DO NOT have an effect on asthma rates on children.

"Results: In Western Europe (57 centres in 12 countries), the prevalence of asthma symptoms, assessed by written questionnaire, increased by 2.7% (95% CI 1.0% to 4.5%) with an increase in the estimated annual mean of indoor relative humidity of 10%. Similar associations were seen for the video questionnaire and the younger age group. Altitude and the annual variation of temperature and relative humidity outdoors were negatively associated with asthma symptoms. "


quoted from Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2004 http://oem.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/61/7/609

Flagstaff, AZ has an elevation of 7000 feet. However, when I spent 2 months in Boulder, CO my asthma did not go away. Boulder is at an elevation of 5430 feet. I am currently in Santa Fe, NM, at an elevation of 7,000 feet. It will be interesting to see if my asthma is gone here too. Either Boulder was not high enough if altitude is a factor, or there is some other reason that altitude that is affecting my asthma.

I am trying to get a response from the National Weather Service on official relative humidity (yearly averages) for these cities. Wish me luck in getting a response! As soon as I get the info I will update this table.

*particulates, pollution, chemicals will be looked at separately

Chronic Asthma: Study Reveals Long-Lasting Airway Blockages, Even In Medicated Asthma Patients

"...asthma patients can continue to have persistent narrowing of airways over a span of a month or more – even while taking medication."

quoted from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090206165947.htm

Just because you are on medication, and have little symptoms doesn't mean your lungs aren't suffering.

Detecting Asthma Triggers - Asthma Research News

This article, from science daily, talks about the research of environmental chemist Charlene Bayer, Ph.D..

"Dr. Bayer's research team developed a sensor box. Small enough to carry in the pocket of a lightweight vest, it's designed to continuously monitor the air around people prone to asthma attacks. While inside a chamber, the system measures for seven different environmental stimuli -- all potential asthma triggers."

quoted from http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/0508-predicting_asthma_attacks.htm

The project needs more funding (per an email conversation with Charlene), but could yield very interesting results. However this is focused on what triggers asthma once the person is in a state that they have asthma attacks. I would like to find out what made my asthma, including my triggers, disappear.

Asthma disappears in Flagstaff, AZ

By my second week in Flagstaff, Arizona, something miraculous happened that no health care provider, or pharmaceutical company was able to deliver: my asthma disappeared. Being my whole life on maximum dosages of inhaled asthma medicines, this was nothing short of amazing to me. The question is.. "Why?". And when an answer is found, can it provide valuable information to others, to help relieve in the suffering of millions of asthmatics across the country. While my allergies did not go away, they no longer triggered asthma as well.

I broke down the possible variables of what may have caused the difference. I am from San Francisco.

1. Air Pollution/Particulates (Man-made)
2. Pollen
3. Humidity
4. Altitude
5. Air Pollution/Particulates (Natural to the environment)

What is also amazing to me is that I haven't been able to find, despite asking many nurses, doctors, pulminary specialists, etc., any clear data on how each of these factors affects asthmatics individually, as a whole when air pollution (specifically the individual pollutants) are taken into account. I doubt many doctors are aware of all the chemicals floating around in our air, and exactly how they affect us. They do however, have excellent training and knowledge of which medicines can better help us function in our environments. The purpose of this writing is to break down as many variables and factors, from humidity levels, to pollens, to air pollution, to try and find any leading causes in the transformation of being asthma and medicine free in Flagstaff. Hopefully this will provide other people with options of where to live, without having to spend the time and money I am spending, moving city to city, to see how my asthma and respiratory system functions. And even better would be the ability to identify and key factors that act as triggers to being in an asthmatic state.

If you have any valuable or interesting information please send it my way. I will also post any interesting articles on asthma research.