Asia's air pollution dousing western United States while ours is jet-streamed to Europe
Printer-friendly version
We've been hearing for some time about the airborne transport of air pollutants from Asia -- particularly fast-developing China -- to the western United States. A new study reveals that the pollution, already shown to be arriving in sufficient quantities to undercut U.S. efforts to reduce air quality, is on the upswing.
Not only that, but the eastern United States' airborne gunk is making its way to Asia. And apparently Asia is looking nervously over its shoulder at emissions coming from Europe.
Based on some 100,000 pollution measurements over a quarter century, the new study published Jan. 21 in the journal Nature specifically points to Asia's contribution to ozone pollution affecting those of us living along the Left Coast and in the Rocky Mountain states.
Study co-author Dan Jaffe of the University of Washington-Bothell has been studying the bad Asian air for years, slowly building a case that it has effects right here in Rain City as well as across the West. I caught up with him this afternoon, and he explained the significance of the new research:
This is the first time anyone’s been able to quantitatively identify that the amount of ozone coming from Asia is increasing. We’ve seen ozone many, many times, but we’ve never had a long enough or complete enough record to measure an increase.
In earlier efforts, scientists looked for Asian ozone going up, but failed to pinpoint a statistically significant increase.
But China's massive air pollution problems are no secret, and Jaffe acknowledged:
Given what’s happening in China, this is not a shocking result.
Still, if you want to solve a problem, you first have to document it.
One long-documented problem the new study brought to mind is PCBs in Puget Sound. We know PCBs are still used in Asia, and that Puget Sound has long been plagued by PCB contamination that started around the time of World War II. I also know that some scientists studying Puget Sound a few years ago concluded -- based on some fairly back-of-the-envelope calculations, as I recall -- that the contribution of airborne PCBs from Asia was probably not a big very factor as far as PCBs in Puget Sound are concerned. Keep working on digging out the stuff buried in the bottom of the Sound, they advised.
Now, PCBs are not something Jaffe's studies have covered. But he does keep up on work in that area and he thinks concentrating on the high levels of PCBs in the sediments instead of small concentrations wafting over from Asia is a sound approach for the Sound.
I was alerted to the new study in a story by Les Blumenthal of McClatchy Newspapers. I also found scientist Kathy Law's piece in Nature commenting on the new research to be worthwhile.
-- Robert McClure
Wealth & Poverty | February 2013
End of the Line
“It was just common knowledge – when you turn 18, you’re done,” Sharayah Lane said. “After the checks stopped coming, we all went our separate ways."
End of the Line is a new series by Claudia Rowe asking what happens when teens get too old for foster care in Washington State.
Photo Credit: Jon Connell/Flickr
Environment | January 2013
Sharecroppers of the Sea
Meet America's newest sharecroppers. Guys like Jared Bright who vie for control of the Pacific fishing industry's lower rungs, the only rungs that seem to be left. They don't own the halibut, not even when it lands in their boats.
Lee van der Voo uncovers absentee landlords, brokers and bankers, and fish quota that costs more than your house — realities that fly in the face of more official, rosy portrayals.
Health | November 2012
The Mystery of MS
Kids with multiple sclerosis, historically an adult disorder, offer researchers a set of intriguing new clues about the disease that could lead, eventually, to better treatments.
With adolescent MS on the rise in the Northwest, Carol Smith meets a young patient who is learning to live with the disease at the age of 16, and the doctors and scientists trying to keep her healthy.
Environment | October 2012
Clean Water: The Next Act
In 1972, Congress enacted legislation to end water pollution. Forty years later, American rivers and lakes are still badly contaminated, and new threats to clean water are outpacing the Act's enforcers. Follow along as InvestigateWest and EarthFix investigate.
Immigration | September 2012
Center of Detention
The Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Wash., generates millions in revenue for its private operator by processing thousands of deportation cases each year. Oscar Estrada is one of those cases.
Environment | June 2012
Parks for Sale
As local governments trade away public parkland, the safeguards put in place by the Land and Water Conservation Fund to protect that land are full of holes.
Robert McClure tracked a handful of park conversions for more than three years, reviewed thousands of pages of documents and compiled a database of over 40,000 park grants.
Public Health | January 2012
The Prescription Epidemic
As Washington enacts the strongest prescription drug law in the country, InvestigateWest presents a six-month investigation into the origins of the prescription epidemic, the challenge it poses for communities, and what lessons other states might learn.
Check out the full list of news outlets publishing the story, and visit KCTS.org to watch Prescription for Abuse, a KCTS 9/InvestigateWest documentary and roundtable with prescription drug experts.