Showing posts with label "Air Pollution". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "Air Pollution". Show all posts

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

This Chemical Could Be In Your Water - A Long-Lasting Battle With Dioxins

 

Photo of a nuclear reactor factory producing Dioxin residues, given by Medical News Today.


   Dioxin comes in a shape that no other human and animal can perceive. This chemical is one of, if not, the most dangerous available chemical out in the industrial market. However, Dioxin is proven to be emitted through other methods, far beyond the industrialist scope. Presence of Dioxin was observed in a region in Germany, most specifically, a chemical production plant in the country's backyard.¹ Dioxin was disregarded, presumptuously because of the ideas of revolutionizing production. Furthermore, formations of markets and culmination of modern-day industries added onto this shrugged off chemical conflict.

Photo provided by Environmental Working Group on the topics of Dioxin production.

Dioxin's characteristics are relatively consistent. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences brands them to be a "persistent organic pollutant.²" This is due to the fact that one of their characteristics contributes to slow degradation upon being released into the environment. Some of the human concerns across the world regarding Dioxins "originate from waste incineration, both commercial and municipal," states the Environmental Protection Agency.³ In spite of this, Dioxins internationally remain, Germany's aforementioned history with Dioxin being a good example.


Photo of a Ohio Derailment Site that was reported to contain a "carcinogenic chemical," provided by The Guardian.

Observing Dioxin at an international scope leads to some of the most populated countries across the world inheriting these chemicals. One of these said countries is China, a manufacturing industrialist powerhouse that holds the weight of contributing to phones, household appliances, and much more. A study in 2021 was conducted by scientists at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, housed in Beijing, China. "The first PCDD/Fs emission inventory in 2004.. was 10.2 kg," scientists report, "..Dioxin reduction of China would be of great use to the world."⁴ China continues to battle with Dioxins as of 2025, especially when it houses a massive population on the country's own soil.


Demographic provided by the Eco-Environmental Science Center in Beijing, China.

As stated from the Dioxin conflict with China, Dioxin emissions and methods for Dioxin waste dumps are severely detrimental to humans as well.  This is in part of Dioxin's long-lasting survival amidst living in the atmosphere. The National Institute of Health further analyzed the effects of Dioxin, "Adverse health effects of Dioxin exposure .. cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, porphyria .. altered growth factor signaling and altered metabolism.¹" Dioxin, through unsupervised waste dumping, "can get into drinking water through chemical factories," the Environmental Protection Agency adds.



Photo provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Dioxin, as a chemical threat, has been recognized by multiple governments across the world. Similarly, the United States government prevents the manufacturing, production, and trade of Dioxin products. European governments partook in the interest of regulating Dioxin chemicals, but have not successfully prevented or halted the chemicals production.⁵ Regardless of European factories comprising to being the backbone of the continent, regulatory levels of Dioxin is incomparably weak. Dioxin, as a chemical alone, must cease existing overall. Dioxin, overall, harms not only human wellbeing, but animal wellbeing as well. Maintaining Dioxin production is bearing the weight of a massive loss that is to come. Thus, action towards Dioxin internationally has yet to show proper progression.


References


¹ White, S. S., & Birnbaum, L. S. (2009, October). An overview of the effects of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds on vertebrates, as documented in human and ecological epidemiology. Journal of environmental science and health. Part C, Environmental carcinogenesis & ecotoxicology reviews. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2788749/#S4


² U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Dioxins. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/dioxins 


³ Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Learn About Dioxin. EPA. https://www.epa.gov/dioxin/learn-about-dioxin


⁴ Jorg, R. (Ed.). (n.d.). Global status of dioxin emission and China’s role in reducing the emission. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304389421012292


⁵ Regulation - 2017/644 - en - EUR-lex. EUR. (n.d.). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2017/644/oj/eng


Image References

MediLexicon International. (n.d.). Dioxins: Definition, dangers, sources, types, and more. Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/17685#sources

Dioxin | environmental Working Group. (n.d.-a). https://www.ewg.org/research/dioxin

Guardian News and Media. (2023, March 17). Levels of carcinogenic chemical near Ohio derailment site far above safe limit. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/17/norfolk-southern-derailment-east-palestine-ohio-carcinogenic-chemical-levels

 

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

More Air Pollution Equals Shorter telomeres

Image result for telomeres shortening

There has been growing evidence that large exposure time to air pollution can result in developing health problems. Such as cancer, heart diseases, and respiratory illnesses. In a study done by JAMA Pediatrics, they have observed that moms that were exposed to air pollution for a longer period of time during pregnancy resulted in their babies having shorter telomeres. A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration. This study was conducted on 641 newborns whose mothers were exposed to high levels of air pollution. It was determined that these newborns were born with 8.8% shorter telomeres in their cord blood cells and 13.2% shorter telomeres in their placenta cells than those whose mothers were exposed to less pollution.
Air pollution had the strongest impact on the babies when the mothers were exposed during the second trimester. Surprisingly mothers that were exposed to high levels of air pollution during their third trimester resulted in the babies being born with longer telomeres to those whose mothers were exposed to less air pollution. It is not yet clear how these newborns would have benefitted from air pollution that would increase their telomeres. This study indicated that these newborns would age faster throughout their lifetime because of having shorter telomeres. A couple other factors to keep in mind are that air pollution could have not been the only leading cause of for the shortening of the babies telomeres, events such as stress, smoking, violence can have an impact on the baby's development.

http://time.com/4984038/air-pollution-pregnancy-babies-aging/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3370421/