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Environment/Energy

From AJC: Politics of Asthma Have Outrun the Science of the Condition

This was posted in April 19,2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  Dr. Brown is a retired professor from the University of Georgia and has written books and many articles on the environment showing great improvements have taken place the last forty years.

Along with the non-existent mercury pollution from U. S. power plants, asthma is another target of the U. S. E. P. A.  This is a response to the EPA’s quest for a perfect world.  You may find this article or other article by Prof. Brown helpful in the future.

Politics of asthma have outrun the science of the condition

By R. Harold Brown

Earth Day slowly has expanded to Earth Week, and this year it brings to Georgia the administrator of the epitome of government mission creep, Lisa Jackson of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But don’t expect a celebration of this nation’s environmental advances. It’s more likely to be an indictment of industry, power plants and Georgians’ lifestyle choices (driving) for “asthma-causing pollution.”

This criticism happens every year as the May-September “Ozone Season” arrives. Newspapers tie high ozone days to asthma, as they have for nearly 30 years. Headlines such as “Kids with asthma head indoors during smog season” reinforce the association. Unfortunately, it’s largely a myth, built mainly on statistical associations between high ozone on hot summer days and hospitalizations for asthma. Yet summer is the season of fewest asthma hospitalizations.

Hundreds of experiments show associations between ozone and asthma. Most show weak associations, probably confounded with unknown factors that affect asthma. Some studies of air pollutants showed no associations with asthma.

Read the rest here

— James H. Rust

James H. Rust is a policy advisor for The Heartland Institute, a retired professor of nuclear engineering, and an outspoken critic of unnecessary alarmism over man-made global warming. He funds several scholarships for students majoring in chemical engineering at Purdue University. He currently is delivering a talk titled “America's Failed Energy Policies and The Reason Why.”

  • Ski789

    Mr. Rust… how much did you get paid by energy companies to write this “academic” work?

    • Anonymous

      I have been retired for almost 30 years as a nuclear engineering professor at Georgia Tech. Nobody has offered me any money at anytime except for my paychecks. I am supporting three engineering scholarships at Purdue University and other engineering schools. If someone would offer me money for anything, I would direct them to donations to these scholarship funds. Possibly you are a charitable individual.

      I write papers on energy policy to try to inform the public about the bad choices being made by our governments. A country with the greatest energy resources of any nation in the world is at risk to having energy shortages and higher energy prices that will leave us unable to compete with other country’s economies.

      James H. Rust

    • Brian G Valentine

      Mr Rust is correct and the CDC identify innumerable causes of “asthma” including auto-immune responses and the bottom line is, base load power plants prevent more diseases than you could list by providing the capability of clean water and sewer to those least able to afford much in a consumer society.

      Any you, by the way, pay me to say this. I am a Federal employee. Thanks for your support.