Friday, June 14, 2013

Food for thought

On March 16th. Toronto Star reporter, John Upton, describes what it feels like in the morning when he opens the door of his apartment in New Delhi, " Fog drenched clumps of soot, ozone molecules, and microscopic bundles of nitrogen oxides flow into my chest, where some become lodged. Some of these particles might give me lung cancer. Others will enter my bloodstream. The airborne detritus puts me in danger of bronchitis, asthma, a lung infection, even high blood pressure and dementia." Yet New Delhi ranks in 12th. place on the list of the world's most polluted cities. Ahwaz in Iran holds the coveted position as the world's worst, the pollution being five times greater than that of New Delhi. In 2010, 3.2 million people died because of air pollution according to a study
conducted by the British Medical Association journal, Lancet. In "People of The Abyss", that Jack London wrote in 1902, that the dome of St. Paul's
Cathedral was being corroded by sulphur fumes and wonders what it does to one's lungs. Have things changed that much? As long as capitalism exists conditions like these will not only exist but be much sought after by the manufacturers. John Ayers.

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