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piqer for: Global finds Health and Sanity Doing Good
Bangalore-based Rashmi Vasudeva's journalism has appeared in many Indian and international publications over the past decade. A features writer with over nine years of experience heading a health and fitness supplement in a mainstream Indian newspaper, her niche areas include health, wellness, fitness, food, nutrition and Indian classical Arts.
Her articles have appeared in various publications including Mint-Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Deccan Herald (mainstream South Indian newspaper), Smart Life (Health magazine from the Malayala Manorama Group of publications), YourStory (India's media technology platform for entrepreneurs), Avantika (a noir arts and theatre magazine), ZDF (a German public broadcasting company) and others.
In 2006, she was awarded the British Print-Chevening scholarship to pursue a short-term course in new-age journalism at the University of Westminster, U.K. With a double Masters in Globalisation and Media Studies from Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales, U.K., she has also dabbled in academics, travel writing and socio-cultural studies. Mother to a frisky toddler, she hums 'wheels on the bus' while working and keeps a beady eye on the aforementioned toddler's antics.
Dirty Air And Diseases: As The World Debates, The Noose Tightens
The real dementors are in the air. Despite more than half a century of hollering by climate champions and scientists alike, airborne pollution remains a big threat and is poised to get bigger.
A spate of studies have found strong links between dirty air and a range of ailments; not just sicknesses related to lung health but less obvious ones such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes and even dementia.
The chronology of this piece is riveting as it traces the history of air pollution research that began after a large-scale tragedy in a small mill town in America and arrives at the current raging debate about anti-smog rules. Curiously, it took decades for researchers to realize that deaths caused by bad air were going undetected – “lost in the background noise of mortality statistics.”
Meanwhile, the evidence is accumulating. Here are some pointers the article elaborates on:
1. Each increase of 10 micrograms of fine particulates per cubic meter of air increases risk of heart attack or stroke by 76 per cent.
2. The connection between obesity and pollution is neither direct nor obvious. And yet many findings offer hints that people living with constant exposure to traffic, for instance, are more likely to be overweight.
3. A study earlier this year tracked more than 45,000 African-American women. Those who were most exposed to air pollution were about 20 per cent more likely to develop diabetes (after adjusting for other factors).
4. One of the earliest markers of Parkinson’s disease is the loss of the ability to distinguish smells. Today, researchers are digging deeper to understand this mystery and how poisons in the air may be accelerating cognitive decline.
Like the article reminds us, The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to delay the implementation of new standards for the Clean Air Act. One hopes findings such as these can act as a crucial counterpoint to such delusional and far-reaching political decisions.
