GLOBAL AIR POLLUTION: Getting Worse

There are very few places in the world where you can breathe air clean enough to meet WHO standards. The focus is on a type of air pollution called PM2.5, which is smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, and mostly comes from auto emission and burning of biomass and fossil fuels. This fine particulate matter is associated with a wide range of heart and lung disorders, plus cancers.

In the study, scientists examined pollution data from monitoring stations in 6,475 cities in 117 countries and territories.

Only 3.4% got an acceptable grade.
93 cities had PM2.5 concentrations 10 times higher than WHO standards.
Central and South Asia had 46 of the world's most polluted cities.
In Africa only one of 65 cities examined met WHO air quality standards.
Asia? Only 4 of 1887 cities.
Europe should be okay, right? Nope. Only 55 of 1588 cities achieve this.
What about the USA?

This report said: not a pretty picture.
2408 American cities climbed from 9.6 in 2020 to 10.3.
While Los Angeles was the worst, the average level dropped 6%.
The West Coast overall had the highest AQI in the country.
Atlanta and Minneapolis saw significant increases.

Bangladesh, Chad, Pakistan, Tajikistan and India had air pollution levels at least 10 times higher than WHO standards.
Still terrible, but more than half of Chinese cities reported reduced air pollution from 2020 to 2021. I wonder if this pandemic had anything to do with that.
Could it be that WHO standards are too strict? They did set new ones only in 2021. Their aim was to save lives.

Globally, air pollution is estimated to cause 7 million premature deaths/year.
Interestingly enough, this COVID-19 pandemic has thus far killed almost 7 million, but over a three-year period.

People in Hawaii brag about our fabulous weather. However, we do have volcanic eruptions, and there are times when the wind flow moves these emissions rom the Big Island to Honolulu and Kauai, such as yesterday.

Readings were as high as an Air Quality Index of 105, but only on the Big Island. The Honolulu you see below was around 65, the worst I've seen in many years. This the view from where I post this blog.

I yesterday also checked the AQI for the World, and there are places with significantly higher readings:

Bayero University, Nigeria 2735!!!
Nouna, Burkino Faso 2695!!!
Sanampura, India 624.
Gwalior, India 355
Changde, China 324
Kolkata, India 321
Zhuzhao China 315
Lahore, Pakistan 301
Manitoba, Canada 248
Cairo, Egupt 248
Area between Seoul and Incheon, S. Korea 150-200.
St. Paul, Minnesota 164
Indianapolis, Indiana 157
Lima, Peru 132
Kyoto, Japan 127
Chiba, Japan 117

If Honolulu looked so terrible and was only at 65, wow, the rest of the world must, indeed, be in poor shape.

I further checked and saw that an AQI above 500 is rare, so those African scores look out of place.
In the past, Beijing has reached 755.
The 25 worst air quality cities can only be found in India (the worst of this worst being Bhiwadi at 106 average for the year), Pakistan and China.
Whoops, latest 2022 average AQIs for the past year:

Dammam, Saudi Arabia 124
Lahore, Pakistan 112
Dhaka, Bangladesh 85
Delhi, India 84
Regarding the sudden appearance of Saudi Arabia, during our recent stay in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, I did notice that air pollution was definitely a problem.

Most air polluted areas are in dark red, so maybe those startling African numbers could be real. This map is from the World Health Organization, and notice how they have shielded China.

While that analysis at the top had bad things to say about the U.S., that green color from this map must indicate that the USA is relatively in better shape. Give credit to the 1967 Clean Air Act.

The worst is still Los Angeles-Long Beach, with Bakersfield #2.
The lowest led by Urban Honolulu, with Maui next and Cheyenne, Wyoming following.

The cleanest air in the world can be found in Zurich, Reykjavik, Launceston (Australia), Honolulu, Bergen (Norway), Wollongong (Australia) and Trondheim (Norway).

What is the solution? How will global warming affect air pollution? There will be a part 2 to this.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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