[Market-farming] Dont wait for the paperback!

Pat Meadows pat at meadows.pair.com
Fri Sep 14 15:02:01 EDT 2007


On Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:41:02 -0400, you wrote:

>Thanks, Pat.
>
>I've been hearing things about coal mines that are burning and can't 
>seem to be extinguished. As I recall, at least some of them are in 
>China. Do you or anyone on the list know more about them? 

I don't know anything about them; the only coal mine I know of that's
burning is (or was) in Pennsylvania.  I don't know if it's still burning. I
can't remember the name of the town either.


>Of course, 
>burning coal mines were not on the tour when I was in China in the fall 
>of  '02. There are indeed serious pollution problems in China, pollution 
>of all types. I also had the opportunity to travel in Yugoslavia in the 
>late 80's. The coal soot on everything in Zagreb was startling to say 
>the least.
>

My husband is British.  You know, thousands of people used to die in London
from the pollution when they had a (weather) inversion trapping the air.
Thousands.  The UK has cleaned its air up a lot since then - it has 'gone
smokeless' (no solid fuel allowed in many areas).

We have a problem with wood smoke; our neighbors on both sides burn wood (I
have asthma).  One of them burns it properly in a good stove; no smoke.  No
odor.  The other neighbor's stove sends out huge clouds of thick white
smoke and when the wind is in my direction, I cannot breathe; I get an
asthmatic attack.  It's awful.  We see his wood pile, it's decent wood, it
seems to be seasoned - I think the stove must just be defective, very
cheap, or installed badly.

Wood smoke is NOT benign; it has the same effect as smoking cigarettes.
Small particles in smoke lodge in the lungs and can enter the blood stream
from there.  This worsens asthma, and *causes* lung cancer, heart disease,
and emphysema.  The most susceptible are the very young, the old, and
people with asthma, of course.  But it can have a bad effect on anyone.  

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/92046.pdf - This document is by the Washington
State Department of Ecology and it's the best concise description of the
health effects of wood smoke that I have found. It's irritating that they
put the glossary first, but you can just skip that part. The rest is well
worth reading.

Pat
-- 
http://www.entire-of-itself.blogspot.com/
In Pennsylvania's Northern Tier, northeastern USA.

'Be the change that you want to see in the world'
Mohandas Gandhi



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