Beatrice Trum Hunter - Air and Your Health: Clean Air Is Vital to Your Health

Dear Reader:

Welcome to the Basic Earth Guide series! As you know, the natural world is becoming degraded at an alarming rate. Hardly a day passes without a new headline about the effects of global warming, species loss, and other distressing environmental news. Incredibly, during every second of every day, more than an acre of the worlds precious and irreplaceable rain forests is being lost. The depletion of beneficial oxygen-producing plants, which are part of the rain forests ecosystem, makes us vulnerable to the 6,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere each year. The subtraction of oxygen, and the addition of carbon dioxide, adversely affect everyones health and quality of life. This example is but one of a number of environmental problems that beset us. Residues of toxic pollutants, ranging from pesticides in our food; chemicals in our homes such as cleaning agents, sealants, solvents, formaldehyde, and lead-contaminated paint; gas leakages from cooking stoves; gases from plastics; fragrances in consumer products; to a host of other volatile substances, both indoors and outdoors, affect our health. Over time, chronic exposures to these substances compromise our immune systems and contribute to various illnesses and health problems. Some experts caution that we have only one generation of time to reverse conditions in our polluted environment, or we shall experience irreversible damage. Many people feel that the problems are on such a vast scale, are so complex and overwhelming, that the individuals efforts are futile. They are wrong.

The Basic Earth Guide series demonstrates that you, as an individual, can take meaningful action. Each Basic Earth Guide sets forth a group of ecological problems you face daily, and provides alternative environmentally sound practical solutions. Each Basic Earth Guide provides the best researched ideas, and up-to-date information, to help you transform your day-to-day living into an ecologically sounder environment. The works are written simply and lucidly for easy comprehension. Among topics covered are renewable energy, green building and retrofitting, home care and maintenance, personal care products, and ecological lifestyles.

As a reader of Basic Earth Guides, you will become better informed and motivated to improve the environmental quality of your life, as well as that of those around you. There can be a new world out there! We thank you for allowing us to introduce it to you.

Green regards,

Tom Hirsch, series editor

P.S. Please let us know about additional subjects that interest you, for us to consider as future Basic Earth Guides. You can reach us at .

The information contained in this book is based upon the research and personal and professional experiences of the author. It is not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician or other healthcare provider. Any attempt to diagnose and treat an illness should be done under the direction of a healthcare professional.

The publisher does not advocate the use of any particular healthcare protocol but believes the information in this book should be available to the public. The publisher and author are not responsible for any adverse effects or consequences resulting from the use of the suggestions, preparations, or procedures discussed in this book. Should the reader have any questions concerning the appropriateness of any procedures or preparations mentioned, the author and the publisher strongly suggest consulting a professional healthcare advisor.

Series Editor: Thomas Hirsch Typesetter: Gary A. Rosenberg

Series Cover Designer: Mike Stromberg

Basic Health Publications, Inc.

8200 Boulevard East North Bergen, NJ 07047 1-800-575-8890

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hunter, Beatrice Trum.

Air and your health / by Beatrice Trum Hunter.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 13: 978-1-59120-637-8

ISBN 1-59120-057-1

1. AirPollutionHealth aspects. 2. Indoor air pollutionHealth aspects. 3. LungsDiseasesEnvironmental aspects. I. Title.

RA576.H83 2004

615.9'02dc22

2004004888

Copyright 2004 by Beatrice Trum Hunter

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the copyright owner.

Printed in the United States of America

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