EcoReport – August 4, 2023

  Hello and welcome to EcoReport. For WFHB, I’m Julianna Dailey.  And I’m Frank Marshalek. In this edition of EcoReport, we have the second half of a discussion between Environmental Correspondent Zyro Roze and Delaney Barber – Outreach, Energy and Climate Coordinator for the Hoosier Environmental Council. And now for your environmental reports: WTHR of Indianapolis reports Indiana sees nearly double the number of air quality alerts in 2023 than 2022. New numbers released by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management show it’s a more volatile summer than normal for Hoosiers. Feeling like you’ve suffered a smokier summer than last year? It’s not just your imagination. The state’s leading environmental organization has recorded nearly double the amount of air quality alerts in 2023 than 2022.  Officials with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management revealed while they issued a total of 13 Air Quality Action Days in 2022, we have already seen nearly double that number well before summer’s end.  So far in 2023, 25 Air Quality Action Days have been issued. Of those 25 total alerts, 14 were issued because of ozone pollution, and 10 were issued because of particle pollution from fine particles, or PM 2.5 pollution. Air quality alerts issued by IDEM can be triggered by both particle and ground level ozone pollution, although 2023 did record one air quality alert so far that resulted from both types of pollution.  Particle pollution has a single pollution source, like soot from fires, dust, factory debris or fossil fuel emissions, which are all examples of particulate matter. In the most recent case, the Canadian wildfires would be the single pollution source that’s sending an excess of fine particulate matter into the air. Exposure to PM 2.5 has been linked to premature death in people with heart or lung disease, nonfatal heart attacks, and irregular heartbeats. One study from Harvard found more exposure to PM 2.5 is linked to higher rates of death from COVID-19.  The Indiana Legislature is not particularly concerned with air quality as demonstrated by their total support of the coal industry and their efforts to marginalize wind and solar. —Norm Holy According to PBS, of all extreme weather conditions, heat is the deadliest. It kills more people in the U.S. in an average year than hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined. The human body has a built-in cooling mechanism – sweat. But that system can only do so much, especially in soaring temperatures with high humidity. When your body is exposed to heat, it will try to cool itself down by redirecting more blood to the skin, says Ollie Jay, a professor of heat and health at the University of Sydney, where he directs the Heat and Health Research Incubator. But that means less blood and less oxygen are going to your gut. If these conditions go on long enough, your gut can become more permeable. So, nasty things like endotoxins that usually reside and stay inside the gut start leaking out of the gut, entering the circulation. And that sets off a cascade of effects that ultimately result in death, Jay says. The second way people die in high heat also has to do with your body pumping more blood to the skin. Your heart has to pump faster – which can make you feel lightheaded – to ke