Autism and asthma are highly emotional subjects that can and are used to rally an emotional reaction from a significant segment of the population. Michael Savage paid the price for his lack of consideration for the issue. At some point a support group evolves into a self serving 501C. We could spend ourselves broke supporting deserving causes and the deserving might not ever see any help.
“Just how many ways are cars killing our children?”
That’s not what the researchers said. Did you read the article? Here is a quote from Dr. Volk:
“We’re not saying that air pollution causes autism. We’re saying it may be a risk factor for autism,” says Heather Volk, lead author on the new study and an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California. “Autism is a complex disorder and it’s likely there are many factors contributing,”
This means it is worth further study to determine causality. The Journal of General Psychiatry is published by AMA and articles are peer reviewed. The reference that Time Magazine reported on is a credible source. But you are getting carried away with it. I’m not taking you seriously because you are not a serious student of the issues you espouse.
The scientific community tends to study things in isolation, I think looking at a combo platter would be the preferred approach. Unfortunately the combo platter approach tends to get less conclusive and more expensive.
Automobiles do have their problems but they have played an important role in making us who we are today as a country. It’s one thing to rail against autos but that shows little concern if you don’t offer alternatives. I don’t think there is any question that pollution follows automobiles as does living in a poorly ventilated house with a wood stove. To frame the issue around getting rid of something with no constructive alternative will alienated supporters of the general benefits of the atuomobile. That fire breathing, pollution causing monstrosity also expands your life in ways you never thought possible and in ways absolutely no alternative can do now. The Internal combustion motor isn’t going away anytime soon. Deal with it @localyokel.
So unless you can preach a few alternatives…
CCC strikes again. And with another out-of-left-field claim, never heard this before, anywhere.
We’ve been trolled.
Whitey, you’ve never looked better…
I saw this and had to re-post it here.
In Minneapolis now the move is on to eliminate lawn mowers, school buses, and fireplaces. Is there no end to the lunacy? Anyone ever think about just moving to a smaller city?
Did Einstein have a theory on the “momentum of human causes?” We seem to just keep running even when we run out of road. The air we breath is significantly cleaner than 40 years ago and although there is still some room for improvement some would consider shooting themselves in the foot to save their shoes from being worn out. I could enjoy a small, basic pickup with a top speed of 50 mph and a half ton capacity powered by a battery. Maybe there is a market for such a vehicle. Could one be built for less than $10,000. A neighbor has an electric golf cart that he enjoys hauling his grandchildren around the neighborhood on. It is, of course, not tagged or legal but no one minds and there is no through traffic here. Why can’t such vehicles be tagged and driven on urban streets?
Here in Mayberry #2 we have our share of lunacy,@Bing. But lawn mowers and weed eaters, etc are way off the radar. It’s spring and the pollen here is getting tough. And people with asthma don’t last long here in the spring and summer. The streets and cars will soon be yellow.
Nobody is trying to eliminate lawnmowers, but there is a move to outlaw two cycle engines still used in a lot of lawn equipment. I think it’s silly that we even have two cycle engines at all. Think about four cycle lawn mowers. With no catalytic converter or other emissions equipment, they put out as much pollution in one afternoon as an average modern car does in a year. Besides, I’ve been using an electric mower for years, and I see no reason to go back to gasoline. I have no oil to change, no air filter to clean, no spark plug to replace, no gas can to fill, no fuel stabilizer to buy, and no carburetor to rebuild every couple years. The only maintenance I have to do is to sharpen the blade every once in a while.
In terms of eliminating school buses, there are far too many old diesel engines out there that, although they burn cleaner with ultra low sulfur diesel, aren’t as clean as new diesel engines. I’m all for requiring old big dirty diesel engines to be modernized or replaced. Have you ever tried to breathe while standing behind a running school bus, or have you ever tried breathing at a truck stop while all the trucks are idling? However, I’m guessing eliminating the buses is more about saving money than it is about saving the environment.
Admit it. Fireplaces are pretty bad. Aside from the particulate pollution and smoke, there really is no less efficient way to heat your home except setting it on fire. Fireplaces are quaint, and I enjoy a good roaring fire crackling during the holiday season, but let’s face it, using your fireplace is incredibly inefficient and dirty. I wish we could find some compromise so people could use their fireplaces at least once a month during the cold months.
If they do ban the use of fireplaces, I have a good idea for a way you could still use yours. I’ve seen Florida residents with fireplaces put large cast iron candelabra in them. With 10 or 15 candles lit inside the fireplace, you don’t need to have the chimney flue open to enjoy the ambiance
I drove through Marin county (just north of eco-capital San Francisco) one night on the way north - wintertime, smoke hanging in the air from folks’ fireplaces. Cough…cough…
Kinda hard to cut an acre of grass with an electric mower and I really like the way it sounds anyway. I gotta gas fireplace so no problem there, and I don’t live in Minneapolis anyway. Now if someone wanted to outlaw noisey motorcycles . . . Naw, irritating as they are, I’d still vote to leave people alone. Feed your goats and chickens and ride your bike to work but don’t insist everyone else do the same.
I’m ok with gas mowers, but no need now for 2 stroke ones, OHV 4 strokes are not too bad, pollution-wise.
Local yokel, you have absolutely NO idea how good we have it W/R/T air pollution.
I’m not old enough, but growing up in Pittsburgh, I heard the stories: lights on at noon, two pair of white shirts to work, can’t dry clothes on the line. Urban air in general (and one city’s in particular) is at least an order of magnitude cleaner than “back in the day”···possibly mulliple orders of magnitude.
Let me ask a related question: do we now have the cleanest urban air in recorded history? I mean, the population used to be much less, so the countryside may have been pristine, but urban areas have had coal-fired foundrys, smithies, etc since the iron age. Also, home heating has historically been wood, coal, peat–heck, even dung(!)
(All without benefit of “scrubbers,” mind you.)
So is our air purer than what Julius Caeser huffed in his salad years?
Hmmm, brings back memories now. In school it’d be fun to go outside for 7:00 biology class and breath in that clean air coming from the Morrell packing plant. It covered the whole town of Sioux Falls. Then of course in Ft. Jackson in the winter time in the wee hours of the morning breathing in the dual aromas of the coal smoke and pancakes from the mess hall. Yep, I’ll take school buses and wood fireplaces any day.
I have a hill in my back yard. You either have to have a 2-stroke motor…or a motor with a pressurized oil system…or the angle will prevent the engine from being properly lubricated. 2-stroke engines have their place.
Hmm…most all mowers are, and have been, 4 stroke. I can see a problem for, say, chainsaws, but 4 stroke mowers have been going up, down, and around hills for decades.
@texases, I also have a steep hill in my backyard. 3 mowers met a premature death before I got a mower with a pressurized oil system. When the oil drains away from the piston on the splash system, you don’t get lubrication. @MikeinNH is correct.
but 4 stroke mowers have been going up, down, and around hills for decades.
And I’ve seen 4-stroke mowers without a pressurized oil system (like in most small mowers)…who’s engines are trashed after 5 years…where as the 2-stroke mower didn’t have a problem…mainly with steep hills…where the engine oil is no longer sitting where it should.