Ethics and Environment Case Study Project
Learning Team C
Lynette Barnhart, Russell Cortez, Eric Hiram, Domoniqué Shaw
SCI/362
March 28, 2011
Howard Schmidt, M.S., M.B.A.
Ethics and Environment Case Study Project
When air pollution is mentioned, many think of the city Los Angeles. However, Beijing China and Mexico City have become well known for air pollution, with Beijing topping the list of worst air quality in the world (Raven, Berg, & Hassenzahl. 2010). At the same time Mexico City is no stranger to air pollution, ranking fourth of major metropolitan areas in the world (Raven, et.al, 2010). Leaders in developing countries have a strong desire to become more industrialized in order to compete with
…show more content…
The priority to improve the air quality for both Mexico City and Beijing has escalated since 2002. Stakeholders are receiving realistic and accurate reports of the current living conditions versus the benefits of acting upon a plan of change to make Mexico City and Beijing livable cities. Long Term Effects If the pollutant level is high enough, most people will experience some combination of sinus congestion, runny nose, tearing/burning eyes, or dry cough because these are irritative phenomena, not allergic. (IDRC (ND), 2011) These symptoms are not only pesky to those who have allergies, but to healthy people who are typically living healthy lives. While the short term effects may be manageable in some annoying ways, the long term effects are quite daunting. Children are some of the highest effected group of people related to environmental sickness, as their bodies aren’t capable of enduring the high levels of smog and pollutants. The children of Beijing and Mexico City face living as an asthmatic or other life-long respiratory problems due to lack of lung growth throughout childhood. The other groups of effected people that have the highest and most dangerous long term effects are those with a heart problem or coronary artery disease. The trigger of contaminated fumes circulating in the air
As the exploration of the industrial development and increased speed of the urban sprawl in Beijing, many severe environmental issues attribute mainly to the anthropocentric activities have been come out of the scene. One of them is the air pollution. Air pollution has been regarded as the most severe environment issue in China since it has already threatened to physical health, especially for the respiratory tract and lung. “In January 2013, Beijing experienced historical heavy air pollution. In this particular month, very few days were observed with blue sky.” (Lijian Han et.al., 2015) According to the analysis of the driving factors, “the population grew fast, and energy consumption and the number of vehicles increased rapidly” (Ju Zhang et.al., 2010), these factors add together can make the air quality worse than any one of them separately can. Firstly, it has been an undoubted truth that more and more people originally lived in rural has been moved to core urban of Beijing since there are more opportunities in there. Therefore, the huge explosion of urban population with more energy release and more CO2 exhalation is seen as an inevitably primary factor causing the bad air quality. What’s more, as the population
According to the EPA pollution recommendations, when a city reaches an air quality index (AQI) of over 400, all people should avoid going outdoors. Beijing’s highest AQI is 895. This impacts the daily lives of Beijing citizens immensely. Air pollution has been related to increased cases of cancer, heart disease, stroke and other respiratory illnesses. It is also associated with asthma in children.
Did you know many upper respiratory diseases such as asthma and others diseases like cataracts and skin cancer are aggravated by air pollution. The NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) states that “the following air pollutants are common triggers of asthma, ground level ozone, sulfur dioxide, fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxide.” Air pollution is the presence in or introduction into the air of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects.
In Mexico the majority of the population is exposed daily to fames produced by 3.6 million vehicles. The worst time of air pollution in Mexico is near the end if
What about children’s lungs? Nitrogen oxides, which are emitted from smokestacks, are known to irritate the respiratory tract. They also react with other pollutants to produce ozone, which is a key component of smog. And hazy, smoggy, ozone-filled air is just terrible for kids with asthma. There is particulate matter, especially the tiny particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers, which studies show can trigger asthma attacks. Children are especially vulnerable because they tend to breathe through their mouths, which means less filtering of pollutants by nose hair; they tend to hang out more outside, where levels of these pollutants are usually higher; and they run around a lot, which means they take in more nasty stuff and inhale it deep into their
The University of Miami case was one of the biggest financial scandals in the past year. Former UM Football Booster, Nevin Shapiro, orchestrated a $930 million Ponzi scheme, with which numerous NCAA rules were violated. Shapiro allegedly provided cash, goods, prostitutes, assorted favors and on one occasion, an abortion to University of Miami football players. This paper will examine the various legal and ethical implications involved in this case, including an analysis of the university’s social responsibility, and an overview of the scandal in terms of three ethical theories: utilitarianism, Kant’s
In 1992, the United Nations described Mexico City’s air as the most polluted on the planet. Six years later,earned its name “the most dangerous city in the world for children”. But despite more than a decade of dangerous pollution, a haze hangs over the city most days, obscuring the surrounding snow-capped mountains and endangering the health of its inhabitants. Geography interferes with human population to produce a poisonous scenario. Located in the crater of an extinct volcano, Mexico City is about 2,240 metres above sea level. The lower levels of oxygen at this altitude cause incomplete fuel in engines and higher types of compounds. Intense sunlight turns these into abnormal smog levels. Overall, the smog prevents the sun from heating up atmosphere enough to penetrate the ozone layer above the city. Solving this problem has been a priority for Mexico. Recent efforts to lower levels of emissions have been successful. In the 1990s, the government introduced air quality improvement programs that included a rotating one-weekday ban on car use. On days of high pollution, the ban extends to every second day. In addition to this program, car owners must have their vehicles certified every six months.
Among its short-term health effects, according to cleanhouston.org, are reduce ability to breathe, inflammation of the lung tissue, as well as irritation of the nose and throat, and damage to the respiratory cells. If well this problems do not represent a life-threatening problem for most of the people, children and the elderly, who do not possess a very strong respiratory system. It is been proved that pollution has effects on the children illness already existing in the elderly can be aggravated by pollution, which can put their lives on severe
Introduction: The skies of the Central Valley are covered with bad air pollution that can easily be spotted from long distances. In recent years we believed the cloud of pollution came from factories and power plants, but a recent study says differently. The effects on the other side of the continent affects us too. The negative effects that have transcribed from the bad air quality are shortage of breath because our lungs got weaker from inhaling bad air which has led to cases of asthma. Children are hurt by the bad air quality too, since they are outside playing and inhaling the bad air to their small lungs. The actions we and big industries need to take to make sure we lower the pollution
Moreover, acute health effects were observed at levels common in many us cites such as Los Angeles, as well as, below current U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Overall these studies shown respiratory effect increase parallel with pollution levels, with a near linear dose-response
1. Here, the ethical dilemma is if it is right choice to save the lives of others that stuck on the pediatric wing of the hospital, at the danger of losing those human life rescuers themselves.
Air pollution can affect our health in many ways with both short-term and long-term effects. Different groups of individuals are affected by air pollution in different ways. Some individuals are much more sensitive to pollutants than are others. Young children and elderly people often suffer more from the effects of air pollution. Air pollution has many effects on human health, affecting a number of different systems and organs. Effects range from minor upper respiratory irritation to chronic respiratory and heart disease, lung
I am pursing my research in an environmental toxicology lab because I would like to understand the effect of air pollution have on human and animal cardiovascular health. Growing as a child in Taiwan, I remember vividly that I always had to wear masks to prevent allergies such as watery eyes, nasal congestion, and running nose that were caused by the dusty and air pollution in the city whenever I went into the city. I was not the only one who was affected by the quality of air in the city. My younger brother also has trouble with the dusty city air. He had an environmental triggered asthma and had to use rescue bronchodilator inhalers to relieve his symptoms. Due to lack of government regulation in air quality and urban greenery establishment
As of mid year of 2016 Mexico City is ranked 17th in pollution index in the world as reported by numbeo. The pollution found in Mexico City is largely tropospheric pollutants which is mainly caused by industry, transportation, and many other man made pollutants. These pollutants have a largely negative impact on many aspects of the world. Not only is this pollution bad for the environment, and contributes to the global warming issue, but it has negative impacts on the people living in Mexico City. One of the reasons pollution in Mexico City is as bad as it is today is its geographical positioning relative to the surrounding mountains. Mexico City is largely surrounded by them. This terrain
Smog pollution has been around since the start of industrialization, and there are many cities that suffer from its consequences. Among them, Beijing is singled out as the hotspot these days. In the past winter, an unprecedented amount of smog cloaked Beijing, filling the city with noxious air and causing convulsive coughing among the local residents. Not only does smog cause inconvenience in transportation by reducing visibility, but also, according to a study at UC Berkeley, smog has a huge impact on people’s health: “people living in the smoggiest cities were 30 percent more likely to have succumbed to lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis, emphysema and pneumonia.” In his essay, “The Tragedy of The