#30000 men have died

[mischiefwife]

[moonsorchid]

Rewatching ep.31 of Love Between Fairy and Devil and blogging my reaction

Here it is. The much dreaded episode 31. Spoilers ahead.

Nooooo. Not the grass bracelet. She made it with so much love and care for you, DFQC :(

And then DFQC orders Xunfeng – who is overjoyed when he sees people suffering – to keep an eye on her. Good choice, DFQC, what could possibly go wrong?

Perhaps it’s my idea – I tend to be biased when it comes to Xunfeng – but does he enjoy this more than he should?

Ronghao is alone with Xiao Lanhua. What could go wrong?

So he tries to kill her. But if she dies, then DFQC dies too

Oh DFQC felt her suffering and he tries to find her

Changheng! I have never been so happy to see you! (still a part of me foolishly believes that somehow she will be saved)

Poor Xiao Lanhua. She’s crawling to the sword in order to kill herself. It’s not fair :(

Everyone died during the battle. THE END

Yes, Changheng show him!

Ok, now Ronghao takes off his mask. Oh come on, Ronghao why do you have to be so handsome? I want to hate you, but I can’t. I mean you expect an evil monster behind the mask and you get one of the most handsome men in the world, all wrapped up in sadness and blurry eyes

I get anxiety by watching Xiao Lanhua slowly trying to reach for the sword, while DFQC musters all his remaining strength to reach her. And the music. Ufffff

Omg she took the sword, she took the sword. Nooooooooo :(

Yeah, show us her happy moments with Si Ming, now, break our heart even more

“Everything in this world is fate, but love.��� So Xiao Lanhua, chooses to love him, chooses to kill herself to save him. I am sad, world. I am sad

She stabbed herself :( and now he found her but it was too late

The scene where she soars into the sky, goosebumps

All the dead persons in the battlefield are revived and the statues come to life. Ronghao of course only cares about Chi Di

The mark of the curse is erased on DFQC’s forehead. This is so sad

And the first thing she says is “This is great. You are fine.” All she cares about is him. :( I can’t, I seriously can’t.

He takes her to see the sun. Like he used to take her, back when they were living in Arbiter Hall. Back then he did so to make her feel better, so that he could use her power. Now because she is dying.

“Smile.” This is heartbreaking

And it’s not only that she died, her body was gone too. Poor DFQC

DFQC has recently regained his emotions and he had to feel and understand all of them in such a short time. How can one handle all this pain and grief? Especially a person who has been devoid of feelings for almost all his life?

The 100.000 soldiers were released, there is also truce now for 100 years

Jieli lies to Shangque making him believe she was working for the Lord of Haishi from the beginning and no one threatened her. Poor Jieli and poor Shangque

Baby dragon is so pure :(

“How long did I sleep?” asks ChiDi. About 30000 years

Oh no no no no no no no, the dream scene. Noooooo this hurts more than the death scene

“I think I had a nightmare. Let me hug you.” *taking deep breaths to calm myself*

They deserved to have these moments in reality. Ugh. I get upset because we were robbed.

I can’t help thinking that the director was like “Dylan, Esther, just be yourselves.” These scenes look so much like their bts

“We have been married for 500 years.” My baby boy lives his fantasy dream life

Aaaand he is dreaming

All I have to say is that this was painful.

[one-divides-into-two]

"On [Tuesday, 22 March 1927] day a demonstration took place in Charlottenburg. The site of the demonstration-the city periphery is a stronghold of the fascists. It was expected that 5 to 10 thousand workers would attend. In the demonstration, however, at least 30000 people actually participated. And I don’t even include in that the many thousands of workers with women and children who accompanied the demonstrators on every residential block throughout its course. The police were present in vast numbers. At the beginning of the demonstration they had already had two major clashes with the police. One in Weber-Wejc, where a Red Front fighter also shot first (as the Party authority was able to determine). However, the police there conducted themselves with insolence and provocation. As the police (around 14 to 16 men) wanted to respond with gunfire, they were overwhelmed, disarmed and beaten by the crowd. Afterwards a larger body of police arrived (60 men) in support which opened fire on the demonstrators. Here, a non Party worker was killed and several wounded. The second clash happened in another district of the city. Here the workers were not shot but struck with the flat side of sabres and rubber truncheons. Here, the initiative was completely on the side of the police. [...]

Sadly, I was not fated to witness both of these great clashes. At that time I found myself at the other end of the demonstration. The demonstration went excellently. Such an infuriated, combative mood, almost marked with wild savagery as there was among the workers on that day I have never before seen in Germany. Not for nothing did Vorwärts the next day speak with hardly concealed fear of the rampant “mob” ([that is our] comrades). The Red Front Fighters stayed very disciplined. I was witness to a third clash soon after the demonstration. As the police began to shoot-first in the air, then partially also into the crowd (in the legs so as to never seriously injure)-, everyone ran except the Red Front fighters. They stood like a wall. Only the youngest of them ran onto the curb, the entire demonstration did not move once from its position. The tenacity of the Red Front Fighters exercised an immediate effect on the “fellow travellers” and these turned back to the site of the demonstration. Six seriously injured, of which two died, a dozen with real injuries, 30 men lightly injured-that is the balance sheet of the police massacre on that evening. I don’t even mention the many dozens struck by truncheon and sabre blows-there were over a hundred of these!

And despite all this the worker masses were not frightened, but even more enraged. It was really a rare and extraordinary demonstration. All should have heard how thousands of workers screamed from one throat “revenge, revenge, revenge”. The immense march was lit by torches (the demonstration ran from 8 to 11 [in the evening]), accompanied by the roar of drums and the enraged screaming of the masses, and was interrupted every 10 to 15 minutes sometimes by exchanges of fire, sometimes by small clashes. [...]

On Thursday a new demonstration was organised. […] Many Russian comrades who were not at the demonstration, told me that the CC was acting improperly with this multitude of demonstrations. In general that seems correct. In this case, however, it was already a question of honour for the Communist Party, to go on the street after the police bloodbath on Tuesday. Should the Communists allow themselves to be frightened? So the question was posed. And the Thursday demonstration gave the most decisive and compelling answer.

On the same day, the fascists attended their own demonstration in Tempelhof. The result was quite miserable. First, instead of a demonstration they held a meeting in some pub. Second, not a single fascist dared to attend this meeting in uniform! Third, only 80 people showed up!! Fourth, they held their meeting under the protection of seven huge police trucks which blocked traffic on the street. As a result the glory of the fascists very quickly faded away. The prestige of our party, trust in it and respect for it, doubtless grew in these days. The Rote Fahne is not to be found anywhere in recent days, the edition is already sold out in the early morning (our printer, however, could not increase our print run by more than 5000 for various “technical” reasons), the edition of Welt am Abend was recently increased to 12000. Yesterday was a recruitment day for the Red Front Fighters. I do not yet know the results but I am certain the recruitment went well."

Letter of the Soviet Emissary in Germany “Albert” [Vissarion Lominadze] to Stalin over the Armed Clashes Between National Socialists and Red Front Fighters in Berlin. (Berlin, 27 March 1927)

[meinkampfortzone]

Third Reich Biographies: SS-Standartenfuhrer Karl Koch (Part 3)

Caption: Karl and Ilse Koch in front of their lavish mansion in KZ Buchenwald, with Koch’s dog named Afra. On the right (not shown in this version of the photo) is Koch’s son from his first marriage, Manfred. 

In September 1941, Karl Koch received a written command from the SS headquarters that stated that he was to be transferred to Poland in early 1942 to take charge of a new camp that was to be built there. This camp was called Maidanek (Majdanek) and it had been commissioned in July 1941 by Heinrich Himmler, after seeing the sheer amount of POWs that had been taken in the wake of Operation Barbarossa. Construction on the camp had already begun in October of that year, by 2500 Russian POWs. Koch’s task was to enlarge the camp to hold from 50000 to 150000 prisoners. This would make it the largest KZ in the world. 

However, before he left Buchenwald, Koch had some tracks to cover. In November 1941, he secretly ordered the killing of two prisoners, Walter Kraemer and Karl Peix, both of whom worked in the camp infirmary. Far from the exemplary family man extolled by Himmler and the SS, Koch had many mistresses not only in Weimar but in countries outside of Germany such as Norway, where he often vacationed. He had contracted syphilis in 1940 from one such mistress, and had gone to the prisoner hospital in the camp for treatment instead of the hospital designated for the SS. In the prison hospital, he had been treated by Walter Kraemer, and now, in 1941, he was fearful that Kraemer and Peix, who were close confidantes, may let slip about his having had the disease. However, he couldn’t kill them outright, so Koch had both men arrested, placed in the special detention cells, and then launched an investigation to try and find any evidence of illicit activities being carried out in the prison hospital that would give him a legitimate reason to order the execution of Kraemer and Peix. When nothing of significance was turned up, Koch had them transferred to a labor sub-camp of Buchenwald in Goslar, and gave instructions to the commanding officer there, Hauptscharfuhrer Johann Blank, that both prisoners were to be shot, albeit “in an inconspicuous way.” The order was carried out, and Koch left Buchenwald under the assumption that his indiscretions as commandant of the concentration camp would be kept under wraps forever. 

This, however, was not to be. Among Walter Kraemer’s more notable medical clientele was Koch’s superior, Josias Erbprinz zu Waldeck und Pyrmont. Kraemer had previously treated him successfully for an illness, and so his name was familiar to Prinz zu Waldeck, who, as Koch’s superior, frequently reviewed the lists of deceased prisoners that were sent from KZ Buchenwald. Upon noticing Kraemer’s name on the list as well as that of his confidante Karl Peix, Waldeck inquired as to how the two men had died. Upon realizing that they had both been “shot trying to escape” at different points in time on the same day, Waldeck immediately became suspicious, and suspected that their deaths had been an attempt to cover up some shady business on the part of Koch. 

As they were from two vastly different social strata--Koch being a commoner and Waldeck being an aristocrat with ties to the Dutch and British royal families--it was no secret that the two men despised each other. “On one visit to the camp, Waldeck took with him back to Kassel 30000 cigarettes that had been reserved for the camp’s SS officers. When Koch learned of this, he exploded and issued a directive forbidding any goods to be given to any non-Buchenwald SS officer.” 

The suspiciousness of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Kraemer and Peix were incentive enough to compel Prinz zu Waldeck to order a thorough sweep of the accounting books of KZ Buchenwald. Large irregularities in the entries were uncovered, which suggested that Koch was illegally profiting off of the concentration camp funds. Realizing that this hinted at more than just chronic bad bookkeeping, Waldeck assigned SS judge Georg Konrad Morgen to investigate Koch’s activities at Buchenwald. The first raid on the Koch’s mansion  took place in December 1942, the same year the United States entered the war. 

TBC in the final part of this miniseries!

Sources: 

1- The Beasts of Buchenwald: Karl and Ilse Koch by Flint Whitlock 

[drethanramslay]

Letters of Love and Longing (6)

Book: Open Heart

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x M!MC (Dev Lennox)

Letters of Love and Longing Masterlist

Requested by @sinner-chan- #75 & #84 

Author’s note: So I cried while I was writing this so just keep your tissues on standby. Also, I gained some inspiration form Heather by Conan Gray 

Year: 1943 Location: Kasserine Pass, Tunisia

Respected Dr Ethan Ramsey,

I can’t help but laugh at how I can’t get over this formal salutation when you are probably the only person who knows me intimately, both physically and emotionally.

It is true! Absolutely no one knows me for me… No one knows my fears… No one knows how foolish and deadly the words “be yourself” are to a person like me because that could be the very thing that could get me jailed or worse killed. Nobody knows me, Dev Aidan Lennox. Nobody but you.

At first, when I fell in love with you, I almost resented your intrusion.

I was okay with hiding my true self, a homosexual, do you know that? I had made my peace that I would be in a loveless marriage with a wife who will never be satisfied and with kids in a modest suburban in Boston. I had made my peace that this my punishment and that I was just born to suffer. I had made my peace that I would probably die unloved and alone.

But you changed that. And I hate you for it.

You read it right. I hate you. I hate you for seeing right through my misery. I hate you for making me open up to you. I hate you for digging out the part of me that I had kept under lock and key. I hate you for kissing me under the inky skies of Miami. I hate you for all the passionate lovemaking. I hate you for giving me the one thing that I was so afraid of-

Hope.

You gave me hope of a future. You gave me love and affection in a way I had never been acquainted with. You gave me a safe space in you, where I could be my truest self with you.

Your presence to me was like St. Peter’s shadow to those sick men; it healed me, but it made me long for more than the shadow. The thought that you would walk through other cities where I could not follow, filled me with emptiness. But you never once let me get drowned in that emptiness.

We were there for each other through the hardships, through the happiness, through the pain and through the love. For the two of us, home wasn’t a place. Home for us was not mortar, bricks and cement. It was blood, flesh and bones. We were each other’s home. You said those words to me.

But I should have known that you were a liar.

So here I am, back to square one. I am lonely, meant to die alone and go to my grave with my true self as a secret. The only thing different is that I am heartbroken and shattered with no hope whatsoever.

I will never forget that black letter day. The day when I walked into Donahues, to meet you for our regular drink before going back to your home on the hills. It was supposed to be a regular Saturday night. But how the turntables.

She was standing at your arm, looking up at you with similar adoration and starry eyes as I am around you. That would have still been okay because I knew whose bed you would come to and how you didn’t care about other women’s infatuation with you.

But she had a ring on the fourth finger of her left hand.

When I turned to you for an explanation, I saw the impassive mask rather than your handsome smile. The eyes which I could so easily read were ice cold and impenetrable. Your arm wrapped around her waist and you introduced her to me- your fiancée.

I have never been a person who hated anyone. I was not one for jealousy either but at that moment… I just wish she were dead. And I was at your arm rather than her. I wished the world wasn’t so harsh and I wished that you would man up and love me.

A part of me silently pleaded that you would leave her and come with me. I know you could see it in my eyes how I was two seconds away from getting down to my knees and begging.

But you didn’t. You didn’t say anything. It was your silence that broke me. It was your silence that completely and utterly shattered me.

Congrats Dr. Ethan Jonah Ramsey, you broke me. You will get over it, oh I know you will. You will stick that stony facade on your face as you say “I do” at the altar. You will convince yourself that you love her and those three special words which were meant for me will be your new mantra to keep her happy and unsuspicious. You will grow old, have three kids who have the same brilliant blue eyes like yours. You will continue to make major breakthroughs in medicine and probably get awards for it. You will be sad but satiated.

You will move on. But I won’t because I am catastrophically in love with you. And I am such a buffoon Ethan that I will never, not in a thousand tragic outcomes, ever regret loving you.

I have a serious affliction: loving you forever.

Guess that is one of the other things I will be carrying to my grave, eh?

I am stationed in Kasserine pass which people have dubbed as death’s doorstep. I don’t see much chances of survival since we are lacking in preparation and resources. So when you get this letter, I might be gone… forever. I think of it as a blessing because a life without you isn’t a life worth living. I see it as a mercy.

I have lived a good life. I have had the privilege to get your love so I am not afraid to die. So, thank you.

I honestly don’t know the purpose of this letter when I am never going to read your reply. But I guess it is better that way for they say, ignorance is bliss. Because if I were to hear from you, my hopes would escalate and I can’t bear that.

I won’t be able to survive that.

I have said my piece so I hope it can give me the contentment that I have craved all my life in my dying hour. But I want you to know that it is your face I will see and your lips that I will feel when I breathe my last.

I wish you the best of everything, my love.

Yours forever,

Dev.

See, I don't want to be a dick but Dev succumbed to his injuries and passed away😭😭😭 6500 Americans out of 30000 Americans passed away. It was a tactical attack causing Germany to win and it didn't help that the Americans weren't prepared AT ALL. 

And it it true that an homosexuals suffered during that time period. In Britain alone 49000 homosexuals died because of the sexual identity, be it imprisonment or chemical castration via hormone therapy. So you get it why it happened that way. 

This was something completely new for me and i hope you like it 💓 I would definitely wanna dive into Ethan x M!MC in the future 😊

Tagging separately

[jeromehoward]

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[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this Think Progress story:

More than 30,000 deaths have been linked to poor air quality in the United States over the past two decades, according to new research funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And even at levels considered to be safe, researchers argue that air pollution can increase mortality rates.

The study, released Tuesday, was also supported by the research charity Wellcome Trust, and reinforces long-running concerns over microscopic pollution particles in the air and their impact on human health. It also widens the gap between the Trump administration’s efforts to rollback clean air rules and the government’s own findings on the importance of air quality.

Researchers from Imperial College London and Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Air, Climate, and Energy Solutions authored the new study, published in PLOS Medicine, which probes the impacts of air pollution across the contiguous United States from 1999 to 2015. At the center of the study is PM2.5, atmospheric particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers — 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

These particles typically come from sources like power plants and cars, and are so tiny that they can travel deep into the lungs, risking various health problems like cancer and lung disease. The current national standard is 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air (ug/m3) but Tuesday’s study shows that might not be strict enough — while PM2.5 has declined nationally since 1999, the researchers found that PM2.5 levels as low as 2.8ug/m3 are associated with an uptick in deaths.

Using a combination of satellite imagery, data from over 750 U.S. air quality monitoring stations, and the National Center for Health Statistics, the researchers found that air pollution deaths during the 16-year time period examined totaled more than 30,369. That data, which used binary gender, broke the total number down to 15,612 women and 14,757 men, and noted that they died from cardiorespiratory conditions like asthma or heart attacks.

Region and class status seemingly played a role in the deaths as well. Some areas were more prone to high PM2.5 concentrations and associated mortality, including Los Angeles, California, and a number of Southern states, like Arkansas and Alabama.

[nikitasbt]

Taiwanese New Wave cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien: A City of Sadness & Flowers of Shanghai

The emergence of Taiwanese New Wave in filmmaking traces back to 1982 when the young directors started working upon realistic films depicting social problems of the country. It was the last decade of the White Terror, and the directors received more freedom in their work. The most internationally acclaimed directors from Taiwanese New Wave are Edward Yang, Tsai Ming-liang and Hou Hsiao-hsien. A City of Sadness and Flowers of Shanghai are two great films representing the work, style and most important themes of Hou Hsiao-hsien. From my point of view, it is the right choice to begin with for those who would like to get down to the modern cinema of Taiwan.

A City of Sadness (悲情城市, Bēiqíng chéngshì) - 1989

A City of Sadness is an epic historical Taiwanese drama, the first film to deal with the events of so-called Incident 228 and White Terror. The 1989 Golden Lion-winning film A City of Sadness might be a bit difficult to follow unless the viewers know a few facts behind the historical events depicted on the screen. Incident 228 is the crucial and dramatic episode of the Taiwanese history, which is almost as painful and traumatic for Taiwanese history as Nanjing massacre (if there is anything in this world to compare with those events) for the Chinese history. The incident took place on the 28th of February 1947. At this time, the Republic of China was practically part of China as it has been handed to China after the unconditional surrender of Japan ending long-lasting Japanese rule in Taiwan. While the Kuomintang party was still involved in the civil war on the mainland, the uprising had started in Taipei. It has been triggered on 28 February and was brutally repelled by the Kuomintang governmental forces of Chen Yi. The estimated death toll was about 5000-30000. The martial law has been introduced to last for the next 40 years till 1987. Before lifting the martial law, the topic of 40-years of the supreme power of Kuomintang and White Terror was taboo sort of thing for filmmakers. The film of Hou casts light on those contradictory events taking place in the Republic of China.

It is obvious that the director had to stay out of strong political criticism making the film, as it was still 1989. He tries to show the White Terror in a neutral way giving an example of the life of one extended family. He shows the family in the 1940s covering several years and jumping from older events to the subsequent years. Zhang Yimou would later make something similar related to Chinese history in his To Live (1994). While Zhang Yimou is showing the resilience of Chinese people, Hou charges his feature-length film with the fear, becoming an essential part of people's everyday life. A City of Sadness recreates the events of the 1940s where corruption was under control, and everybody could have been arrested for far-fetched accusations for bonds with guerillas or without any accusations at all. The life of The Lin family we see on the screen is destroyed by the Terror, as one brother dies at the war, the other one is assassinated, the third one suffers brain injury and the last one gets arrested.

Many episodes focus at the protagonists whispering or speaking silently to show everybody is under surveillance. They are afraid of talking since you can get arrested for anything. This is probably why Hou shoots very often through the doors like somebody is always watching while people talk or ruminate. The director makes a great and ironical move introducing the protagonist Wen-ching (portrayed by Tony Leung Chiu-wai). Wen-ching is deaf-mute, and it seems like this the way one can take the things better - not hearing what is happening around and not sharing the opinion. However, Wen-ching gets arrested several times before he finally disappears in the jails. Moreover, the director uses Wen-ching to illustrate the linguistic conflict of post-war times, which was another part producing tension in Taiwan. The irony is that the dialogues in A City of Sadness are present in 5 languages and different dialects, while the protagonist is both deaf and mute to understand it.

Despite the fear and horror we observe, one can hardly say that Hou Hsiao-hsien judged those times very harshly. It is obvious, we see that the events of suppression were awful and it led many families to collapse. However, it was the price the nation had to pay to become stable. The price was certainly too high from the modern point of view, but Hou Hsiao-hsien doesn't give us a strict answer on how to take it. He only acts as a chronicler depicting the drastically important historical events of Taiwan in a perfect way, with dim colours and severe atmosphere of fear. A City of Sadness is a long thought-provoking film disclosing the establishment of Taiwanese nation after the II World War, and it is certainly worth watching, from the historical perspectives.

Flowers of Shanghai (海上花, Hai shang hua) - 1998

The theme of desperate and hopeless life of courtesans was one of the pivotal motifs for another master of the Oriental cinema Kenji Mizoguchi. The Japanese director came up with this topic in The Woman in the Rumour and Street of Shame. The courtesans of Mizoguchi don't live in poverty, yet there is no hope for better living for them. The female protagonists from the story of XIX century writer Han Bangqing are somehow similar, and Hou Hsiao-hsien employs this story for his Flowers of Shanghai screenplay.

We see the scenes from several rich Shanghai brothels (or flower houses) designed for wealthy clients. These are the flower houses where only a few girls live, and they serve to the clients who spend days and hours with them again and again. The wealthy men come here to dine, gamble, smoke opium, splurge money, bring expensive gifts to the women. The houses are also used for arranged marriages. Every scene is enriched with dense colours and gorgeous decorations. The smoke of opium and gossips both courtesans and their wealthy patrons soak in this atmosphere of fake paradise. These men seemingly have forgotten about their life outside the flower houses as the scenes of the film never go beyond the brothel. The women get lots of money from the clients, but their debts also grow. We see women fading away as time goes by, and men being enthralled by the stunning allure of these courtesans, elegance of ornate ambiance and smoke of opium. The wealthy patrons illustrate drug-addled passion and emptiness of tremendous wealth, while the women act as more pragmatic characters seeking to escape their cages in the flower houses. Though they end up learning they belong there, and very of few of them would have a chance to escape, just like in Mizoguchi's films about courtesans.

The influence of Mizoguchi can be also observed in the style Hou develops in Flowers of Shanghai. It is described by a particular way of mise-en-scèn creation and subtle beauty of slow-paced story-telling Kenji Mizoguchi was famous for. Hou enhances the film with something magnetic and mesmerizing which would be growing on the viewers after they had seen the film. This is a very atmospheric and gracious film which is shot entirely in swoon-like long takes which is another courtesy to Mizoguchi's favourite cinematic technique. The most impressive long take is probably the opening 7-minute scene at the dining table in flower house: nothing, but wonderful and artificial paradise we glance at.

To tell the stories of oppressed lives of courtesans Crimson, Jade, Emerald, Jasmine, Pearl and other girls Hou had the fantastic cast in his possession: Michiko Hada, Michelle Reis, Carina Lau, Vicky Wei. The story though revolved around wealthy patron Wang portrayed by Tony Leung Chiu-wai delivering the great performance in collaboration with Hou once again after A City of Sadness. It is spectacular to observe these tense situations the courtesans are involved in, as we see a lot of peculiarities and details of Chinese culture, customs, and traditions of the XIX century. Nevertheless, Flowers of Shanghai is the movie that preliminary draws attention with the unique and sublime aesthetics.

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/iran-announces-its-virus-death-toll-passes-30000-killed-national-news/

Iran announces its virus death toll passes 30,000 killed | National News

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran announced Saturday that its death toll from the coronavirus has passed the milestone of 30,000 killed, in what has been the Mideast region’s worst outbreak.

The announcement by Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari saw Iran put its total death toll from the outbreak at 30,123 killed, with 253 new deaths being added to the official count.

Lari added that there are 4,721 virus patients that are in critical condition.

Iran has been struggling with the coronavirus since announcing its first cases in February, with more than 526,000 confirmed cases to date.

In recent weeks, Iran has seen daily death tolls spike to their highest-ever levels, sparking increasing concern even as government officials continue to resist a total lockdown for fear of cratering the economy, which has been hard-hit by U.S. sanctions.

On Wednesday, Iranian officials announced a travel ban to and from five major cities, including the capital of Tehran and the holy city of Mashhad, that they said aimed to contain the virus’ spread.

The coronavirus has also spread to some of the highest levels of Iran’s government, which includes many older men. Among those recently infected is the head of the country’s atomic energy organization, while Iran’s vice president in charge of budget and planning tested positive on Sunday.

After downplaying the outbreak in its first weeks, Iranian officials have more recently begun to admit the scope of the epidemic within the country.

Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, who had tested positive for the virus in March after playing down its threat and refuting reports of mass deaths, told state TV on Wednesday that the country’s true death toll is about double the reported figures.

According to officials, there are also large numbers of patients in hospitals being treated as COVID-19 cases but who have not been tested, whose tests came out as false negatives or whose symptoms are not the same as those listed by the World Health Organization and who are therefore not counted in the official case numbers.

Like in many other countries, the spiraling outbreak in Iran reflects the government’s contradictory virus response. This week, as the daily recorded death toll hit the record for three times, authorities announced tighter restrictions for the hard-hit capital of Tehran.

Recently reopened universities and schools, as well as libraries, mosques, cinemas, museums and beauty salons, shut down. In the past week, the government mandated that all Tehran residents wear face masks outdoors and in public places, warning violators would be fined. Officials promised those who tested positive would be closely tracked.

Movement restrictions this spring somewhat checked the spread of the disease. Then the government swiftly reopened the country, desperate to boost its stricken economy. Since June, the case count has steadily increased — and spiked to new heights in recent weeks.

Long before the virus hit, Iran’s economy was ailing, pummeled by U.S. sanctions after the Trump administration’s unilateral withdrawal in 2018 from Tehran’s nuclear accord with world powers. As the death toll soared this week, the nation’s currency plunged to its lowest level ever, following the U.S. administration’s decision last week to blacklist Iranian banks that had so far escaped the bulk of re-imposed American sanctions.

As Iran approaches winter, the seasonal influenza could be an added and serious issue for the country, as it has had purchasing the flu vaccine amid new American sanctions on Iranian banks.

Iran’s Red Crescent Society said in a tweet on Tuesday that they were in charge of importing two million flu vaccine doses into the country, but that new U.S. sanctions prevented the import.

Meanwhile on Saturday, the United Arab Emirates has announced its highest single-day total of new cases of the coronavirus amid a spike in the Gulf nation that is home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The country’s Health Ministry said tests found 1,538 new cases of the virus, pushing the overall number of cases to 114,387.

The ministry said another four people died from the virus, pushing the overall death toll to 459. Overall recoveries are at 106,354.

Recorded infections have soared again in recent weeks, as authorities have relaxed restrictions and resumed schools for in-person instruction. Dubai has reopened its airport for international travelers and embarked on an active campaign promoting itself as a tourism destination amid the pandemic.

The UAE is engaged in an aggressive testing campaign, with over 11 million tests conducted in a country home to over 9 million people.

———

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell, in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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[musingsofmaniacs]

Dunkirk: Finding The Heart in a Movie Amidst The Technical Wizardry

The complaint that some critics have against Dunkirk can be summed up by what Kevin Maher of The Times wrote: "[Dunkirk] is 106 clamorous minutes of big-screen bombast that's so concerned with its own spectacle and scale that it neglects to deliver the most crucial element - drama." The film feels like a spectacularly produced Documentary, because, well, there is a spectacular lack of a representative human being to project onto and to relate too.

Let’s address the technical part first. Cinematography is astounding and riveting. The desaturated color palette, which is quintessential Nolan, adds to the chilling feel of the war zone. The scene with the fighting in the air is absolutely insane (because there are few other words to aptly describe the feeling of watching them on the silver screen). Remember that Nolan is not a fan of CGI and thinks of it as a gimmick. That is visible in all action scenes , and especially the air battle sequences. The pilot POV scenes where Spitfires take slanted turnings above and below and the camera following the downed downed aircraft as it slowly crashlands into the water have an effect of drawing the viewer into the action scene and making them a part of it. The sound-mixing, which many described as ear-shattering enough to drown the sound of people talking, makes one feel the intensity of every gunshot, every torpedo, and every machine gun fire that blows up the sand feets up in the air. The music score by Zimmer, Nolan’s old time collaborator is more than a scene enhancement or viewer immersion device. Like most great scores, it tells a story in itself and aids in Nolan’s mission to keep the movie taut and audiences precariously at the edge of their seats.

All this technically mastery will definitely win the movie couple of Oscars and BAFTAs, no doubt. But that is not the biggest take-away from the movie.

The big take-away from the movie is its humanity. Amidst the senselessness of the battle and its inhumanity, where it is doubtful that people get to have long drawn out conversation to convey their thoughts, where one person doesn’t matter too much because there are 400000 of them doomed on the beach, this humanity shines bright. There is no one character that carries the weight of drama for the viewer because no one person is especially important. For a moment, everybody forgets who they are and recognises that before them there is something bigger than themselves. We witness the selflessness of a generation of men who just did whatever was needed. Whether its a pilot we have no backstory of who flies his mission despite knowing that he will run out of fuel, or a young soldier who defends the right of a French soldier when his sinking boat needs a man to leave it in order to stay afloat, about whom again neither he nor we know anything about. In fact, the French guy seldom speaks anything that we understand.

We seea civilian (Mark Rylance) with a boat who rescues a fallen pilot (Cillian Murphy) while sailing to Dunkirk to rescue others. The shellshocked pilot fights with the boatmen because he wants to go home and not Dunkirk. In the process he accidentally injures, George, a help of the yachtman. He feels very sorry for his action and relegates into a corner. The help, a young boy whose biggest dream was to get featured in the local paper, dies of his injuries . The yachtsman's son doesn’t react to his friend’s death, for the fear of upsetting the pilot who killed him. He even tells the pilot that George is alright. And the yachtsman gives him a nod of understanding.

A lesser filmmaker may need to punctuate this scene with emotion, sentimentality and worse, melodrama to address all the substance and the punch it carries. Nolan just needs a nod. Not exposition, not drama, a nod. And I have no wish of explaining the incredible nuance of a scene so pregnant with extraordinary emotions, because once you see it, you realise there is no need for me to. Neither does Nolan need a complex set of emotions for Tom Hardy to display while flying to his doom. He keeps his mask on, and any studio executive would be pissed that a pricey actor’s face is not seen for most of the movie (This is unlike Bane in TDKR, because Bane is an important character and needs the backing of a star).

Through them we understand the great sacrifices that an undertaking like this demands and  that men rose to the occasion and saved the day.They are tired, afraid, and one step away from being killed but they are in this together. Nolan deliberately showed no German, and even mostly refers to them as ‘enemy’ and never mentions Hitler, because he wants to underscore the fact that they are not united by hatred for an external enemy, but desire to go home with the fellow men and actually contribute to the war effort. Because Dunkirk was termed as a colossal military disaster, and rescue of the soldiers as Churchill pointed out, did not amount to victory because wars are not won by evacuation. Still the happy commonfolk welcome the incoming troopers with cheer and beer, soldiers they most probably do not personally know, Thanking the almighty that the boys are alright.

After rescuing 300000 men against Churchill’s requirement of 30000, the commandant heading the operation decides to stay back to get beleaguered French across the channel too. The movie ends with a soldier returning home reading transcript of Churchill's Dunkirk speech while George, with the help of his buddy gets featured in the local paper as a martyr and Tom Hardy’s Spitfire with empty fuel compartment gloriously glides into the beach and breathes its last while its teary eyed pilot is captured by the Germans. And then, like every Christopher Nolan joint, cuts to a black screen.

[samuraiknight-1600-blog]

BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

In 490 BC, the Future of Greece and probably the future western civilization was fought on the beach of Marathon between the greek citystate of Athens and the persian empire. Prelude: Before the persian invasion of Greece, The greek city states stood as a small spot next to the gigantic persian empire who stood from the borders of greece in the west, to northern india in the east. In the years leading up to the invasion, Athens had supported Greek rebellions in the persian controlled regian of anatolia, the rebellions were brutally beaten down and the persian king Darius saw athens support to the rebels as unforgivable andsought to punish Athens by expanding his empire into Greece. The perisans with their massive armies assumed the greeks would just submit to their demands, as with countless other kingdoms persia had invaded, but when they sent messangers to Athens and other city states, demanding they submit to persian rule by handing gifts of earth and water. AKA, "give us your land or we kill you" The atheans instead threw the messangers down a ravine, The spartans threw the persian messangers down a well, (heh, just like in 300) and prepared for war. The greeks would not hand over their lands without a fight.   Darius assembeled his forces in a massive fleet and sailed for Greece, expecting a pushover. he was acompanied by a Greek, Hippias, who was the former tyrant ruler of Athens, Thrown out after an uprising and into exile, hoping to regain his crown by cooperating with the persians. He adviced the persians of a propper landing area, the beach of marathon, a wide open terrain that suited the persians vast numbers. Meanwhile the Athenians and their allies had gathered their forces overlooking marathon. They were lead by a man named Miltiades, Overall Miltiades had some 10000 men at his disposal, greatly outnumbered by some 30000 persians who also had the battlefield advantage. For several days the armies faced eachothers, neither willing to make a move. the persians were still unloading their troops and supplies and it's aslo suggested they were hoping that Athenians loyal to Hippias would rise up, and the Greeks were waiting for reinforcements from Sparta, who had the best warriors in all of greece, but the spartans, would not aid the Athenians, At the time there was a religious festival in Sparta and the Spartans refused to fight until the festival was over and by that time it would be to late. The deadlock was finally broken when the Persian commander hatched a daring plan, he secretly loading most of the Persian cavalry along with a handful of infantry with the intention of sailing to another beach just at Athens, hoping to make a surprise attack on the undefended city. But the Athenians uncovered the plan, Miltiades now knew it was all or nothing, a Persian fleet was sailing towards the undefended Athens, but their main force in Marathon was now greatly weakened. Despite still being greatly outnumbered, he made the decision to attack. The battle: Miltiades Formed up is troops in phalanx formation, but due to the wide battlefield and the Persians superior numbers, He broke protocol hand had the phalanx formations in the center line thinned out in order to cover up the whole battlefield, But he had his flanks in standard formations, as they were the most important part of the line. Though outnumbered, the Greek hoplites were well trained and well armored with EXTRA THICC bronze, leather and Linen armors, the Persians were trained and equipped for mobile warfare in the steps of Asia and so were mostly not armored and were armed with light weapons. The Persians relied in their archers to crush the Greek attack, With massed volleys from hundreds of archers, the Greeks would have to sprint the last distance towards the Persian line or else they'd be slaughtered and the Persians assumed that by the time the Greeks had reached their line they'd be to exhausted to fight. That would not happen though, As the Greeks got withing the Persian archers line of fire, some 200 meters they started sprinting and as the Persians fired their arrows many simply bounced of the Greeks thick armor, helmets and shields, and they did not slow down and they were certainly not exhausted when they reached the Persian lines, the Persians had underestimated the well trained hoplites physical fitness. heck, there was even an event in the then Olympics in which hoplites in full armor sprinted twice as far as they had to in marathon. Though the Persians did have heavy arrows capable of piercing the hoplite armor, it was not enough to stop them.   When the 2 armies collided the Persians found out their light weapons were almost useless against the well armored hoplites who inflicted terrible losses on the Persians, But through cheer numbers the Persians started to drive the Greeks back, but then both of the Greek flanks broke through the Persian lines and encircled the Persian forces, the Persians tried to push them back but every attack was beaten back by the Greek phalanx formations, and it seemed that no amount of arrows could stop the Greeks. What happened next was little more than a slaughter as the Persians broke and made a break for their ships. In the stampede many Persians were trampled to death by their comrades and as they desperately boarded the ships, they were being slaughter by the chasing Greeks. As the surviving persians fled, the greeks collapsed from exhaustion. but the war was not over. Miltiades ordered the tired greeks to march back to Athens in haste, While the battle had been raising, the persians fleet was getting closer to athens. Luckily the greeks got there first, And when the persians saw the greek army on the beaches in battle formation, they fled back to persia. The Greeks had won. Aftermath: The Athenians had won a great battle against the persians, militarly it was not a a huge loss for the persians with their vast armies, but but their morale and prestiege had been severly wounded in tghis battle, it proved that persian was not as invincible as they though, and the greeks now knew the persians could be beaten. Shortly after the battle the Spartans did arrive only to discover that the Athenians had already defeated the Persian and with it all of the glory, this embarrassed the spartans as they considered the Athenians inferior. This is just a personal theory, bit i think this embarrassment of coming short of the battle could be why in the second Persian invasion king Leonidas ignored their religious festival and marched to Thermopylae with his 300 spartans, not wanting the glory taken from their grasp again. It is said that after the battle. the Greek runner Pheidippides sprinted as fast has he could towards Athens, not stopping for anything, It is then said that when he reached Athens he delivered the message of the victory at Marathon and immediately after died from exhaustion. Weather it is true or not, Pheidippides run has been romanticized in grek culture and would serve as the inspiration for the Marathon race, which is today popular and well used around the world. After his defeat, The Persian king Darius made preparations for another invasion of Greece, But he died before it could be carried out. it would fall to his son Xerxes to invade Greece, which he did 10 years after marathon with an army 10 times bigger than the army his father had commanded. This invasion eventually failed to after the spartan stand on Thermopylae gave the rest of Greece enough time to prepare and eventually beat the Persians in the sea battle of Salamis.

[reneeacaseyfl]

EPA-funded research shows US air pollution linked to more than 30,000 deaths – ThinkProgress

More than 30,000 deaths have been linked to poor air quality in the United States over the past two decades, according to new research funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And even at levels considered to be safe, researchers argue that air pollution can increase mortality rates.

The study, released Tuesday, was also supported by the research charity Wellcome Trust, and reinforces long-running concerns over microscopic pollution particles in the air and their impact on human health. It also widens the gap between the Trump administration’s efforts to rollback clean air rules and the government’s own findings on the importance of air quality.

Researchers from Imperial College London and Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Air, Climate, and Energy Solutions authored the new study, published in PLOS Medicine, which probes the impacts of air pollution across the contiguous United States from 1999 to 2015. At the center of the study is PM2.5, atmospheric particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers — 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

These particles typically come from sources like power plants and cars, and are so tiny that they can travel deep into the lungs, risking various health problems like cancer and lung disease. The current national standard is 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air (ug/m3) but Tuesday’s study shows that might not be strict enough — while PM2.5 has declined nationally since 1999, the researchers found that PM2.5 levels as low as 2.8ug/m3 are associated with an uptick in deaths.

Majid Ezzati from Imperial’s School of Public Health and the study’s lead author, said in a statement that the research has jarring implications for the current EPA air quality standard.

“We’ve known for some time that these particles [PM2.5] can be deadly. This study suggests even at seemingly low concentrations — mostly below current limits — they still cause tens of thousands of deaths,” said Ezzati.

Using a combination of satellite imagery, data from over 750 U.S. air quality monitoring stations, and the National Center for Health Statistics, the researchers found that air pollution deaths during the 16-year time period examined totaled more than 30,369. That data, which used binary gender, broke the total number down to 15,612 women and 14,757 men, and noted that they died from cardiorespiratory conditions like asthma or heart attacks.

Region and class status seemingly played a role in the deaths as well. Some areas were more prone to high PM2.5 concentrations and associated mortality, including Los Angeles, California, and a number of Southern states, like Arkansas and Alabama.

Imperial College London also notes that at any concentration of PM2.5, “life expectancy loss was, on average, larger in counties with lower income than in wealthier counties.” Prior EPA-funded studies have shown that black and Latinx Americans also disproportionately suffer from poor air quality.

The researchers said their analysis highlights the dangers of fine particulate matter even at low levels and argued that shifting the national standard could save lives.

“Lowering the PM2.5 standard below the current level is likely to improve the health of the U.S. nation, and reduce health inequality,” said Ezzati.

That advice comes as the Trump administration continues to push forward with an onslaught of regulatory rollbacks at the EPA — many of which are specifically aimed at undoing clean air rules.

The agency’s head, Andrew Wheeler, has targeted the 2011 Mercury and Air Toxics standards, or MATS, which seek to curb pollution from coal and oil-burning plants.

Moreover, the administration is embroiled in a war with California over its clean air waiver, which allows the state to impose its own vehicle emissions standards. Those requirements are stricter than their federal equivalent and have helped improve air quality, but under President Donald Trump the EPA has sought to revoke the waiver while standardizing policies nationwide.

Meanwhile, even as air quality has improved nationally over the course of several decades, it has declined since Trump took office, according to the EPA. The agency’s Air Quality Index (AQI) shows that air quality has slightly decreased from 2016 to 2018, even as totals remain far better than in the period between 2010 and 2012 — the last time the country topped 1,000 days with air deemed “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”

CREDIT: EPA

Another emerging issue for air quality, however, is climate change.

Tuesday’s study comes at the same time as new research from the University of Delaware finds that rising global temperatures will increase the number of days with high concentrations of ground-level ozone in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

Like PM2.5, ozone — also known as smog — is linked to respiratory problems and reduced lung function. While ozone pollution has been declining in Delaware specifically, the research shows that rising temperatures are “threatening to reverse the decrease” of the trace gas in the area.

But while research has found that air pollution can actually assist with global cooling by helping to reflect sun away from the Earth, critics of the Trump administration’s policies argue that the combination of regulatory rollbacks around issues like air quality, coupled with active skepticism around climate science, is harming public health and the environment. And both studies out this week highlight the very contemporary dangers of poor air quality.

Meanwhile, the EPA’s air quality office itself is likely to remain at the center of controversy after its former head Bill Wehrum resigned abruptly last month.

Ethics watchdogs have long accused Wehrum, a former lobbyist who sought weaker air standards, of remaining close to his former clients while simultaneously unraveling air quality standards at the EPA. On Monday, the agency’s internal watchdog acknowledged that Wehrum is facing a new ethics inquiry.

Credit: Source link

The post EPA-funded research shows US air pollution linked to more than 30,000 deaths – ThinkProgress appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/epa-funded-research-shows-us-air-pollution-linked-to-more-than-30000-deaths-thinkprogress/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=epa-funded-research-shows-us-air-pollution-linked-to-more-than-30000-deaths-thinkprogress from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186505426842

[velmaemyers88]

EPA-funded research shows US air pollution linked to more than 30,000 deaths – ThinkProgress

More than 30,000 deaths have been linked to poor air quality in the United States over the past two decades, according to new research funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And even at levels considered to be safe, researchers argue that air pollution can increase mortality rates.

The study, released Tuesday, was also supported by the research charity Wellcome Trust, and reinforces long-running concerns over microscopic pollution particles in the air and their impact on human health. It also widens the gap between the Trump administration’s efforts to rollback clean air rules and the government’s own findings on the importance of air quality.

Researchers from Imperial College London and Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Air, Climate, and Energy Solutions authored the new study, published in PLOS Medicine, which probes the impacts of air pollution across the contiguous United States from 1999 to 2015. At the center of the study is PM2.5, atmospheric particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers — 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

These particles typically come from sources like power plants and cars, and are so tiny that they can travel deep into the lungs, risking various health problems like cancer and lung disease. The current national standard is 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air (ug/m3) but Tuesday’s study shows that might not be strict enough — while PM2.5 has declined nationally since 1999, the researchers found that PM2.5 levels as low as 2.8ug/m3 are associated with an uptick in deaths.

Majid Ezzati from Imperial’s School of Public Health and the study’s lead author, said in a statement that the research has jarring implications for the current EPA air quality standard.

“We’ve known for some time that these particles [PM2.5] can be deadly. This study suggests even at seemingly low concentrations — mostly below current limits — they still cause tens of thousands of deaths,” said Ezzati.

Using a combination of satellite imagery, data from over 750 U.S. air quality monitoring stations, and the National Center for Health Statistics, the researchers found that air pollution deaths during the 16-year time period examined totaled more than 30,369. That data, which used binary gender, broke the total number down to 15,612 women and 14,757 men, and noted that they died from cardiorespiratory conditions like asthma or heart attacks.

Region and class status seemingly played a role in the deaths as well. Some areas were more prone to high PM2.5 concentrations and associated mortality, including Los Angeles, California, and a number of Southern states, like Arkansas and Alabama.

Imperial College London also notes that at any concentration of PM2.5, “life expectancy loss was, on average, larger in counties with lower income than in wealthier counties.” Prior EPA-funded studies have shown that black and Latinx Americans also disproportionately suffer from poor air quality.

The researchers said their analysis highlights the dangers of fine particulate matter even at low levels and argued that shifting the national standard could save lives.

“Lowering the PM2.5 standard below the current level is likely to improve the health of the U.S. nation, and reduce health inequality,” said Ezzati.

That advice comes as the Trump administration continues to push forward with an onslaught of regulatory rollbacks at the EPA — many of which are specifically aimed at undoing clean air rules.

The agency’s head, Andrew Wheeler, has targeted the 2011 Mercury and Air Toxics standards, or MATS, which seek to curb pollution from coal and oil-burning plants.

Moreover, the administration is embroiled in a war with California over its clean air waiver, which allows the state to impose its own vehicle emissions standards. Those requirements are stricter than their federal equivalent and have helped improve air quality, but under President Donald Trump the EPA has sought to revoke the waiver while standardizing policies nationwide.

Meanwhile, even as air quality has improved nationally over the course of several decades, it has declined since Trump took office, according to the EPA. The agency’s Air Quality Index (AQI) shows that air quality has slightly decreased from 2016 to 2018, even as totals remain far better than in the period between 2010 and 2012 — the last time the country topped 1,000 days with air deemed “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”

CREDIT: EPA

Another emerging issue for air quality, however, is climate change.

Tuesday’s study comes at the same time as new research from the University of Delaware finds that rising global temperatures will increase the number of days with high concentrations of ground-level ozone in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

Like PM2.5, ozone — also known as smog — is linked to respiratory problems and reduced lung function. While ozone pollution has been declining in Delaware specifically, the research shows that rising temperatures are “threatening to reverse the decrease” of the trace gas in the area.

But while research has found that air pollution can actually assist with global cooling by helping to reflect sun away from the Earth, critics of the Trump administration’s policies argue that the combination of regulatory rollbacks around issues like air quality, coupled with active skepticism around climate science, is harming public health and the environment. And both studies out this week highlight the very contemporary dangers of poor air quality.

Meanwhile, the EPA’s air quality office itself is likely to remain at the center of controversy after its former head Bill Wehrum resigned abruptly last month.

Ethics watchdogs have long accused Wehrum, a former lobbyist who sought weaker air standards, of remaining close to his former clients while simultaneously unraveling air quality standards at the EPA. On Monday, the agency’s internal watchdog acknowledged that Wehrum is facing a new ethics inquiry.

Credit: Source link

The post EPA-funded research shows US air pollution linked to more than 30,000 deaths – ThinkProgress appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/epa-funded-research-shows-us-air-pollution-linked-to-more-than-30000-deaths-thinkprogress/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=epa-funded-research-shows-us-air-pollution-linked-to-more-than-30000-deaths-thinkprogress from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186505426842

[weeklyreviewer]

EPA-funded research shows US air pollution linked to more than 30,000 deaths – ThinkProgress

More than 30,000 deaths have been linked to poor air quality in the United States over the past two decades, according to new research funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And even at levels considered to be safe, researchers argue that air pollution can increase mortality rates.

The study, released Tuesday, was also supported by the research charity Wellcome Trust, and reinforces long-running concerns over microscopic pollution particles in the air and their impact on human health. It also widens the gap between the Trump administration’s efforts to rollback clean air rules and the government’s own findings on the importance of air quality.

Researchers from Imperial College London and Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Air, Climate, and Energy Solutions authored the new study, published in PLOS Medicine, which probes the impacts of air pollution across the contiguous United States from 1999 to 2015. At the center of the study is PM2.5, atmospheric particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers — 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

These particles typically come from sources like power plants and cars, and are so tiny that they can travel deep into the lungs, risking various health problems like cancer and lung disease. The current national standard is 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air (ug/m3) but Tuesday’s study shows that might not be strict enough — while PM2.5 has declined nationally since 1999, the researchers found that PM2.5 levels as low as 2.8ug/m3 are associated with an uptick in deaths.

Majid Ezzati from Imperial’s School of Public Health and the study’s lead author, said in a statement that the research has jarring implications for the current EPA air quality standard.

“We’ve known for some time that these particles [PM2.5] can be deadly. This study suggests even at seemingly low concentrations — mostly below current limits — they still cause tens of thousands of deaths,” said Ezzati.

Using a combination of satellite imagery, data from over 750 U.S. air quality monitoring stations, and the National Center for Health Statistics, the researchers found that air pollution deaths during the 16-year time period examined totaled more than 30,369. That data, which used binary gender, broke the total number down to 15,612 women and 14,757 men, and noted that they died from cardiorespiratory conditions like asthma or heart attacks.

Region and class status seemingly played a role in the deaths as well. Some areas were more prone to high PM2.5 concentrations and associated mortality, including Los Angeles, California, and a number of Southern states, like Arkansas and Alabama.

Imperial College London also notes that at any concentration of PM2.5, “life expectancy loss was, on average, larger in counties with lower income than in wealthier counties.” Prior EPA-funded studies have shown that black and Latinx Americans also disproportionately suffer from poor air quality.

The researchers said their analysis highlights the dangers of fine particulate matter even at low levels and argued that shifting the national standard could save lives.

“Lowering the PM2.5 standard below the current level is likely to improve the health of the U.S. nation, and reduce health inequality,” said Ezzati.

That advice comes as the Trump administration continues to push forward with an onslaught of regulatory rollbacks at the EPA — many of which are specifically aimed at undoing clean air rules.

The agency’s head, Andrew Wheeler, has targeted the 2011 Mercury and Air Toxics standards, or MATS, which seek to curb pollution from coal and oil-burning plants.

Moreover, the administration is embroiled in a war with California over its clean air waiver, which allows the state to impose its own vehicle emissions standards. Those requirements are stricter than their federal equivalent and have helped improve air quality, but under President Donald Trump the EPA has sought to revoke the waiver while standardizing policies nationwide.

Meanwhile, even as air quality has improved nationally over the course of several decades, it has declined since Trump took office, according to the EPA. The agency’s Air Quality Index (AQI) shows that air quality has slightly decreased from 2016 to 2018, even as totals remain far better than in the period between 2010 and 2012 — the last time the country topped 1,000 days with air deemed “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”

CREDIT: EPA

Another emerging issue for air quality, however, is climate change.

Tuesday’s study comes at the same time as new research from the University of Delaware finds that rising global temperatures will increase the number of days with high concentrations of ground-level ozone in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

Like PM2.5, ozone — also known as smog — is linked to respiratory problems and reduced lung function. While ozone pollution has been declining in Delaware specifically, the research shows that rising temperatures are “threatening to reverse the decrease” of the trace gas in the area.

But while research has found that air pollution can actually assist with global cooling by helping to reflect sun away from the Earth, critics of the Trump administration’s policies argue that the combination of regulatory rollbacks around issues like air quality, coupled with active skepticism around climate science, is harming public health and the environment. And both studies out this week highlight the very contemporary dangers of poor air quality.

Meanwhile, the EPA’s air quality office itself is likely to remain at the center of controversy after its former head Bill Wehrum resigned abruptly last month.

Ethics watchdogs have long accused Wehrum, a former lobbyist who sought weaker air standards, of remaining close to his former clients while simultaneously unraveling air quality standards at the EPA. On Monday, the agency’s internal watchdog acknowledged that Wehrum is facing a new ethics inquiry.

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