Particulate Matter Kills

St Bernard Parish Government should enforce local dust suppression ordinance regardless of regulatory permits


The other morning residents reported copious amounts of dust arising from the area around the  Landrieu Concrete cement batch plant on Paris Road, just across the highway from the new elementary school. 


Unfortunately, parish compliance personnel, while referring the matter to LDEQ, indicated they would not respond -- but would at least note the complaint in the system (whatever protection that provides)


UPDATE:   Landrieu Concrete Dust.  According to LDEQ, an inspector went out the following morning and learned that the plant "had an issue with the top hatch not being properly secured by a previous worker which caused a “blowout”". The facility was in the process of making repairs and properly securing the hatch; the repairs were expected to take a day. The plant was not operating due to the issue. 
  


Particulate Matter Kills and cement dust does not belong in our air.  That's why several local ordinances address performance standards for dust suppression, and no matter how pro-business we are, the performance standards should be enforced to protect the health and safety of residents.


"...the linkage between air pollution and actual evidence of progression of atherosclerosis, the underlying disease process that leads to most [heart] attacks and strokes...." is reported here at Think Progress, in an article by Alejandro Davila Fragoso.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/24/3781243/how-air-pollution-causes-heart-disease/

"These effects seem to come across people regardless of their race or ethnicity, regardless of their socioeconomic status," said Kaufman, who now aims to use the data set to quantify the influence that air pollution has on heart attack rates.

Another major finding of the study is that air pollution at levels below regulatory standards also accelerates the progression of atherosclerosis. With that, the study raises questions about the quality of the air that people need to avoid environmental harms — particularly because it found that air quality has been in general improving in the United States. "Exposures are quite a lot lower than what they used to be, but we still are seeing these effects," said Kaufman. "So the question is, how low do we need to go to see the bottom of these effects?"

This is How Air Pollution Harms Your Heart

by Alejandro Davila Fragoso May 24, 2016 6:30 pm