Last night I had to be rushed twenty-five miles from my home to an urgent care facility (like many rural areas, our county of residence has no hospital) in order to treat a severe asthma attack. After spending some time on a nebulizer and presently under a regimine of Prednisone, I am slowly recovering from this particular attack but I have a sneaking hunch there will certainly be another one like it somewhere in my future. I was diagnosed with the condition as an adult some fifteen years ago. I do not smoke nor does anyone in my home. The area where we live has no large industries or known heavy industrial polluters. Thus the reason for this condition is somewhat of a mystery to me.
The sudden decline in the population of Osprey, Pandion haliaetus, was once also a mystery. Roger Tory Peterson noted the sudden and complete lack of any fledgling Osprey in the area of his own home so he set out to investigate the mystery. From his initial work, the tireless efforts of many others, and culminating in the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s ground-breaking book Silent Spring, the culprit was found, DDT, and action was taken. Because of this, we have Ospreys flying down our own nearby Scappoose Slough as well as throughout their historical range today.
According to The Collaborative on Health and the Environment, asthma is increasing in both incidence throughout both the developed as well as the developing world – in fact it now accounts for 1 in 250 deaths worldwide. While the causes of this are still being debated, certain items are worth noting:
Indoor air quality has changed dramatically over the last 3 decades as new chemical products have been introduced into household goods and building materials, increasing exposures to many different volatile organic compounds. Very few have been tested for effects on the developing immune system, even though it is clear that exposure in the womb can alter immune function later in life. Some types of exposure weaken immune responses while others make the immune system over-react.
While some types of outdoor air pollution are decreasing, ozone and fine particle pollution from diesel engine exhaust are ongoing or increasing problems, both in the U.S. and in other countries and regions where asthma is on the rise.
Consulting BirdLife International’s State of the World’s Birds, I confirmed something I knew intuitively, “bird populations are often good indicators of the impacts of pollutants. Mirroring the information already noted, BirdLife notes,
Little is known of the long-term effects of many pollutants. Huge areas of farmland, rangeland, forest and wetland are treated with poisonous synthetic chemicals each year to control competitor species of plants, animals, micro-organisms and diseases. To enhance crop yields across the developing world, agriculture is becoming increasingly reliant on such biocides, many of which have been banned or restricted in other nations. Unfortunately, the side-effects and longer-term impacts of such pesticides and herbicides are often ignored or simply not known by those who use them.
We continue to use and over-use too many recent developments, chemical and otherwise, of which we do not fully understand either the wide-spread of long-term effects. While I ardently admire and greatly appreciate the marvels of modern science, I simply wish more study was made of many products and practices lest we repeat the history of DDTs effect on the Osprey as well as many other top level predators. However judging by the trends being seen in cases of asthma, we already may be doing precisely that.
Peace and good bird watching.
