Choked : life and breath in the age of air pollution / Beth Gardiner.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Nothing is as elemental, as essential to human life, as the air we breathe. Yet around the world, in rich countries and poor ones, it is quietly poisoning us.



Air pollution prematurely kills seven million people every year, including more than one hundred thousand Americans. It is strongly linked to strokes, heart attacks, many kinds of cancer, dementia, and premature birth, among other ailments. In Choked , Beth Gardiner travels the world to tell the story of this modern-day plague, taking readers from the halls of power in Washington and the diesel-fogged London streets she walks with her daughter to Poland's coal heartland and India's gasping capital. In a gripping narrative that's alive with powerful voices and personalities, she exposes the political decisions and economic forces that have kept so many of us breathing dirty air. This is a moving, up-close look at the human toll, where we meet the scientists who have transformed our understanding of pollution's effects on the body and the ordinary people fighting for a cleaner future.

In the United States, air is far cleaner than it once was. But progress has failed to keep up with the science, which tells us that even today's lower pollution levels are doing real damage. And as the Trump administration rips up the regulations that have brought us where we are, decades of gains are now at risk. Elsewhere, the problem is far worse, and choking nations like China are scrambling to replicate the achievements of an American agency--the EPA--that until recently was the envy of the world.

Clean air feels like a birthright. But it can disappear in a puff of smoke if the rules that protect it are unraveled. At home and around the world, it's never been more important to understand how progress happened and what dangers might still be in store. Choked shows us that we hold the power to build a cleaner, healthier future: one in which breathing, life's most basic function, no longer carries a hidden danger.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Prologue: Inhale: The Meaning of a Breath (p. 1)
• Part 1 Holding Our Breath
• 1 The Measure of a Lung: Charting Pollutions Power (p. 11)
• 2 Ground Zero: Delhi's Health Emergency (p. 35)
• 3 9,416: Living London's Diesel Disaster (p. 61)
• 4 Air You Can Chew: Poland and the Price of Coal (p. 87)
• 5 Cows, Almonds, Asthma: Crisis in the San Joaquin Valley (p. 107)
• 6 Home Fires Burning: A Paradigm Shifts (p. 123)
• Part 2 Coming Up for Air
• 7 To Change a Nation: The Story of Americas Clean Air Act (p. 145)
• 8 Reluctant Innovators: Air and the Automakers (p. 169)
• 9 Inch by Inch: L.A.'s Long Road (p. 195)
• 10 Live from the "Airpocalypse": Chinas Next Revolution (p. 215)
• 11 "To Whom Belongs the City?": Berlin Looks Beyond Cars (p. 239)
• Epilogue: Exhale: What Comes Next (p. 255)
• Acknowledgments (p. 261)
• Notes (p. 265)
• Index (p. 285)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Gardiner, an environmental journalist based in London, researched and experienced a variety of air quality issues while interviewing scientists, activists, and affected residents around the world. Her debut is meant to raise awareness of air pollution as a global public health issue since it leads to the premature deaths of thousands of people each year but is often overlooked. The author reports from cities such as Delhi, Lucknow, London, Krakow, Los Angeles, Beijing, and Berlin along with the country of Malawi. Each visit highlights a different aspect, from diesel fumes to coal smoke. Other chapters cover the passage of the U.S. Clean Air Act and the struggle to regulate vehicle exhaust. Gardiner states that although air quality is being improved in many places, foul air is still causing health problems and shortening lives. She concludes that -government environmental agencies are essential to safeguard public health, that the benefits of operating agencies far outweigh the human costs, and that providing clean air will help mitigate the effects of climate change. Endnotes support the author's statements. VERDICT Environmentalists, concerned citizens, and students will find this book helpful in comprehending the extent of this ongoing issue.-David R. Conn, formerly with Surrey Libs., BC © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

In this captivating book Gardner ponders what the future holds in terms of air quality. She begins by examining the biology of the lung and how hard the lung must work to extract fresh air from air that is polluted with nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides, and fine particulates from fire smoke, smog, and diesel emissions. Gardner includes anecdotes of air pollution dating back to the 1970s and sheds light on why more progress has not been made on eliminating sources of air pollution (in that connection looking at the failure of the original Clean Air Act). Independent studies have shown that homes within 400 meters of major interstates have the highest rate of asthma, ADHD, and ASD and neurobehavioral disorders. In Africa alone air pollution is estimated to kill 780,000 people each year; the worldwide estimate is seven to nine million. More than 33 billion people (40 percent of humanity), in places as far flung as India, Ethiopia, and Peru, cook with fires made from burning such things as charcoal, animal dung, and stalks--fuels that create smoke that is more deadly because it is concentrated. Gardner also looks at how the automobile industry has manipulated internal combustion engines to meet emission standards under test conditions but not necessarily on the roads. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Armen S. Casparian, Community College of Rhode Island