UPDATE: Modern School: Bay Area Air Sickening and Killing Kids

Modern School: Bay Area Air Sickening and Killing Kids:

Bay Area Air Sickening and Killing Kids

by Michael Dunn

Richmond, CA (image from Flickr, by bionicteaching)

The wonderfully clear and sunny days the San Francisco Bay Area experienced during January and early February were also “spare the air” days because of the high levels of smog—also typical of Bay Area winters (at least lately). This is because the Bay Area is home to several oil refineries in Richmond and West Contra Costa County, as well as numerous other polluting chemical and industrial facilities along the waterfront throughout the area.

There were 11,000 hospital admissions in 2010 for asthma-related disease in California (according to a recent report by Inside Bay Area), but in Alameda Country (which includes Oakland and Berkeley) the rate was nearly twice the state average (20.3 hospitalizations for every 10,000 children)—higher than any other country except Fresno and Imperial Counties, which suffer from severe agricultural pollution. Particularly hard hit have been Oakland, Emeryville (Alameda Country), and Richmond and Pittsburg (Contra Costa County).

Severe asthma is potentially deadly (though this is rare). However, even for the majority of children who do not die from their attacks, there can be long-term or permanent health effects if

Union Sells Out Bus Drivers For Nothing

by Michael Dunn

Image from Flickr, by Michael Fleshman

In one of the clearest examples of the folly and stupidity of unions’ love affair with political action, the leadership of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) called off the New York City bus workers’ strike last week, after only one month. Their justification was a letter signed by the five Democratic Party candidates for mayor calling for an end to the strike. The union never asked for a vote of the membership and got literally nothing in return for the back-to-work order