The Dangers in Our Environment and Their Affect on Our Health

The environment that we live in greatly affects our health; you can't avoid it, but everywhere you turn there is exhaust from a car, factories emitting smokes from their smoke stacks, and not to mention the fast food that is offered is so convenient and cheap that is makes it hard to turn away. Since these things are a part of the world we live in, how are they really affecting us? The effects may be greater than you think.

Exhaust and fumes from vehicles will never go away. Even in the wake of manufacturers creating new ways to give us cleaner air with better exhaust systems we breathe this in everyday. According to sciencedaily.com, researchers at Deakin University have discovered that diesel exhaust is more damaging than biodiesel which is a plant based fuel. Dr. Ackland, the head of the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, had a team of researches test the effects of diesel exhaust against the biodiesel exhaust. The diesel in fact killed and damaged the cells while the biodiesel had very little effect at all.

The end result of these studies proves that the damage is what causes respiratory diseases of all kinds is. Asthma is just one of those diseases, but it would be interesting to see if mesothelioma, a cancer that affects the lining of the lungs would also be caused by diesel fumes.

The same is also true of air pollution from factories and how it affects us. Studies have shown that this too causes respiratory illness. In 2006 Dr. Douglas Dockery from the Department of Environmental Health, at Harvard, did a study that shows that liquid particles as well as what is called "particulate matter", float through the air and as you breath can attach themselves into the airway. The fine particles which are the strongest are the ones that come from paper mills, steel mills, and cement mills. These are the ones that tend to show the most destruction.

Last but not least, the food that we eat can be just as dangerous. Over the past decade, the focus on organic eating has caused quite a stir. But when you watch a film like Food Inc., produced by Robert Kenner, it's easy to see why there is such a fuss over making better choices. The film begins by talking with families that wonder why a head of lettuce is costing them more than double cheeseburger at McDonald's. It was hard to watch as families wanted to make healthy choices for their families but were stopped only as a result of the prices that they saw on everything they needed.

The film proceeds by interviewing a woman who has a chicken farm, and lost part of her subsidy because she refused to convert to the newer hen houses. She lets her chickens range freely, and wanted to give up the antibiotics. She tells the story because she says, "I have to tell the truth. I can't hide this anymore." She speaks with such conviction, and you can tell she is torn as the bulldozer carries all the chickens away that didn't make it due to all the antibiotics and growth hormones they are given. Chickens are growing so fast they can't keep up, so they only take a few steps before they have to sit down. In addition, because she is around all the antibiotics that she has given to these chickens, she is now immune to them. How can this be?

It's a wake up call to the affect of what this fast food and convenient process is doing to us. We need to only feed our kids the best, and take care of ourselves. With the rise of unemployment, do what you can. If you can't afford everything natural, start with what you can afford and go from there. Do yourself a favor and watch Food Inc. We got if from Time Warner On Demand.