HEADLINES / TRENDS l STATS l RESEARCH l MEDIA l PEOPLE

July/August 2011

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How Clean is Your City’s Air?

If the skies above you seem less smoggy, that’s because they are.

That good news comes from the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2011 (www.stateoftheair.org), the group’s annual air pollution report. Improving statistics reflect “progress the nation has made cleaning up coal-fired power plants, diesel emissions and
other pollution sources,” says ALA president Charles Connor. He credits the Clean Air Act, passed in 1963 and last amended in 1990, for the improvement.

There is bad news, though. The ALA report finds that more than half the US population, or 154.5 million people, still live in places with dangerous levels of either particle pollution, caused by excessive soot, or smog, in which fumes from car exhaust and other sources react with sunlight to form harmful compounds.

10 Cleanest U.S. Cities, Ozone Air Pollution

1. Honolulu, Hawaii

2. Fargo-Wahpeton, North Dakota- Minnesota

3. Rochester, Minnesota

4. Santa Fe-Espanola, New Mexico

5. Bismarck, North Dakota

6. Dothan-Enterprise-Ozark, Alabama

7. Laredo, Texas

8. Naples-Marco Island, Florida

9. Sioux Falls, South Dakota

10. Monroe-Bastrop, Louisiana

10 Cleanest U.S. Cities, Particle Pollution

1. Cheyenne, Wyoming

2. Santa Fe-Espanola, New Mexico

3. Tucson, Arizona

4. Honolulu, Hawaii

5. Great Falls, Montana

6. Anchorage, Alaska

7. Amarillo, Texas

8. Albuquerque, New Mexico

9. Redding, California

10. Salinas, California

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Green Tea Linked to
Memory Gains

Tea lovers have another reason to celebrate their favorite brew: Green tea has shown an ability to enhance memory.

Korean researchers gave either green tea extract with L-theanine or a placebo to 91 people suffering from cognitive impairment, an Alzheimer’s disease risk factor, for 16 weeks. Those in the extract group showed memory improvements, in particular a “significant” increase in written-word recall. The supplement was also able to enhance mental alertness. Study results have been published in the Journal of Medicinal Foods.

Green tea has been shown to support heart health and to aid in fighting obesity. It may also help prevent several types of cancer.

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Quote

You can’t trust water:
Even a straight stick turns
crooked in it.

—W.C. Fields

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Omega-3, Vitamin D
Aid Infant Health

Proper nutrition when eating for two can protect a newborn’s lungs—and may even determine if a child will be prone to carrying excess weight.

Dutch researchers say taking vitamin D during pregnancy helps prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which can cause pneumonia and other serious illnesses. About 5 million infants are affected by RSV each year in the US.“Intake of vitamin D during late pregnancy is vital to prevent RSV,” say the researchers, writing in the online version of Pediatrics.

Scientists at Harvard Medical School say a child’s risk of becoming obese by age 3 may be cut by 32% if the mother consumes enough omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy. They found that although one fifth of the expectant mothers in their study ate fish more than twice a week, only half of these women took in 200 mg a day of DHA, a key omega-3. And only 3% of all the women studied reached the 200 mg DHA benchmark by the last month of pregnancy, when large amounts are needed to support brain development.

These results are reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.