LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Pollution: Particulate Air Pollution
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Based on BREATH-TAKING: Premature Mortality Due to Particulate Air Pollution in 239 American Cities, a May 1996 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. To view mortality data for individual cities and states, see the online version of the report.
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Similarly, acid rain and other forms of particulate air pollution can be derived from atmospheric reactions of gaseous sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides precursors occurring many hundreds of miles downwind. Agents released into water can ... undergo significant changes. For example, methyl mercury, which is far more toxic than elemental mercury, is formed in water through the action of bacteria and makes its way into the food chain. The dumping of inorganic mercury from a single chloralkali plant in Minimata Bay, Japan, led to contamination of fish with methyl mercury and to over a hundred deaths and thousands of people being affected by what is known as Minimata disease. There is also a global air circulation of metals, such as mercury, and of persistent organic pollutants, such as PCBs, which tends to carry these agents toward the arctic where they often bioaccumulate.
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The elderly and those with heart and lung disease are at greatest risk of premature mortality due to particulate air pollution. Their lives might be shortened by one to two years on average in more polluted areas.
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Particulate Air Pollution