What Are Healthy Lungs? Part 2

I am sure that this will not be a complete discussion of items, conditions, and actions that lead to healthy lungs, but the first thing that comes to mind for me is clean air.  How can we have clean air?  The present concentration of effort is that of attempting to do away with the use of fossil fuels including natural gas.  Natural gas has been promoted as a clean burning fossil fuel.  So, what exactly is natural gas?  According to http://naturalgas.org/overview/background/  “Natural gas (also called fossil gas; sometimes just gas) is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, but commonly including varying amounts of other higher alkanes, and sometimes a small percentage of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, or helium.”

The gas institute also promotes the idea that natural gas is cleaned to remove the harmful chemicals so that is burns more efficiently.  The result of the chemical reaction that takes place leaves carbon dioxide, water, and a little carbon monoxide.  Devices can be installed or built into heating devices to make them so that they do not emit the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.  The water which is at this point steam should not harm the atmosphere.

Could changing to natural gas over coal and wood be part of the answer to clean air problem.  Some scholars think that it could while others are lukewarm on the issue.  It should also be noted that in order for the use of natural gas to be part of the solution the key is to have complete combustion so that soot is not formed.

Technology exists to capture the sulfur from the burning of coal, but one cannot expect emerging economies to engage in the use of these devices as they add greatly to the cost of burning the cheap coal.

Clean air is a global problem and whether or not you believe in the negative effects of global warming we should all be able to agree that we need clean air.  With the price of wind and solar generated energy becoming more affordable there is some hope on the horizon for clean air.

We need clean air in our workplaces.  Some workplaces are inherently dirty.  The one that comes first in mind to me is coal mining since I live in a coal producing area.  Little has been done to attempt to equip coal miners with respirators that would filter out a considerable amount of the coal dust. 

Farming is another profession that is known for producing dust from the soil and from hay and chafe.  What should be done to help protect the farmer from inhaling dangerous particles into the lungs.  The farmer also deals with several chemicals in his environment that he must take precautions while using.

You might be beginning to see that we have a lot of work to do to provide clean air for everyone to breathe.