From University of Utah Health Sciences viua Eurekalert; I suppose it’s only a matter of time where somebody will publish a study saying that a 50ppm increase in CO2 causes more suicides. I wonder how they explain Seattle, which is 8th in the nation in clean air, or those hotbeds of air pollution, Wyoming and North Dakota.
Cheyenne Wyoming has the cleanest air of any U.S. City
Study in the American Journal of Epidemiology found increased risk of suicide associated with short-term air pollution exposure
A new study from the University of Utah is adding to the small, but growing body of research that links air pollution exposure to suicide.
In research published today in The American Journal of Epidemiology, investigator Amanda Bakian, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah, and her colleagues outline chemical and meteorological variables that are risk factors for suicide. Their study, titled “Risk assessment of air pollution and suicide,” examines how those factors play out among different genders and age groups. The findings build on other research by Bakian released in April 2014, when she found that fine particulates and nitrogen dioxide in air pollution are linked with an increased risk for suicide.
In the latest study, Bakian and researchers found an increased risk of suicide associated with short-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter among Salt Lake City residents who died by suicide between 2000 to 2010. In particular, men and Salt Lake City residents between 36 to 64 years of age experienced the highest risk of suicide following short-term air pollution exposure.
“We are not exactly sure why risk of suicide was higher in these two groups but suspect that it might be because these two groups were either exposed to higher levels of air pollution or that other additional factors make these two groups more susceptible to the effects of air pollution,” said Bakian.
Bakian examined the records of more than 1,500 people who died by suicide in Salt Lake County between Jan. 1, 2000, and Dec. 31, 2010, and found that the odds of completing suicide were 20 percent higher for people exposed to increased levels of nitrogen dioxide in the two to three days before their deaths. Similarly, individuals exposed to high concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the two to three days before a suicide experienced 5 percent higher odds of suicide. Research found the risk was highest during the spring and fall –not the winter months when inversions are most common.
Data from the records also revealed that men experienced a 25 percent increase in the odds of suicide following short-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide and a 6 percent increase in the odds of suicide following short-term exposure to fine particulate matter. In addition, the odds of suicide in people between the ages of 36 to 64 increased by 20 percent following short-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide and 7 percent following short-term exposure to fine particulate matter.
“As suicide risk was found to differ by age and gender, this suggests that vulnerability to suicide following air pollution exposure is not uniform across Salt Lake County residents and that some Salt Lake County residents are more vulnerable than others,” said Bakian. “Our next step is to determine in more detail exactly what elements–such as genetic and sociodemographic factors –are responsible for increasing one’s vulnerability to suicide following air pollution exposure.”She is careful to point out that the research doesn’t state that bad air causes suicide. While the study doesn’t prove that air pollution causes someone to commit suicide, it suggests that higher levels of pollution might interact with other factors to increase the risk for suicide, she noted.
###
Bakian’s research was funded in small part through seed grant funding distributed last year by the University of Utah’s Program for Air Quality, Health and Society. The program awarded $165,000 to six researchers to perform research aimed at understanding and addressing the consequences of Utah’s air pollution on human health and welfare. In addition to representatives from the Program for Air Quality, Health and Society, the research was conducted by investigators from the University of Utah Department of Psychiatry, the Brain Institute, the Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC), Veterans Integrated Service Network 19 (VISN 19) and Intermountain Health Care. Study co-investigators include Rebekah Huber, Hilary Coon, Douglas Gray, Phillip Wilson, William McMahon and Perry Renshaw.
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So no real “cause and effect” analysis here, simply a statistical correlation.
Based on this “study”, I’m expecting to hear Bejing is waist-deep in dead Chinese.
Good point. Talk about low air quality!
Also, think of the air quality that bar patrons or poker players had to face before smoking was banned in most places.
Our (UK) last government decided that CO2 was a huge threat and to mitigate it they gave road tax discounts to motorists who owned cars that produced less CO2. My Jaguar cost £400 a year to tax (4.2 litre supercharged V8) a smaller under-performing (boring!) car £zero. Most of the cheap-to-tax cars were diesel fueled, because 50 -70 mpg can be easily attained.
The problem was that these cars produce PM10’s which are 10 micron particles of carbon coated with un-burnt fuel, which are highly carcinogenic. If anyone has driven behind a vehicle producing clouds of these particles, they will know how unpleasant and dangerous it is. The Labour Party who were in government at the time have no admitted that CO2 is a lot less dangerous. Legislation to ban these monstrosities is sadly lacking.
I got rid of the Jaguar a long time ago and drive a 1994 Ford Mustang (5.0 litre V8) and my wife has a 2000 (3.2 lite V6) Mercedes. These cars cost £225 a year to tax because they are over 5 years old, losses due to depreciation saves even more,they are a joy to drive and I enjoy tinkering on with them at weekends! Neither produces any smoke from the exhausts.
After reading this article, I’m feeling a little suicidal. I’m wondering if the suicide rate is higher for people who have been exposed to college professors.
Just for giggles, I looked up the suicide rate of American farmers. It’s two times the national average! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terezia-farkas/why-farmer-suicide-rates-_1_b_5610279.html Guess what sex and race American farmers happen to land in. Guess what farmers deal with a lot: dust, odor, and diesel exhaust.
Of course, farming is a very financially stable, worry-free, way to make a living, too.
You are so funny, Spetzer86.
Still, funny coinkydink
spetzer86
Your source (Newsweek) was not exactly highly documented, so I went out on the internet (YEA!) and copied the 1st URL I could find (http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/the-biggest/the-10-professions-with-the-highest-suicide-rates/?view=all). Guess what? the top-10 suicide occupations are claimed to be:
1 doctors (1.67 x average)
2 dentist
3 financial workers
4 lawyers
5 police
6 real estate agents
7 electricians
8 farm workers (1.32 x average)
9 pharmacists
10 scientists (1.28 x average)
My conclusion: (with a couple exceptions) education appears to be highly collelated to suicide.
Strangely, no mention of farmers (assuming they are not rolled into “farm workers”)
Just want to note I’m neither one way or the other on the original topic. My only interest was to do what you did and Google the topic. In my search, an article about farmers came up, which I was not suspecting and did have some association with the original article. In yours, it was an article with doctors at the top. Just an observation, I work in the health field and most articles I’ve seen put dentists higher than doctors. Be interesting to see the methodology used in these cases.
Ah, yes… Ye ol’ post hoc ergo propter hoc is still alive and well in the race to jump on the CAGW gravy train while it continues to chug along towards the cliff…
How anyone can still take CAGW seriously is a sad commentary on this clueless generation.
Whew, dodged that bullet. It’s nice to know that thoughts of suicide I had in middle age had nothing to do with bankruptcy due to a stock market crash, the resultant home foreclosure I experienced, the girlfriend who told me to take a hike (and that all her orgasms were fake), getting dumped by my employer of 20 years, the onset of male pattern baldness, the loss of a testicle, the botched rhinoplasty, the horribly botched prostate exam, the confiscation of my computer by the FBI, the loss of my big toe due to an accidental discharge from my holstered gun, my car getting totaled out by an uninsured motorist (I wasn’t insured either), getting cut-off at every neighborhood bar, identity theft, or the torment visited upon me for 40 years by my sister – my older sister. It’s so very nice to know that the only thing making me, or anybody else, unhappy in the presence of adversity had nothing whatsoever to do with misfortune. No, it was just a little bit of extra nitrogen, or perhaps O3, all those years ago.
Anybody feel depressed after the person you were in love with told you they never wanted to see you again? Don’t fret, that’s not the problem. It’s really that diesel truck on the corner.
Lost that job of 30 years and can’t meet the mortgage? Don’t sweat it. The only thing that’s got you freaked out is really that coal fired power plant.
Just got home early and found your best friend in bed with your wife (or husband)? Remember, the only thing making you feel bad are those jet aircraft contrails.
Well done, Tom J! Yes, indeed. (ugh, just reading that list made me sick to my stomach, however … creepy stuff like that happens… every day)
So, of COURSE we must shut down whatever puts nitrous oxide into the air. Yeah, I know, I know, Envirostalinists usually are all for whatever reduces the “surplus population,” but the power force here is the Enviroprofiteers trying to push windmills and solar and their other non-petroleum or non-nuclear power junk.
Is your nickname Lucky?
So why do dentists have a high suicide rate? Perhaps being exposed to all that bad breath from their patients’ rotting teeth.
Rates are dropping for dentists. The mercury done it. (I have no idea if this is true).
What’s the suicide rate for CAGW chicken little’s when their predictions are wrong….again & again & again ???
OK, the only way you would know about the exposure was toxicology from the corpse, did anyone bother to control for the fact that middle aged men are more likely to commit suicide in a garage, where all levels of oxides are much higher. Each age-gender group has it’s own “preference” in method and location to leave their cares behind, a psychiatrist should know that.
If your wondering how I know that it’s from the EMT and Volunteer Firefighter training I went through so I could get those fancy emergency flashers and a police scanner for my truck.
Anyway, that’s the kind of crap you get when you hook up a psychiatrist with a computer, and 3 hours of training on SPSS
Hey, Mark (from the Midwest),
Good for you to be ready to come to the rescue of the many who will need it. You have seen things no person should ever have to see. Thank you for being there for us, man.
And your comment was RIGHT on. The sad-but-true fact is: men are “better” at suicide. Women are more often “crying for help.”
Take care of yourself, too.
Janice
Actually I don’t see too much, the pros handle the nasty stuff. I usually end up directing traffic, or some other unheroic but useful task. But I still get to use those cool red and blue strobe flashers on my truck, so it’s all good.
Mark from the Midwest (replying to Janice Moore)
I’m jealous. We only got the green reflective vests, backbacks, and helmets after our emergency responder certification and testing. Flashlights, safety gear, first aid and the like to kit out the backpack …. BUT Darn!! You got bells and whistles and flashy lights! Man! What a bummer! Getting depressed here ….. Going down….. Feeling gloomy! WE didn’t get bells and lights …. We only got a backpack. Misery!
getting hit by the ole country song…. Gloom, Despair and Agony on me! If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all …
@ur momisugly Mark (and R. A., too) — Still, thank you. Getting up at 3am to go direct traffic so someone’s life can be saved IS heroic (and you are WILLINGLY VOLUNTEERING FOR THE NASTY STUFF if it happened to come your way, too).
Any talk of “poor air” or polluted air in the U.S. is simply balderdash from the word, “Go.”
Beginning with the Clean Air Act back in 1970, U.S. industry has had NO CHOICE but to clean its effluent – its pollution coming out of its smokestacks.
PERIOD.
PERIOD.
PERIOD.
The U.S. air quality is basically 90%+ improved over the 1960s and the first half of the 20th century.
ANY – I repeat, ANY! – effort to characterize the U.S. air as polluted is simply wrong-headed lies or, at best, uninformed people who simply do not know their anal fistulas from their oral fissures.
How do I know? I spent the first half of my career in mechanical design engineering (now retired) coming up with various forms of air pollution control for industry. From scrubbers to catalytic to various other forms of pollution removal, these pieces of equipment were designed to – and DID – remove well over 90% of all forms of pollution.
Hell, we even did them for BAKERIES, of all things – because the Liberals (of whom I am one – MOST of the time) – decreed that we should not have to smell baked goods on the street. Akkk!
Did we eliminate ALL of the pollution? No. But the air in most of our cities is cleaner than at any time since probably 1860.
These people have NO idea of the BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS spent BY INDUSTRY to celan up the air. And did they do so out of the goodness of their hearts? Of course not. These improvements were MANDATED BY LAW, and they were ENFORCED by regulatory agencies, namely the EPA.
So this is one time that liberals did something that benefited the entire country, when regulation did its job, and we have better lives therefrom. Industry opposed this with great vehemence at the time, but n the end what we got was a better country to live in. Anyone who REALLY wants to see what pollution in the U.S. was like back then should simply fly to any of the 100+ cities in China over 1,000,000 people and see what kind of air industry produces without regulations. Industry will not spend a DIME on pollution controls unless the government points a gun at them. Literally, no industry lifted a finger until they HAD TO. But when the gun was pointed at them, they capitulated. And we – and them, too – are better off for it.
London fog, where is that good old London Fog??
Most people applauded the EPA when that evil earth hating republican Richard Nixon made it law. Initially, the pollution removed from our lands and waterways was the right thing to do and has provided a much improved environment. Then, the progressives made the EPA the bad guy through overreach by stealing taxpayer money and offering only lies and distorted facts.
Okay so next, will we shortly see that homicide rates,are driven by pollution? I mean if you’re driven to off yourself because of it, you could just as easily opt to off the source of you’re problem, the person polluting. See good Sir, that follow did hunt down his supervisor on account that he gave them a bad review, held back his bonus . No it was because he didn’t drive a environmentally friendly car.
oops, see good Sir that fellow didn’t .. (must proof read) Gave him – not them. thankfully the only thing I have to worry about is pollution, and not the utter humiliation and embarrassment due to my reprehensible grammar and spelling
michael
Mike. It takes quite a prideful person, actally, to wok very har at miking shure that no typeos (that’s all yours wree, you know — your spelling and grammar are GREAT) EVERY TIME in one’s comment. Keep on posting with your head high!
#(:))
And, yeah….. I can hear the criminal defense bar, now: “And, so, you see, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Ms. Wacko was pushed beyond the limits of what any reasonable person could be expected to resist: she HAD to save the world from the likes of Mr. Brown and his GAS GUZZLING pick-up truck. SHE IS YOUR SAVIOR! Can you sentence her to death??!!!”
lololololol ….. hm.
It’s only a matter of time before some enterprising attorney hits on it.
And no Janice I’m not to bothered by my spelling, its the not taking the time to check it that annoys me. laughing
michael
this whole article is just primed with “gallows humor”
This study is the definition of what stoned dumb ass stupid is.
Feminism is a more likely cause (for the sharp, dramatic increase of the male female suicide rate relative to the female suicide rate)..
So…., you are saying….
that now that women can vote and own property and get a good education and have a satisfying career as a medical doctor and the like… they are happier… so they kill themselves less often …
so the man suicide:woman suicide ratio is greater than it was?
Sounds like your undercover agent work with the IPCC gang may be getting to you…. they are REALLY big on post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
Sounds like you’re big on straw manning and pulling alleged facts out your arse.
The female suicide rate is near what it used to be. The male suicide rate has doubled to tripled in countries around the world since the advent of second wave feminism.
And from your crude way of talking to me, a lady, it is obvious that you support a the more extreme end of the feminist movement wholeheartedly.
#(:))
Point of order:
Which is the most extreme end of a feminist?Just asking….
Why do married men die before their wives? Because they want to!
That bad, huh? You have my sympathy (I know two fine men who I have no doubt would agree with you… but not out loud….. SHE might find out! …. and boy howdy, they do not want to make her mad — why don’t they leave??? well… it usually has a lot to do with money, sadly.).
There ARE a lot of Toms in Florida, huh? 😉 — or maybe… you just don’t care if she knows… . Couldn’t get much worse, huh? Hang in there.
It’s not the air, polluted or otherwise, that causes suicides. It’s DHMO.
http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html
I think cross-indexing with cities with Professional sports teams, regional GDP and number of email ids per city resident and they would really have something there.
“Bakian examined the records of more than 1,500 people who died by suicide in Salt Lake County…” I could not find Utah in the list of states with a greatest suicide rate increase. Then, I have no idea what these increases mean; maybe a jump from 1 to 2 in Wyoming? The graph is of “anomalies”, not of the real thing.
I would also appreciate a link to the source.
“Bakian examined the records of more than 1,500 people who died by suicide in Salt Lake County between Jan. 1, 2000, and Dec. 31, 2010 and found that the odds of completing suicide were 20 percent higher for people exposed to increased levels of nitrogen dioxide in the two to three days before their deaths. Similarly, individuals exposed to high concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the two to three days before a suicide experienced 5 percent higher odds of suicide”
Just another example of why most published research findings are false:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182327/
I weep for science!
I remember reading back in the ’70’s that the profession with the highest suicide was psychiatry. (I don’t know which profession it is now.) Maybe they only practiced near coal-fired power plants?
Well someone has to say it; I think the guy (Author) needs to see a “shrink”
“She” is unlikely to thank you for your ad-hoc gender reassignment. Unless “Amanda” is just another boy named Sue.
She might just be drawing attention away from women being a major stimulus factor in many suicides among men…
Oops I goofed again Thanks for setting me straight.
michael
On the other hand, this reportjust out from the National Health Service (Britain) reveals that regular sex reduces risks of heart disease, strokes, and several kinds of cancer:
I do not know if this is a peer reviewed study, but it is from the National Health Service, so only anti-science deniers could possibly doubt its conclusions.
Since many more people die of the above maladies than by suicide, it would seem that having sex after breathing poor air will more than make up for the increase in people who off themselves, and quite likely also reduce the number of people driven to that extreme.
Clearly we need to put together a follow-up study to determine the relative suicide rate of people who breathe dirty air and have 30 minutes of sex five times a week (or dancing, if you insist) verses a control groups who (a) just breathe dirty air and (b) breathe clean air but have regular sex.
I know it would be a long and detailed study, requiring extensive data gathering, but wouldn’t it be worthwhile even if it only saved one life?
Meanwhile, it appears from early reviews that the suicide rate among people who saw 50 Shades of Grey might spike upward. Perhaps they should have gone dancing instead.
“On the other hand, this reportjust out from the National Health Service (Britain) reveals that regular sex reduces risks of heart disease, strokes, and several kinds of cancer:”
————————————————————————-
I haven’t checked yet but, I wonder if ACA (Obamacare) has a provision for this?
Although, I’m sure I don’t want any government provided hookers.
Is there an insurance policy that offers this medical service?
Then I wondered… am I’m already paying for government provided sex?
Cause I feel like I’m the one paying to get
scrDOH!
And for all these years, I thought suicide was a result of mental stress.
Shit now I got to buy my 56 year old ass a gun :>)
SSHHHH don’t talk my saddle 30-30 rifle
add it to the list…