Asthma and Pollution in Phoenix, Arizona Essay Example

Asthma and Pollution in Phoenix, Arizona Essay Example Asthma and Pollution in Phoenix, Arizona Paper Asthma and Pollution in Phoenix, Arizona Paper Introduction: World Regions with accounted mild Asthma are southern Europe with 63%, Australia and New Zealand with 42%. Proportions of people with severe asthma, on the other hand, are 28% in Australia and New Zealand, 26% in Portland, 21% in United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, both 17% in Central and Northern Europe, and 15% in souther Europe. United States has many persons with asthma cases. A research estimated that 20 million had asthma in the country (http://phoenix.about.com/cs/health/a/asthma01.htm). Though asthma, over the past 30 years, is rarely a cause of death for Americans, it had caused them an estimate of $12.7 billion in 1998 alone. Phoenix, Arizona is one of the States in America known for its concentration of asthma patients in its several asthma treatment centers. Does this conclude that living in Arizona makes people more prone to Asthma? What is the current state of its surroundings that may affect the health condition of these people? Background: Asthma is a continual lung disease. Persons living with it are suffering from coughing and shortness of breath caused by the inflammation of his airways. According to medical practitioners in the U.S. government, asthma is hereditary meaning someone that has asthma can have a close relative in the family that also has its unpleasant symptoms.   But new research suggest that being exposed to things that triggers asthma early in life may increase the chances of developing this disease(nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Asthma/). Asthma is incurable, but it could be controlled so that few and infrequent symptoms can be experienced. Asthma episodes or attacks happened when symptoms get worse than usual. Asthma attack is characterized by the tightening of airways causing airways narrower so the person experience less air intake. In addition, airways cells make more mucus intended for trapping foreign materials that flows with the air inhaled. These two actions by the body make the person hard to breathe. Severe asthma attacks could cause death because of non-delivery of renewed oxygen to vital organs such as the brain and the heart, and non-exhaustion of waste gases from the body such as carbon dioxide. In case of severe asthma attacks, an immediate medical attention is necessary. Several prescribed medicines would make the affected body of the person in control. To avoid such attacks, persons with asthma were advised to consult with his doctor regularly. Asthma is said to be one of the leading causes of children missing in school. Also, occupational asthma are said to be the most prevaling work-related lung disease in developing countries (lycos.com/info/asthmaunited-states.html). Asthma in Phoenix   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Two of United States top 25 cities with the highest asthma prevalence were Tucson ranking first and Phoenix, not far ranking third. Both of them come from the state of Arizona. Someone would presume based on these given data that the latter is one of the worst places for asthmatics. But this would not be the case. Before someone judges, he should first consider all factors that could contribute to these facts. Before, the State of Arizona governing the city of Phoenix had started an ambition of making its territory as a health destination. The government had permitted to build several asthma treatment centers with attractive facilities causing many asthmatics to migrate for a better living in this place. Its climate characteristics which are dry, warm and sunny made Phoenix together with the other parts of Arizona more attractive to better-health seekers. Asthmatics belonging to the middle and upper class, upon knowing this government program, had the n left their own place and inquired how to settle permanently in Arizona. Asthmatics community builds up in the area, mixed up with the local community, they get into inter-marriage, families expanded, and concentration of people with Asthma grew into Arizona’s major cities. Being a city with a high concentration of asthma people, Phoenix’s environment and health officials closely monitors the status of its pollution. They were being alarmed with the harmful effects that were brought by the continuous industrialization in their area. Pollution’s threat to Better-Health Seekers:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      Phoenix, Arizona is a dessert place. Any land disturbances would therefore create dust pollution that would affect its residents. According to the Arizona Republic Online Print Edition, housing construction is a factor in the constant acquiring of pollution of the south Phoenix. Together with this problem is the toxic emmissions from cars and industrial plants. The residents are concerned with the diesel-powered â€Å"16-wheeler† trucks that usually drive through their residential areas. Residents are also worried if industry fires like the 2000 Central Garden Warehouse Fire and chemical spills such as the 1992 Quality Printed Circuits Fire would happen again thus endanger their health. Based on studies, diesel-fuel emmisions are more harmful to people than the regular gasoline emissions. These emissions increase the threat of worsening the condition of people with asthma, together with lung disease and heart attacks. Another r eport states the occurrence of a â€Å"Brown Cloud† over the city that were said to have been caused by the discharge carbon and nitrogen dioxide gas mostly from burning fossil fuels. State Government, Residents and Industry Actions:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Maricopa County Air Quality Department is created in1994 to keep track and enforce air-quality standards. It had organized a seminar at the South Mountain Community College drewing 20 residents as its audience. The residents reported their claims on the current condition of their surroundings’ air. Director of the Air Quality Department, Bob Kard, said everyone must contribute to the elimination of these hazardous air pollutants. He specified that South Phoenix’s air pollution is caused by mainly by automotive fumes, waste gases form industrial plant industries and land disturbances such as made by housing construction. Both the agency and the residents share the same sentiment of being worried for another industry accident. The county formed a sub-committee in south Phoenix, the Industry Challenge/Good Neighbor Partnership which aims to reduce the hazardous pollutants from industry emmissions by 20 percent for the next two y ears. The county also had promised they will put into action more safety measures to prevent such chemical spills at plants said to be handling delicate chemicals such as ammonia, chlorine and nitric acid. Even the above twenty companies operating in south Phoenix supports this drive by joining voluntarily into the partnership. The three sectors had all agreed to come up with cleaner air to our sorroundings as soon as possible, therefore making the city of Phoenix still a haven for better-health seekers such as those suffering from the chronic disease asthma. Is Phoenix still be a safe place for asthmatics?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The state government of Arizona started an initiative to protect its air. The drive was both supported by the residents and industry owners. They had all promised that in the near future, there would be an almost clean atmosphere hovering above the cities of Arizona. But environmentalist states that their actions do not suffice to meet their desired objective. One evidence environmentalist states are the persons who suggested using the plenty normal gasoline after one of the two pipelines supplying Phoenix broke last midyear of 2003 ( tinyvital.com/BlogArchives/000252.html). The two pipelines supplies Phoenix own blend of oxygenated gas, which only few refineries produce. The persons, who had gave a suggestion, unfriendly in turn point out that if the government would still prevent the use of normal gasoline, then Phoenix would face a gas shortage. Remember, there is a drive against the use of diesel because it emits more hazard than the r egular gasoline. Why do sacrifice the health of the residents so as the same residents would not suffer from the increase of gasoline prices because of its shortage? Whatever other material reasons, the government would still prioritize the health of its constituents. If it would give chance to the suggestion wether it is just for temporary resolution, then it would give an idea that the government would allow pollution just as its state would not suffer gas shortage setbacks. Healthy people would not be get affected easily but how come to those persons with asthma and other lung disease. Does the person suggest government to throw away his asthma treatment programs in exchange? Conclusion:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     It is nice that Phoenix had set an ambition to be a medical destination with its asthma treatment centers. The government must continue to support the drive for not only clean air but also for clean land and clean water.   If the private sector would support their actions, then Phoenix would be a permanent haven for all better-health seekers. References: Asthma. Retrieved June 15, 2007 from nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Asthma/ Asthma: United States. Lycos Retriever. Retrieved June 15, 2007 from lycos.com/info/asthmaunited-states.html Eastwood, S. (2006, January). Brown Air in the Valley. About.com. Retrieved June 15, 2007 from http://phoenix.about.com/od/weather/a/browncloud.htm Hedding, J. Asthma in Phoenix and Tucson. About.com. Retrieved June 15, 2007 from http://phoenix.about.com/cs/health/a/asthma01.htm Melendez, M. (2005, September 30). Some of the Valleys worst air pollution hangs over south Phoenix. Retrieved June 15, 2007 from azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/centralphoenix/articles/0930ext-air30Z4.html Moore, J. (2003, August 19). Environmentalist Cause Phoenix Gas Shortage. Retrieved June 15, 2007 from tinyvital.com/BlogArchives/000252.html

Null Hypothesis Definition and Examples

Null Hypothesis Definition and Examples In a scientific experiment, the null hypothesis is the proposition that there is no effect or no relationship between phenomena or populations. If the null hypothesis is true, any observed difference in phenomena or populations would be due to sampling error (random chance) or experimental error. The null hypothesis is useful because it can be tested and found to be false, which then implies that there is a relationship between the observed data. It may be easier to think of it as a nullifiable hypothesis or one that the researcher seeks to nullify. The null hypothesis is also known as the H0, or no-difference hypothesis. The alternate hypothesis, HA or H1, proposes that observations are influenced by a non-random factor. In an experiment, the alternate hypothesis suggests that the experimental or independent variable has an effect on the dependent variable. How to State a Null Hypothesis There are two ways to state a null hypothesis. One is to state it as a declarative sentence, and the other is to present it as a mathematical statement. For example, say a researcher suspects that exercise is correlated to weight loss, assuming diet remains unchanged. The average length of time to achieve a certain amount of weight loss is six weeks when a person works out five times a week. The researcher wants to test whether weight loss takes longer to occur if the number of workouts is reduced to three times a week. The first step to writing the null hypothesis is to find the (alternate) hypothesis. In a word problem like this, youre looking for what you expect to be the outcome of the experiment. In this case, the hypothesis is I expect weight loss to take longer than six weeks. This can be written mathematically as:  H1: ÃŽ ¼ 6 In this example, ÃŽ ¼ is the average. Now, the null hypothesis is what you expect if this hypothesis does not happen. In this case, if weight loss isnt achieved in greater than six weeks, then it must occur at a time equal to or less than six weeks. This can be written mathematically as: H0: ÃŽ ¼ ≠¤ 6 The other way to state the null hypothesis is to make no assumption about the outcome of the experiment. In this case, the null hypothesis is simply that the treatment or change will have no effect on the outcome of the experiment. For this example, it would be that reducing the number of workouts would not affect the time needed to achieve weight loss: H0: ÃŽ ¼ 6 Null Hypothesis Examples Hyperactivity is unrelated to eating sugar is an example of a null hypothesis. If the hypothesis is tested and found to be false, using statistics, then a connection between hyperactivity and sugar ingestion may be indicated. A significance test is the most common statistical test used to establish confidence in a null hypothesis. Another example of a null hypothesis is Plant growth rate is unaffected by the presence of cadmium in the soil. A researcher could test the hypothesis by measuring the growth rate of plants grown in a medium lacking cadmium, compared with the growth rate of plants grown in mediums containing different amounts of cadmium. Disproving the null hypothesis would set the groundwork for further research into the effects of different concentrations of the element in soil. Why Test a Null Hypothesis? You may be wondering why you would want to test a hypothesis just to find it false. Why not just test an alternate hypothesis and find it true? The short answer is that it is part of the scientific method. In science, propositions are not explicitly proven. Rather, science uses math to determine the probability that a statement is true or false. It turns out its much easier to disprove a hypothesis than to positively prove one. Also, while the null hypothesis may be simply stated, theres a good chance the alternate hypothesis is incorrect. For example, if your null hypothesis is that plant growth is unaffected by duration of sunlight, you could state the alternate hypothesis in several different ways. Some of these statements might be incorrect. You could say plants are harmed by more than 12 hours of sunlight or that plants need at least three hours of sunlight, etc. There are clear exceptions to those alternate hypotheses, so if you test the wrong plants, you could reach the wrong conclusion. The null hypothesis is a general statement that can be used to develop an alternate hypothesis, which may or may not be correct.