The 1369th meeting of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences was held on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 5.00p.m. at the New Haven Lawn Club. Some 50 members and their guests attended the lecture and the dinner following. The members and their guests enjoyed cocktails before the lecture, which began at 5.30p.m. Dr. Ernest Kohorn, President of the Academy, welcomed the audience and introduced the speaker, John Wargo, Professor of Environmental Risk Analysis and Policy at Yale University.

Professor Wargo's talk was entitled "Environment, Health and Children: The Origins of Inequality in the Distribution of Health". He noted that his talk had been incorrectly advertised by the Academy as the "Origins of the Inequality in the Distribution of Wealth," but the error had given him pause for thought. Although he considered that there was indeed a connection between the two concepts, he would continue with his talk on health.

Dr Wargo said that it was important to understand how risks are distributed and how to craft public policy in order to protect women and children. Air quality and its effects on health was one of the biggest threats to children. Environmental quality does indeed affect the incidence of some illnesses. The Environmental Protection Authority {EPA} states that air quality has improved, but, says Professor Wargo, it depends how you measure it and also where you spend your time. Many pollutant chemicals persist in the environment and cause late damage. For example, strontium 90 is "rained down, goes into plants and then arrives on our dinner table. The increased use of coal by the Chinese affects our air. It affects the West coast first and eventually also the East coast of the United States. Professor Wargo said there is a concentration of highway freight transportation in the northeast of the United States and that together with the prevailing wind causes the worst smog days in the N.E. Air pollution from industry is concentrated in the southwest of Connecticut. Ozone and particulate levels peak at midday but the EPA average the numbers out. The air quality when driving on I 95 and I 91 is bad but sitting in traffic in downtown Los Angeles is worse. There are more vehicles on the road now and they are being used more. In 1950, the EPA set standards to protect the population's health. States however were allowed to average the standards over 3 years so the politics of air quality were the politics of statistical standards. The N.E. of the U.S. has the highest consumption of heating fuel, and relies on diesel fuel, which has high sulphur content. The NE also has the highest incidence of asthma in children. So the most susceptible population to this form of pollution are at both ends of the life cycle: those with asthma, cardiac problems, bronchitis or emphysema The clean air act provided no protection for this group. If you put meters on children to measure the polluted air they were breathing, there would be bursts at the beginning and at the end of the day since that is when they travel on buses or in cars. (Professor Wargo used his daughter to measure the air pollution but had to pay for it dearly. She did not want to travel on a school bus any more so he drove her to school every day!) When the idling of school busses was found to be a big pollutant and that the exhaust of one bus was going straight into the cabin and the driver of the bus behind, the State of Connecticut reacted well and limited the idling. This was a policy success story. (The drivers said they idled because they were afraid that their buses would not restart. This was based on their experiences with the older buses several years ago!) The EPA does not measure bursts of pollution since the measures are averaged over 24 hours and then 3 years, but these bursts are significant in health risks. Professor Wargo concluded by saying that the government does not manage environmental issues on a scale that matters to the individual. There needs to be political will to apply the available information. Initiatives are however being taken at the State level of government.