NYC and Asthma (Remaining Assignment #2)

I have always been fascinated with a city like New York City, the most industrialized city there is. However, after exploring various health problems associated to this city after taking MPH 720, I focused to learn more about the rate of asthma in NYC. Just after being with my dad, a pharmacist who consults asthma patients in the city, I could tell the city has great occurrences of asthma than other major cities. An obvious reason is the amount of particulate matter generated by the hundreds of thousands of vehicles and commercial places. Here is the pic of the amount of particulate matter over the five boroughs of the city:

The amount of pollution reached its peak and is on its way down, due to the efforts of the NYC Plan for a cleaner air quality for the city residents. The plan promises the best air quality of any major US city by 2030 and the asthma rates are projected to decrease as well. This plan can be found on New York City's official website. Very interesting measures are being taken to cleanse the city of harmful levels of pollution.
Please comment or ask any questions you might have.

Parth Patel

Rachel Carson Blog 2

 

Courtesy: http://www.rachelcarson.org

Rachel Carson has made significant and extremely essential contributions to raise awareness regarding  the health of the environment that surrounds us and ultimately the health of mankind. Her book, Silent Springs, that we talked about in the previous blog, not only presents factual information that is concrete but through the book Rachel reaches the mind of every person to clearly show the harmful effects of such chemicals etc. Her life work presented through many of her writings show that humans are a part of a nature that have the power to alter it, irreversible in some cases, and that is leading only towards a slow death of the nature that supports our own existence. Her research and her jobs exposed her to the alarming effects of chemicals and other substances we use. Through her writings, Rachel has started a strong movement to protect the earth and ourselves from our actions.

Thank you,
Parth Patel

Rachel Carson

                                                                         Rachel Carson

                                                Source: http://www.rachelcarson.org/

As mankind has evolved towards science and technology and a world that runs on facts facts and facts, we have become increasingly dependent on facts to believe even the smallest things. Rachel Carson, in her book Silent Spring (1962), does an incredible job in providing strong factual information and opening our eyes towards harmful chemical agent use after WWII. Her degrees in science and the amount of knowledge her experience with nature provided gave her a concrete base to increase awareness regarding the slow death of nature and mankind. Throughout her book, Rachel has used multiple examples, scenarios, and scientific evidence to prove her point and to prove that a certain chemical is disastrous. I think this quality alone has made her a significant figure. Another important aspect of the book are the titles. Her titles like "Rivers of death", "Indiscriminately from the Skies" etc. create a strong impression on the reader and directly indicate the seriousness and intensity of the issues. Instead of just providing tables of data and other scientific evidence, Rachel narrates it all to make it easier for the reader rather than proving appendixes of huge data analysis that come might not even understand. In these ways, Rachel Caron's Silent Spring reached even the least educated common man.

Thank you,

Parth Patel

FACT SHEET + BROCHURE LINKS

Hello folks,

Here are the links to the Fact Sheet and the Brochure:

Fact Sheet: www.mercer.edu/enp/mph720/fact_sheet_parth_patel.pdf

Brochure: www.mercer.edu/enp/MPH2012/Brochure_Parth_Patel.pdf

Thank you!

Asthma in New York City

Hello Guys,

The fact sheet I prepared lays out some obvious connection between the air quality and rate of asthma in New York city. Certain documents on the official new york state and city website form the studies they did and they clearly reveal the relation of the high pollution rate in the city with the increasing amount of asthma patients (adults+children). Above, you can see a morning view of the Manhattan skyline, mixed of fog and pollutants. New York has made significant changes and the air quality is on its way to improve and become healthier.

Parth

Different Map Types

Hello Everyone,
This post includes a variety of maps of New York City and greater New York and the TriState area.
1. Chloropeth Map of the five boroughs of New York. Shows how pleased the New Yorkers are with the services the government offers in these areas.

Courtesy: www.nytimes.com

2. A Dot-Density Map of New York City and the surrounding area.

Courtesy: www.nytimes.com

3. Topography Map - This is portion of a huge topography map I found of the state of NY and other nearby regions.

Hey Guys, unfortunately I was unable to find the other two types of maps after hours of search, Proportional symbol map and an ESI Map, that were of the New York region. I am sure they are available somewhere online and I will be working on trying to put those on after this blog. Please feel free to comment, share or ask anything.

Thank you for reading,
Parth Patel

Central Park Image

Another picture of Central Park, NYC.

Courtesy of: http://uwstudentweb.uwyo.edu/g/gheusink/TermPaperCentralPark.html