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Assessing the PM2.5 impact of biomass combustion in megacity Dhaka, Bangladesh - PubMed (nih.gov)

This article is about crop burning in Dhaka, Bangladesh and attempts to figure out if there is more or less harmful PM2.5 particulate air pollution caused by either fossil fuels or biomass, and during which season is one or the other higher in the air pollution it produces. During monsoon season, fossil fuels lead in the most PM2.5 releases at 44.3%. When it is not monsoon season and is the winter season, the percentages are way higher for PM2.5 air particulate releases at 41.4% for the remainder of the year. Across the globe, there are now people stepping up to uncover the true and real environmental and health impacts this harmful particulate byproduct causes in different parts of the world and with differring weather conditions than what we see in North Carolina. 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351209404_PM25_Emissions_from_…;

This study is set in South/Southeast Asia and uncovering that, when trying to count the percentages of PM2.5 put off during biomass, the true amount of emissions were being gravely undercalculated. Specifically rice straw burning becuase the amount burned varied so much because of different harvest and burning practices that it just wasn't taken into consideration. What this study does is go bottom up using these strategies: "subnational spatial database of rice-harvested area, region-specific fuel-loading factors, region, and burning-practice-specific emission and combustion factors, including literature-derived estimates of straw and stubble burned"(Lasko et al. 2021, 1). 

The most common air pollutants are called criteria pollutants and are regulated by the Clean Air Act and the EPA. These pollutants are: particles, ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulfer dioxide, carbon monoxide, and lead. The EPA have sections under the CAA that help regulate factories and air pollution in the environment. For example section 108 requires the EPA to identify the pollutants that are criteria pollutants, listed above, and determine if where they are coming from and if they "endander public health or welfare". Under section 109 the EPA had to set standards across the board for air pulltion in regard to human health and to the environemtn sperately (Christopher D. Ahlers 2016, 51-52).  There are many more sections that go into detail about what the CAA can do and what the EPA members are required to do as well. 

The bibliography of this article shows that most of the data drawn for this paper was from other scholarly papers, which leads me to believe that no new research or studies were done to gain information for this article.

I researched the Iroquois Theater Fire in Chicago as well as the US Capitol Building burning in 1814 and the Hague Street boiler explosion. I wanted to learn more about the magnitude of each of these disasters and the type of repercussions they had on the people surrounding as well as any implications it could have on the after math. This allowed me to better understand the investigation's findings in the research article. I also researched the political fallout behind the 9/11 attacks as well as the structural issues with the building that occurred after the planes hit.

"I argue that the shift to gender-based violence as the exemplary humanitarian problem could not have happened without the prior move to medicalise gender-based violence, and render it a medical condition like all others."

"Approaching gender-based violence as a medical or health issue alters how violence is both approached and understood; that is, rather than understanding gender violence in the context of gendered relations of power, or as part of larger histories and expressions of inequality which are inseparable from histories of class or race or colonialism, this type of medicalisation transforms gender-based violence into an emergency illness, requiring immediate intervention"

"Rape in armed conflicts played a central role in the recognition of the category of gender-based violence, putting it onto the human rights radar screen, first in the former Yugoslavia and later in Rwanda; human rights approaches forced the international humanitarian law system to understand rape as a particular form of violence"

"The role of humanitarian organisations was growing exponentially during this time: humanitarian intervention became increasingly important on the international scene after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and humanitarian organisations took their place as autonomous interlocutors, as recognised by the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to MSF in 1999"

The viewpoints of elected goverment officials on the state and federal levels are lacking from this film.

A lot of background information and history was used to support and produce claims made in the article. Laws were discussed as well as their origins and effects on the population. Yet, specific stories were told about a 33 year old Tunisian, another about a Moroccan man who applied for a residence permit due to health issues, another about a Malian who lived in France. Real stories and accounts of problems faced in terms of immigration and health issues, as well as past experiences, were a main tool and method used in order to produce valid arguments throughout this text.

The argument is supported through the presentation of research and findings from two research workshops that were organized in 2014 and 2015, which brought together experts and researchers in the field who analyzed organizational efforts and the efforts addressed in terms of  violence effecting healthcare delivery. In depth interviews were also utilized to support the argument as well as the analysis of current facts, figures and data that is currently out there on this topic.

The central argument of the film is that healthcare professionals are for the most part believe that they can defeat most diseases, and that they consider not being able to fix something a failure on their part. As such, they are not trained well in handling palliative and end-of-life care, prioritizing the patients wishes and dignity over putting up a fight against the disease.