One of the cliché’s of modern life has something to do with learning something everyday, and today Ruprecht Jaenicke from the Institute for Atmospheric Physics at Mainz University, Germany wants me to learn about Bioparticle Pollution. The professor claims there is stuff in the air and he has measured that stuff. This seems reasonable since I have personally experienced the phenomenon of sitting down in a chair and observing as the early morning sunshine illuminates the subsequent burst of dust and cat fuzz . It’s the pollution term that concerns me.
Etymologically the word pollution evolved from the concept of inappropriate sex and only since the American Civil War has the word been utilized to imply inappropriate nature. Sex is what it is and nature is what it is and it is human judgment based on human values that confers good or bad to a situation. Perhaps it’s skepticism again, but I believe the word pollution was invoked because the “study” found human cells in the air which must be both unnatural and bad. After all there are “experts” who believe that humans are about to cause a world ending environmental apocalypse.
Humans and animals contribute as much to air pollution as automobile exhaust and industrial smoke do, a study has said. Dandruff, fur, pollens, cell fragments, skin particles, spores, bacteria, protein crystals and fungi shed by humans, animals and plants are present widely in aerosols in the atmosphere. Jaenicke failed to find any annual pattern to the concentration of the bio-particles. But he said that the concentration of pollens was higher in spring.It’s not like I want to be skeptical about everything I read, however, if the existence of humans and animals contributes to air pollution, then air pollution must have been around for at least 400 million years since the first land animals appeared and started shedding dinner crumbs and busted exoskeletons to be kicked up by Devonian Period shore breezes. Perhaps the author means that pollution started when the flowering plants began shedding pollen and discovering the allure air borne sex some 140 million years ago.
Etymologically the word pollution evolved from the concept of inappropriate sex and only since the American Civil War has the word been utilized to imply inappropriate nature. Sex is what it is and nature is what it is and it is human judgment based on human values that confers good or bad to a situation. Perhaps it’s skepticism again, but I believe the word pollution was invoked because the “study” found human cells in the air which must be both unnatural and bad. After all there are “experts” who believe that humans are about to cause a world ending environmental apocalypse.
