Needless Dominican Deaths

[Porfirio]

The polution entering the air by cars and motorcycles in such disgraceful condition is bringing premature death to thousands of Dominicans. When anyone is unfortunate enough to drive behind an old relic or junk car, or motorcycle spewing polutants into the air and into autos following behind the offending car, the human pulmonary system is irreparably damaged. The violating vehicles that must be removed from the roads are also a danger with faulty brakeing systems and worn out tires. Compound these polutants we inhale together with those foolish enough to smoke cigarettes and blow the smoke into our faces the result is premature deaths due to lung cancer emphasema, and heart attacks. Laws now existing could correct these inadequacies, but stricter laws with real panalties must be enacted and truly enforced. Protect yourselves, and more importantly give our children a chance to live longer and free from painful diseases such as cancer, emphasema and heart disease.

[rellosk]

You're kidding, right?

[Criss Colon]

There must be about 50 "things" that have a priority over "Polution" when you make a "To Do" List for the DR!
Try:
Education
health care
clean water
garbage collection
public housing
electricity
Family Planning
Feed the Children(You can't "Feed" the Adults,they are drunk!)
Reform the National Police forces,and the Military
and the perrenial favorite,never to be forgotten,and never to be accomplished! "End Government Corruption"
I would gladly suck down some "pollution" if you can just solve ONE of the above list!
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCc

[miguel]

Originally Posted by Porfirio

The polution entering the air by cars and motorcycles in such disgraceful condition is bringing premature death to thousands of Dominicans. When anyone is unfortunate enough to drive behind an old relic or junk car, or motorcycle spewing polutants into the air and into autos following behind the offending car, the human pulmonary system is irreparably damaged. The violating vehicles that must be removed from the roads are also a danger with faulty brakeing systems and worn out tires. Compound these polutants we inhale together with those foolish enough to smoke cigarettes and blow the smoke into our faces the result is premature deaths due to lung cancer emphasema, and heart attacks. Laws now existing could correct these inadequacies, but stricter laws with real panalties must be enacted and truly enforced. Protect yourselves, and more importantly give our children a chance to live longer and free from painful diseases such as cancer, emphasema and heart disease.

Welcome to the every day life in the DR!!!.

Do you know that the Dominican motto is?. "Don't like it or can not adapt to it, get out because it's not going to change, not for you nor for me". Well, at least my motto!!.

[NALs]

Originally Posted by miguel

Welcome to the every day life in the DR!!!.

Do you know that the Dominican motto is?. "Don't like it or can not adapt to it, get out because it's not going to change, not for you nor for me". Well, at least my motto!!.

I think that's everybody's model, on this island anyways.

[ricktoronto]

They should work on the 2,000 murders a year also. Though some might be smokers or drive junkers. Don't count them twice in the crusade.

[Eddy]

What can I add.

[Mirador]

Canada is one of the worst environmental performers in the industrialized world and has shown no improvement over the past decade, a new study says.

The report, researched at Simon Fraser University and released by the David Suzuki Foundation, ranked Canada 28th out of 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.


CBC News

[Keith R]

Mirador, the DR does not belong to the OECD, so of course it's not included in the Simon Fraser study.

I always find these environmental ranking exercises suspect. That said, just for fun and discussion, some here might find interesting the following I posted on my website earlier this year about the only environmental ranking exercise I know that includes the DR -- which, by the way, was ranked 129 out of 146 countries worldwide, 91 out of the 116 non-OECD nations (see attached chart):

Three Latin America Nations Ranked Among Global Top Ten in Environmental Sustainability Index

The 2005 version of the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) rankings of 146 countries was released 27 January 2005 during the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos, Switzerland. The ESI was developed by Yale and Colombia Universities in collaboration with WEF. The ESI "is a composite index tracking a diverse set of socioeconomic, environmental, and institutional indicators" attempting to provide decision-makers with more analytical tools for measuring country performance and trends. The idea, in large part, is to create public pressure for governments to improve their environmental policy performance.

This year a Latin American nation, Uruguay, was ranked third in the world and number one among the countries not belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (among Latin America and Caribbean - LAC - nations, only Mexico belongs to the OECD, and it ranked 26 among the 29 OECD nations rated, in front of Poland, Belgium and South Korea). The global top ten includes only two other LAC nations, Guyana (8, which also ranked #2 among non-OECD nations) and Argentina (9, #3 among non-OECD), but four others are among the non-OECD top ten -- beyond the aforementioned three are Brazil (4), Peru (7), Paraguay (8) and Costa Rica (9).

Other LAC nations ranked higher globally than the US (45) are Brazil (11), Peru (16), Paraguay (17), Costa Rica (18), Bolivia (20), Colombia (23), Panama (28) and Chile (42).

The lowest ranked LAC nation, not surprisingly in light of the political and economic chaos in that country in recent years, was Haiti: 143 in global ranking and 112 among non-OECD nations.

It should be noted that the ESI does not rank the LAC nations of Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and Suriname.

[LarrySpencer]

Wow, that's about all I've got to say....

Let's take away all the motos, all the cars with bad exhaust....oh, for that matter, let's take it a step further...every car imported into the DR can only be imported from California after passing their stringent smog II program, the toughest in the entire nation. Everyone can see it's worked so well for Los Angeles....still can't see clear blue sky.

The Dominican Republic has this wonderful thing called, and tell me if you've ever heard of it because I know it's a new and exciting thing, rain. Lots and lots of rain. These tiny little droplets tend to clear the air right up...and combined with the wind that pushes what's left out to sea...or at least to Haiti and Cuba, things aren't so bad.

I have yet to see someone gasping for air. And maybe, just maybe these premature deaths can be attributed to a poor medical program, lack of innoculations, potable water, and the list goes on and on.