Towards an Historical geography of Torontos Air Pollution Richard - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Towards an Historical geography of Torontos Air Pollution Richard - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Feb 13, 2024 41 likes •818 views

Towards an Historical geography of Torontos Air Pollution Richard Anderson York University 1900s Bay-Adelaide 1915 1928 1922 1923 1948 1959 Urban Air Pollution A key attribute of urban environmental health Obviously a

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Towards an Historical geography

  • f Toronto’s Air Pollution

Richard Anderson York University

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1900s

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Bay-Adelaide 1915

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1928

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1922

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1923

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1948

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1959

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Urban Air Pollution

  • A key attribute of urban environmental health
  • Obviously a widespread problem in historic

cities

  • Limited examination by environmental

historians

– Few maps

  • Almost nothing done by historical geographers
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A key problem

  • How do you map historic air pollution?
  • Soil & sediment sampling

– Expensive, technical …

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Test #1

  • Does the visibility pattern match industrial

land use, likely the biggest source of smoke?

– Compare 1920s visibility with industrial land use in 1923 Goads insurance atlas

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Test #2

  • Does the visibility pattern match newspaper

references to smoke issues?

– Content analysis of 1920s newspaper coverage

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Test #3

  • Does the visibility pattern connect to urban

respiratory health?

– Compare visibility patterns to infant respiratory mortality – Bronchitis & pneumonia appear to be the key disease categories – Infants likely to be the most spatially sensitive

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1903

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1906

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1909-10

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1922

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Toronto: Pneumonia and Broncho-Pneumonia Mortality (deaths/000 people) 0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00 Jan 1876 Jan 1879 Jan 1882 Jan 1885 Jan 1888 Jan 1891 Jan 1894 Jan 1897 Jan-00 Jan-03 Jan-06 Jan-09 Jan-12 Jan-15 Jan-18 Jan-21 Jan-24 Jan-27 Jan-30 Jan-33 Jan-36

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Toronto: Respiratory Mortality 1903

5 10 15 20 25

Jan-03 Feb-03 Mar-03 Apr-03 May-03 Jun-03 Jul-03 Aug-03 Sep-03 Oct-03 Nov-03 Dec-03

CDR % due to Pneumonia & Bronchitis

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Toronto 1903: Bronchitis and Pneumonia as % of deaths

5 10 15 20 25 Jan- 03 Feb- 03 Mar- 03 Apr- 03 May- 03 Jun- 03 Jul-03 Aug- 03 Sep- 03 Oct- 03 Nov- 03 Dec- 03 All Infants

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Test #4

  • How do the visibility patterns compare with

urban social geography?

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  • 1910
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  • 1925
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Test #4

  • Do wealthy people show a tendency to avoid

the smoke?

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1905

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1915

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1905

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1915

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1925

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Test #4

  • Some tendency for wealth to avoid smoke
  • But other processes are at work too
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A Dynamic Pattern over Time

  • Tests of the visual technique are possible in

C20th

  • Difficult for C19th
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Changes over Time

  • Visibility mapping suggests highly dynamic

patterns over space and time

  • Can we measure the temporality of Toronto’s

air pollution?

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Temporality

  • Existing studies of historic urban air pollution

are very weak on spatial patterns and variation

  • ver time.
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Toronto Combustion 000 tonnes CE

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 Coal Wood Incineration Petroleum

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Toronto Air Pollution Mean visibility (metres) vs estimated particulate emissions from coal burning

200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 Mean vis tpm/000

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Some Results

  • There are signs that photo analysis is able to

reveal both the spatiality and the temporality

  • f historic urban air pollution.
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Some Results

  • Measuring historic urban air pollution may

help us understand the spatiality and temporality of

– Urban disease, mortality, demography – Urban social geography