Tuesday, September 18, 2007

My wife in TV - again!

Yesterday my wife Elvira was on TV - again! This time she and professor Steffen Loft were interviewed for 10 minutes in the program Brunch on the regional TV channel TV2 Lorry. The topic was the same as last week, her recently published study showing that air pollution from traffic increase the risk of cancer, but this time they had much more time to explain the study and the results in detail. You can see the interview by clicking here (QuickTime or iTunes required).
Quite an exciting ending isn't it: new and even more interesting results are to be published soon. Stay tuned!

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Monday, September 10, 2007

My wife in TV: traffic air pollution increases cancer risk!

My wife Elvira Vaclavik Bräuner is a scientist studying the effects of air pollution on human health. I was actually a volunteer on one of her projects where I was locked in a chamber for four days so she could draw my blood, measure my lung function etc. while I was forced to bicycle for hours. Sounds like a perfect relationship right ;-)

Well, she just got the first part of her studies published in the reputed scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives which led to a press release from the Danish Cancer Society stating the main finding of her studies: air pollution from traffic increase the risk of cancer. This led to a media storm in Denmark today where she was live on the Danish CNN (a.k.a. TV2News) and then in a recorded interview in TV2 Lorry. The latter, which also included an interview with the Copenhagen Mayor of Technology and Enviroment Claus Bondam who now wants to reduce the traffic in the city, can be seen by clicking here (QuickTime or iTunes required).

Science can impact our world - let's bike to work tomorrow and reduce the air pollution!

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Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Home from Svalbard kayak expedition

I just returned from a week long kayak expedtion to the Ekman fjord, Svalbard (Spitsbergen) at almost 79° north. A pretty cold place to kayak (from 0-5 °C in August!) but also one of the most beautiful places I have visited in a long time. It was truely awesome to kayak in such a remote place and look at the spectacular landscape with mountains in very different colors and shapes sprinkled with snow on the summits and glaciers in the valleys. Furthermore, it was fantastic to kayak very close to icebergs and glacier fronts calving ice directly into the ocean with us just a short (but safe) distance away. We had hoped to see a polar bear (at distance!) but only saw their footprints as they had followed the pack ice towards the North Pole. However, we saw lots of other beautiful wildlife - especially the rich bird life.

What a great place - and I am very happy that Norway got the rights of the island group as
they take very good care of this pristine polar region and its fragile wildlife.

Elvira and I will present picture, movies and stories from the trip in the Danish Alpine Club (Løvstræde 8a, 3rd floor, Copenhagen, entrance in the courtyard) on Thursday September 27 at 8 PM. Free entrance - all are welcome!

Also - follow the website where a travel report will be posted soon.

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