Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.01.2018, Page 6

MISSING IN ICELAND
Scrap Metal
Merchants
ASK A
Scientist
Q: Why Do Icelanders
Live So Long?
In many modern
cities, you can
bring extra bits of
copper and alu-
minium to a scrap
metal merchant,
who will pay you
cold hard cash for
the material, no
questions asked.
The potential
for money to be
made through
such exchanges,
leads to an illicit
trade of sorts, with
cash-strapped
“entrepreneurs”
illegally searching
for the valuable
metals in places
like building sites
and abandoned
houses, which they
enter without per-
mission. But this
isn’t a problem in
Iceland, because
there are no scrap
metal merchants.
Instead, there is
a waste manage-
ment company,
Sorpa, which will
accept your metal
waste—but they
won’t pay you
anything for it. This
is why you will see
things in Iceland
like giant chunks
of valuable cop-
per just laying on
the ground at an
unsecured build-
ing site, or coils
of loose wiring
hanging out of an
abandoned house.
Only a true Samari-
tan would gather
this material
for the sole
purpose of carting
it to Sorpa for
recycling. And as
there are no true
Samaritans any-
where, you’d think
scrap metal mer-
chants would have
quite a customer
base here, but
sadly, they remain
yet another thing
missing in Iceland.
PF

A greater number of people sought medi-
cal attention for respiratory illness this
New Year’s season than in previous years,
as pollution from fireworks set off dur-
ing the celebrations was comparable to
that caused by the Eyjafjallajökull erup-
tion of 2010. In fact, this was the worst
year on record for New
Year’s Eve air pollution,
despite firework sales
having decreased from
the previous year.
As many readers
are aware, Icelanders
are big fans of fire-
works. For a few weeks
each year, fireworks
are sold to the general
public, with much of
the proceeds going to
the rescue squad and
the scouts. Fireworks are so popular, in
fact, that Icelanders explode hundreds of
tonnes of them on New Year’s Eve alone.
Worse than a volcano
However, fireworks are not without conse-
quence. People with respiratory illnesses
are advised to stay indoors on New Year’s
Eve, not least because fireworks do contain
harmful materials such as lead, copper,
and chrome, amongst other chemicals,
such as the highly toxic hexachloroben-
zene (HCB).
This New Year’s Eve, pollution from
fireworks reached 4,500µg/m3 in parts
of Kópavogur, 2,500µg/m3 at Grensásve-
gur in Reykjavík and 1,700µg/m3 at the
Reykjavík Zoo. Bear in mind that the
“healthy limit” for airborne particles is
50µg/m3, and the Eyjafjallajökull erup-
tion resulted in airborne particles in
Reykjavík reaching 2,000µg/m3, prompt-
ing health officials to warn the public to
stay indoors with their windows closed.
Health authorities pointed out that
this is the highest level of fireworks-
caused air pollution in recent memory.
Ban the fireworks?
This phenomenon is especially interesting
given the fact that fireworks sales were ac-
tually down this year from last year. Pollu-
tion was likely exacerbated by the relative
lack of wind around midnight. Although
winds in the early morning hours cleared
up the visibility, which had fallen to 700
metres around midnight, the heavy met-
als in the fireworks
debris are in all likeli-
hood now in the top-
soil.
Astronomer Sævar
Helgi Bragason has
been actively calling
for an outright ban
on fireworks in Ice-
land. In one of his last
Tweets before the new
year, he implored, “I
hope we can find a
good solution to all
this so that the environment isn’t harmed,
and animals can enjoy the new year, too.”
Pollution From
Fireworks
Worse Than Ever
Levels of dangerous chemicals in
the air were higher than when
Eyjafjallajökull erupted
Words:
Paul Fontaine
Photo:
Varvara Lozenko
First
T EMPL A R A SUND 3 , 101 RE Y K JAV ÍK , T EL : 5711822, W W W.BERGSSON. IS
BREAKFAST FROM 7
LUNCH FROM 12
We love the smell of HCB in the morning
“Health authori-
ties pointed out
this is the highest
level of fireworks-
caused air pol-
lution in recent
memory.”
Words: Grieg Robertson
A: In the present day, Iceland is huge-
ly romanticised, whether for its stun-
ning landscapes, its perceived gen-
der equality, or its football team. For
the fanboys and
fangirls out there,
figures published
by Statistics Ice-
land in 2017 also re-
vealed that Icelan-
dic men have the
highest life expec-
tancy in Europe (80.7 years), while
women ranked sixth (83.7 years). But
are there any scientifically ratified,
Iceland-specific reasons why this
is the case? Sigríður Haraldsdóttir,
PhD, Head of Health Information at
the Directorate of Health, tells us if
Iceland is really a special case.
“The main reason for high life ex-
pectancy rates is the same here as
everywhere else, i.e. that age spe-
cific death rates have decreased,”
Sigríður says. “Falling mortality rates
from the main causes of death, i.e.
from cardiovascular disease and
cancer also play an important role.”
But what of the magic dust sprinkled
by elves onto Icelanders while they
sleep? Surely the reasons behind
Iceland’s high life expectancy can’t
be the same as every other OECD (Or-
ganisation for Economic Co-opera-
tion and Development) country.
Well, as noted by Óttar Guðmunds-
son M.D., a psychiatrist at Landspítali
University Hospital in a recent GQ
article on the topic, “Even up to
the 19th century, our people were
desperately poor and uneducated.
But then Iceland began to prosper
during World War II, and everything
started changing very rapidly.”
Therefore, it seems that an up-
turn in socioeconomic fortunes,
rather than anything especially spir-
itual or elvish, is the reason for a high
life expectancy in Iceland. To anyone
previously convinced otherwise, I
truly and sincerely apologise.
6 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 01 — 2018