This has been a week of red air quality alerts. We can expect this to continue until storms arrive — possibly Saturday.
[Photo from Salt Lake Tribune, July 11, 2008.]
CHECK air quality for your city.
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The state of Utah will soon shift 16-17,000 employees to 4-day work weeks. In addition to reducing the emissions from power used to heat and cool buildings, this means reducing emissions from commuters.
Our big question is:
will Friday closures mean better air quality?
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The Salt Lake Tribune leads the editorial page today with “Ozone season: Our only defense is driving less in summer.”
We write a lot about ozone. Local papers have been writing a lot about ozone. State government has been addressing the problem of ozone. I suspect that if you are reading this, you have already heard a lot about ozone.
Not everyone understands how the deadly mix that becomes ozone is made, though. The better we understand the problem and its causes, the better we can take actions to change it.
[V]ehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, chemical fumes and wildfire smoke all cook in high-90s heat and create air that’s not safe for people with respiratory or heart problems, the very young or the elderly. Our only defense against this invisible threat is staying indoors and driving less.
The new, tighter ozone standard from the EPA will warn us of dangers at lower levels than last summer. But, health professionals and others still say the standard is not tight enough. We need to do more than just meet a compromise ozone standard. We need to act on every level to lessen emissions that contribute to ozone. Let’s start where we each have the most control.
So it’s up to us to take steps to clean up the air, beyond what the government requires. Ozone season should also be the season for taking public transportation and leaving the car at home as much as possible. Our health depends on it.
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Check out this You-tube video, “the girl who silenced the world for five minutes” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0). Poetic. Poignant. Profound.
It’s great to see Wasatch Front air pollution as the lead story on the front page of the Salt Lake Tribune. I would prefer dirty air weren’t a problem at all so we could concentrate on other issues, but the fact is we need to address air quality as long as it continues to harm our children’s health as it does.
Red air quality flags ahead
Stricter ozone standards put our polluted air in spotlight
by Judy Fahys
Salt Lake Tribune
June 20, 2008
One of the issues in making changes has been the need for clear public education. This article includes an explanation of how ozone is formed along with clear recommendations to REDUCE DRIVING, FILL CARS LATER in the day, and MOW LAWNS LATER in the day. Why?
“Combustion-engine exhaust, power plant emissions, chemical fumes and wildfire smoke react with summer sunlight and heat to form ozone, an air pollutant that is odorless and colorless.”
Thank you, Salt Lake Tribune for the clear and prominent effort to educate the public about air pollution.
Summer is here and with it, ozone season. Today, ozone levels reached levels that are unhealthy and more of the same is expected Tuesday and Wednesday.
While ozone is good up high in the earth’s stratosphere, it is harmful to people, plants and animals at ground-level. In essence ground-level ozone is smog. It is created by chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the presence of sunlight. Emissions from industrial facilities and electric utilities, motor vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapors and chemical solvents are some of the major sources of NOx and VOC.
Breathing ground-level ozone can jump-start a number of health problems including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation and congestion. It can also aggravate bronchitis, emphysema and asthma. Simply put, breathing ozone-polluted air gives our lungs a sunburn! Repeated exposure can permanently scar your lung tissue.
So what can you do to help reduce your contribution to ozone and protect you and your family? Start by signing-up for air alerts at the Utah Department of Air Quality (http://www.airquality.utah.gov/). DAQ will alert you at least one day in advance when our air is predicted to be unhealthy. Ozone peaks in mid-afternoon (today, for example it peaked about noon), so on red and yellow air alert days avoid physical exertion during the hottest part of the day, when ozone, which again is sunlight dependant, reaches its greatest levels. Exercise instead in the early morning or after dark. On red air days like today, I also do my best to keep my kids inside during peak ozone hours (ozone breaks down quickly indoors).
As for your reducing your contribution to ozone please consider the following, especially on Red and Yellow alert days:
• Refrain from using a gas-powered lawn mower, blower, trimmer or weed cutter. Your neighbors will thank you just for the reduction in noise pollution!
• Fill your gas tank during cooler evening hours.
• Reduce driving by carpooling, taking public transit, walking, biking or telecommuting.
• Do not idle your car for more than 10 seconds.
• Use low or no VOC paint. (Check-out the Green Building Center in Salt Lake City).
• Set your thermostat a few degrees higher in the summer (saving energy saves you money and saves our air).
• Send letters to Governor Huntsman and other elected officials demanding action on our poor air quality (Salt Lake City gets an “F” grade from the American Lung Association!)
Together, we can make a difference. Together, we can create a future where we can all breathe freely.
*EPA brochure: “Ozone.” June 2003
Breathing in air pollution from traffic fumes can raise the risk of potentially deadly blood clots, a US study says.
Exposure to small particulates - tiny chemicals caused by burning fossil fuels - is known to increase the chances of heart disease and stroke.
But the Harvard School of Public Health found it also affected development of deep vein thrombosis - blood clots in the legs - in a study of 2,000 people.
Researchers said the pollution made the blood more sticky and likely to clot.The team looked at people living in Italy - nearly 900 of whom developed DVT.
Blood clots which form in the legs can travel to the lungs, where they can become lodged, triggering a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism. The risk of DVT is known to be increased by long periods of immobility. In particular, passengers on long-haul flights have been shown to be vulnerable, but so are people who spend long periods of time sitting at their office desk without exercising, or walking around.
Researchers obtained pollution readings from the areas they lived and found those exposed to higher levels of small particulates in the year before diagnosis were more likely to develop blood clots.The Archives of Internal Medicine report said for every 10 microgrammes per square metre increase in small particulates, the risk of developing a DVT went up by 70%. Air quality guidelines generally state that small particulate concentrations should not exceed 50 microgrammes. Lead researcher Dr Andrea Baccarelli said: “Given the magnitude of the effects, our findings introduce a novel and common risk factor into the development of DVT.
“And, at the same time, they give further substance to the call for tighter standards and continued efforts aimed at reducing the impact of urban air pollutants on human health.”
Dr Beverley Hunt, medical director of the DVT charity Lifeblood, said: “We have known for some time that air pollution has been associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke. “This study shows for the very first time that air pollution also increases the risk of clots in the veins and tells us why. “It’s an exciting finding because air quality is something we can improve on through tightening air quality legislation.”
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7396733.stm
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the news in Utah quite a bit in the past few days.
Last week, according to a Salt Lake Tribune story yesterday, the EPA decided the environmental study was inadequate for the Nine Mile Canyon natural gas drilling project. Today, in a longer story, the Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that the project should stop until the study is rewritten to include more information on air quality because the draft study “didn’t satisfy requirements of the Clean Air Act.”
Read the stories: