Air Quality

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Air Quality

• We all need to breathe

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Oct 1948 AQ disaster in Denorah, PA

• Fog and smoke from steel factories combined to
  form a corrosive smog so thick people could not
  see their feet!
• The inversion was so stable it would not budge.
• People with pre-existing health conditions began
  to die and the hospitals filled up.
• People were leaving town to protect themselves,
  but the mills continued to deny any role in the
  problem.
• By the time a front moved in with wind and rain 5
  days later, 20 people had died and 6000 were ill.
• A larger event under similar conditions killed
  12,000 people in London in 1952. No lesson
  learned!

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Definitions

• Air qualitya rating of the air based on
  pollution and weather conditions
• AQ Indexthe scale of air quality
• Particulate mattersmall solid particles such as
  dust

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Common pollutants

• Smoke
• Dust
• Ozone
• Nitrogen oxides

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Particulate matter
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Smoke from field burning
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Smoke from wildfires
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Open burning and wood stoves contribute smoke to
local air
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Dust storms were common during the Dust Bowl
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Sept 25, 1999 Dust Storm results in 6 deaths on
I-84

• How does a dust storm form?

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Smog in Beijing during the Olympics
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Salt Lake City Worst in the nation?
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Ozone formation in summer
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EPA

• Environmental Protection Agency
• Air Now

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DEQ

• Department of Environmental Quality
• Data about air quality for various Oregon cities
• http//www.oregon.gov/DEQ/AQ/

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City of Pendleton

• Air quality is reported daily on the website
• http//www.pendleton.or.us/
• Outside of city limits or on the Reservation must
  call the Burn line or use EPA website

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Weather Factors in AQ
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Definitions

• Atmospherelayers of gas surrounding Earth
• Air pressurethe weight of air
• Windmovement of air
• Stagnantair that is not moving
• Inversioncold air trapped below warm air

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Inversion Effects
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Ozone vs Oxygen
Oxygen has two atoms connected into one
moleculewe need oxygen to breathe.
Ozone has three atoms connected into one
moleculewe need ozone to protect us from UV rays
of the sun.
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• Air pollution fix?

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AQ and health

• Poor air quality may cause illness or make health
  conditions worse.
• Asthma, heart disease, COPD, emphysema, cancer
• Children are at the greatest risk
• Indoor pollutants are a serious problem, too.

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Issues related to AQ

• Too much and too little ozonegood up high, bad
  nearby!
• Toxic pollutantspoisonous!
• Acid rainsulfur and nitrogen oxides mixing with
  rain

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Solutions to AQ issues

• Conservationnot using more than you need
• Compostdecaying plant matter
• Dispersionmoving and spreading out pollutants
• Recyclereuse or repurpose materials

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Air aware?