Air Quality: We Can Do Better

With fresh snow on the ground and clear skies currently over the Salt Lake Valley, you might not be thinking much about air quality today, but there is something that has been nagging at me since last week.  Perhaps the photo below will jog your memory.

Smog over the Salt Lake Valley @ 7:20 AM on Wednesday 13 November 2013

As far as Salt Lake air pollution events go, last week's wasn't a biggie, primarily because the inversion wasn't intense (lack of snow cover) or prolonged.  Nevertheless, PM2.5 concentrations climbed throughout the week, with hourly averages peaking at 34 ug/m3 on the 13th and 24-hour averages peaking at 25 ug/m3 early in the morning on the 14th.  The National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) is a 24-hour average of 35 ug/m3.  Although we did not reach this level, PM2.5 concentrations remained near or above 30 ug/m3 for much of the day on the 13th.  

Source: Utah Division of Air Quality

Nevertheless, during the entire event we remained in the "unrestricted" category for air quality action.  If you watched the news, you probably heard that you were good to go for using wood-burning stoves and fire places.  I don't know about you, but I noticed the smell of smoke on at least a couple of occasions last week.  

At issue is this: why not at least encourage the voluntary decision to not use wood and coal-burning stoves and fireplaces and take mass transit even during these moderate air quality events?  I don't see this as a mandate, but simply an effort to encourage citizens to consider taking mass transit and avoid wood burning.  What is the harm in that?  

There is no single silver bullet to solve our air quality challenges, but a more proactive system to encourage voluntary actions to reduce emissions would help.