Utahs Air Pollution & How it Affects Us 1.

Emiliano Mora Bucio Isaiah Miranda Pur Pur Emon Nazari English 1010 April 30, 2014 Utahs Air Pollution & How It Affects Us We look at Utahs natural beauties such as the mountains, lakes and the view of the valley. Utah is known for its amazing snow, but we are also known to have the third worst air quality in the United States. Utahans know this problem too well and have experienced the bad days when we cant even see our mountains because of the inversions. We are also to blame, driving in our cars wondering how our air could end up like this. The thinking of the people in Utah is that someone will find a solution for this or it will get better tomorrow. With that mindset, we will not find a solution and it has been in front of us the whole time; if we the people of Utah are the problem we can also be the solution. Everything we do throughout the day does affect nature even the most common things like cooking some breakfast, or driving to work or school. We breathe in everything we do that day, because Utahs geography and weather makes it hard for the air to circulate through our mountains and with the cold air that gets trapped in the valley so is everything we put in the air. If we are able to educate every Utahan about how they can help in putting fewer pollutants in the air and how many health risks it causes, we can then become the solution.

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If we arent able to find a plausible way to improve our air quality for the better the health risks can be numerous in the future. To see what the public thought of Utahs air quality and if they were open to idea to change this, we shared with them a survey with five questions. The first three questions had a basic less to greater scale rating, represented in numbers from 1 through 5, 1 being the lowest. The starting question asks Utahans what they currently think of Utahs air quality at the moment. When we handed the surveys out a great amount of people looked to the sky and the majority rated it a three and four. When in reality Utah air quality is in the four to five ranges, our guess is that people who have lived in Utah their whole lives know of the issue that we have with our air. The next question asked how often they used their car in one day, for our group it was no surprise lot of people rated a four to five. The third question asked if they would be willing to do something about Utahs air pollution and there were all fives for the rating. For the fourth question, we asked if they knew what the causes of pollution are, most people only knew the basics. People are willing to solve the problem in the air, but before you know how to solve the problem, you have to know what is causing this problem on the first place. The major cause of air pollution is cars driven on the road. Automobiles tend to emit more air pollution when they are starting to drive and the engine is warming up. Different types of gasses and particles from a vehicle have a negative effect on the air. Types of gasses include greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide, which can also contribute to global warming. So it causes both an increase in air pollution and global warming. Pollutants and particles from a vehicle can be transferred to the soil and surface waters where it enters the food

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chain. This affects the respiratory, neurological and reproductive systems of animals. An automobile contains many fluids such as motor oil, antifreeze, gasoline, brake, air conditioning refrigerants, transmission, windshield wipers, and hydraulic fluids. These fluids are toxic to humans and animals. They can pollute waterways if they are disposed incorrectly. When the car is exposed to heat and oxygen and its engine is running, the engine undergoes chemical changes. The cars fluids gather heavy metals from the engines deterioration, making them even more toxic to the environment. Some particles such as dust or smoke are emitted directly towards the sky. Ozone is formed in the atmosphere when gases are mixed with the dust and smoke particles. This mixture remains in the atmosphere for a long period of time. The mixture of these particles that form into the atmosphere is visible. Other particles are so small that it has to be detected by an electron microscope. Coarse particle sources that come from grinding operations including ash from fireplaces or forest fires, mixed with dust from cars and wind, can cause PM 10 particles to form, PM stands for particulate matter. PM 10 particles usually stay in the atmosphere between minutes to hours. These particles travel up to 30 miles per hour. You can inhale these particles into your lungs even if you arent next to a PM 10 sources. Fine particles are smaller particles that stay longer in the atmosphere and are lighter than course particles. These particles stay in the atmosphere for days to weeks. Fine particles travel in the air up to thousands of miles. These particles are from grinding operations, such as wood burning, power plants, forest fires, and some industrial processes.

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The yellow-gray air that occurs in the valley during winter time is a function of PM2.5 and PM10 particles being trapped in the floor level area by cold air in the valley. Much of our air pollution in the summer time comes from the ground level ozone. Ozone is a gas made up of three oxygen atoms, and it occurs in the stratosphere and troposphere. When Ozone is in Earths upper atmosphere, the stratosphere, 6 to 30 miles above the Earths surface, forms a protective layer that protects us from the suns ultraviolet rays. In Earths lower atmosphere, ozone reacts with chemical mixtures of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC). The major sources of oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds are motor vehicle exhaust, power plant emissions, refineries, chemical plants and other industrial processes. An addition of sunlight and water vapor results in toxic gas. On bad days, ozone levels can rise about over 115 parts per million (.115 ppm). This is way over the .075 ppm which is what the EPA considers acceptable (Utah DEQ. "DEQ Home DAQ Home Current Conditions"). These levels can fluctuate through the day between the mid- to late afternoon when temperatures are at their highest. In the picture below we can observe how Utahs mountainous geography also influences greatly to this problem. The mountains make a type of bowl and because of the altitude of the mountains the air cannot circulate properly trapping the bad air.

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Air Pollution in Utah is really severe, causing the population of Utahans some health issues. Extremely poor air quality routinely suffered by nearly all Utahans who live in metropolitan areas has become a critical public health issue. (Utah Chapter Sierra Club) In 2012-2013 year Utah had recorded its most toxic air ever recorded in Utah. As a result of its unique geography, prevailing weather patterns, which are feeling the effects of climate change, and an urban structure that requires large-scale commuting, air pollution levels in many Utah cities have never been higher. In result of the horrible air quality starting to get higher and higher by the years, companies are starting to come together to help prevent this horrible pollution in the air that Utahans breathe in today. Having the companies come up with a solution to help stop this problem Utahans are starting to get health problems by the horrible air quality in Utah. Working to improve Utahs air is now the top priority of more than 15 NGO and public health organizations. Tragically, state political and business leadership continue to avoid any action that in their view could have a negative effect on

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economic development while ignoring the fact that air pollution in and of itself is a serious detriment to economic development.

Recent Data on Utah air pollution:

A recent Forbes magazine study ranked Salt Lake City as the ninth most toxic city in the United States (Forbes Magazine, 2/28/11). Of these top 10 most toxic, SLC has the highest Toxic Release Inventory. The American Lung Association gives Salt Lake County a rank of "F" for the two most important components of air pollution, ozone and particulate matter (PM2.5). Salt Lake County is officially classified by the EPA as non-attainment with National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM10, PM2.5, SO2. Air pollution monitors recently installed in the Uintah Basin measured ozone concentrations exceeding federal health standards more than 68 times in the first three months of 2010. Air pollution exacerbates existing asthma in adults and children and causes asthma and respiratory infections in those who are not otherwise predisposed. Air pollution increases the incidence of SIDS, low birth weight syndrome, premature birth, and infant mortality. Air pollution increases the incidence of the most common forms of childhood cancers, especially leukemia. Air pollution increases genetic damage in newborns, which may lead to increased morbidities as an adult including heart disease, strokes, diabetes and cancers. These genetic aberrancies can be passed on to subsequent generations.

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Air pollution increases rates of sudden death, heart attacks and strokes. It increases blood pressure and shortens life expectancy. Using the formula published by the American Heart Association, between 1,000 and 2,000 Utahans die prematurely annually because of air pollution. With all that data saying bad things about Utah air here are a list of companies that are trying to make a change to Utahs air pollution: Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approval to expand Kennecott mine operations by 32% (Kennecott is already the largest static source polluter in the Salt Lake valley). DEQ approval to increase the capacity of the Salt Lake oil refineries. 2013 legislative bills aimed at cutting the budget of the DEQ and eliminating the DAQ. Unnecessary speed limit increases on Interstate highways. Steps to decrease the number of energy efficient cars permitted in HOV lanes while increasing the numbers of those who buy permits. Adoption of a voluntary-only pollution model, UCAIR that depends entirely on individual action to meet EPA standards. Failure of the legislative majority to initiate any bills aimed at reducing air pollution. Failure to develop a State Implementation Plan (SIP) for air quality that meets current EPA standards. Continue to push forward plans to extend the West Davis (formerly Legacy) Parkway. Relocating the Utah State prison for real estate development at a cost of $500-600M.

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Continuing to push for more fossil fuel extraction, dependence on coal-burning power plants and only modest support for renewable energy developmentUtah ranks last of all western states (Utah Chapter Sierra Club).

The air can be so polluted that it puts plenty of people in risk of a health disease, especially those who suffer from asthma. The average human takes 20000 breathes in a day. There are so many things in the air that can be really harmful to you when taking your daily breathes of air. Particles, such as dust and soot, mold, fungi, bacteria, and viruses, land on airway and alveolar surfaces (Utah Department of Health).

Solutions The State is trying to solve the problem. Cities in Utah such as Salt Lake City, Provo and Cache Valley were brought into EPA attainment as a start of a plan to reducing air pollution in Utah. The nonattainment areas, on the other hand, once their cities receive an EPA nonattainment regulation, state and local governments must develop plans how they will maintain legal standards within a 10-year period. On September 3, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality submitted a plan to the Air Quality board claiming that it will cut its PM2.5 pollution levels to acceptable standards by 2019. This plan was passed by the board and allowed for public comment in October. The battle between the good versus the bad guys and the industry versus private citizens misses the point. The questions is do we want to wait six years for the government cogs to force their ways to having better air? Or do we want to be proactive with these issues and solve them? This is

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up to each citizen of Utah to adjust changes in their habits to the environment to improve our air. In the survey before mentioned, we ask the public what they would do to help Utahs air quality for the fifth question. The majority of the people that took the survey said that they would start riding there bike, buses and walking instead of taking their car. Even though most people said they would do something about the pollution in the survey; in reality is people who are responsible for how big the pollution has become and they seem to not want to do anything about it. People just expect for someone else to take care of the problem or for the problem to disappear by itself. The truth is that for this problem to be reduced everyone has to give up a little something. The use of cars is the biggest air pollutant. One thing people can do is to take conscience of this and reduce the use of cars. Utah has a great public transportation service. People should take advantage of this service instead of using their cars pretty much everywhere they go. We understand that by doing this a person would have to give up some of their time; simply because taking your car will be quicker than taking public transportation. Giving up some time a few times a week is not really that big of a sacrifice and it will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced by cars. Another good alternative for the car would the use of bicycles. This would also help reduce the carbon dioxide produced by cars and it will help you stay healthy and in good shape. Health and the reduction of pollution seem like a good trade for some of your time. A big factor for people not wanting to do this might be the fact that they have to pay to use public transportation. Companies can help encourage their employees to use public

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transportation by giving them free passes or reduced price passes. Some companies are doing this already, but if the number of companies providing this service for their employees increases it would make a bigger difference. This way people wouldn't have to pay a lot to use public transportation and it would also help people economically because they wouldn't have to spend as much money on gas for their cars as they probably do now. Also this would be very beneficial for people who get paid minimum wage. The city would have to put some of their part to solve the problem too. Some of the buses are too old and old cars generate more carbon dioxide. The city could use some money to change all the old buses for new hybrid eco-friendly buses. Besides reducing pollution, changing to new buses could also encourage more people to use them because it would make the trips more comfortable, some of the old buses feel like they will break down and fall apart at any moment. This would cost the city a few thousand dollars at first and it could cause a small increase on taxes, but there's a price to pay for the things we have caused. Getting new buses might take a while since the city cant just get rid of old buses and replace them by the next day. A most immediate solution would be needed to reduce air pollution. If cars are the major source of pollution wouldnt the best solution be just to make people stop driving their cars? But the government cant just do that, can they?

Theres is a way the government could stop drivers from using their cars to stop air pollution. We do not really want to stop people from using their car, although it this would be very beneficial for the quality of the air, it is pretty much impossible to stop people from

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driving. Since we cant force people to stop driving; the next best thing would be to regulate the use of cars in the city. Utahs government could adopt Mexico Citys Hoy No Circula (Not Driving Today) policy. This policy bans some drivers from using their cars one day per week, based on the last digit of the vehicles license plate; for example, vehicles with a license plate ending in 5 and 6 may not be used on Mondays (Davis, Lucas W. "Driving Restrictions and Air Quality in Mexico City.").

The Hoy No Circula policy was established nearly twenty years ago as a way to reduce air pollution when Mexico City was declared the most polluted city in the world by the United Nations (UN). Mexico still has a big air pollution problem but the days when it was declared the most toxic city in world because of its really bad air quality are long gone. The potential payoff for such efforts is now in sight: Mexico City does not even rank among the top 10 polluted cities worldwide, said Walter Vergara, a leader of the climate-change team at the World Bank(O'Connor, Anne-Marie. "Mexico City Drastically Reduced Air Pollutants since 1990s"). Because of its effectiveness, despite what some people might say, various other countries have adopted this policy to try to solve their pollution problems (Agren, David. "Model for Megacities? Mexico City Cleans up Its Air"). We think it is time for Utah to give this policy a try. With this policy it's almost guaranteed that pollution would decrease since the number of car use would decrease and the only option for people would be to carpool or to use public transportation.

It has been proven that although it's a good policy is not 100% and people in Mexico found ways around this policy. This policy does not affect public transportation or taxis.

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Because of this people started using more taxis making the number of taxis in Mexico increased since this policy was established, anyone can be a taxi driver in Mexico because taxis are not owned by a company but by the driver, so everyone is allow to get a taxi permit (Davis, Lucas W. "Driving Restrictions and Air Quality in Mexico City."). This wouldn't be so much of a problem here because taxis are owned by companies and they're not as cheap as public transportation.

Another problem this policy might cause could be anger on people because they're being force to do something, but we feel people would get on board with this policy for multiple reasons; first of all it's proven to work. Second of all it's cheap, the city wouldn't have to spend big money on this, perhaps on adding a few police cars on the streets to make sure people are following the rules, and finally it would save people money, by not driving one day per week we would be saving some money on gas.

In case people want a quicker solution to this problem. We could do what China air experts are debating right now, which is to level down mountains to make them smaller. By making the mountains smaller the air would have better circulation and it wouldn't have to be trapped as it is now (Wan, William. "Chinas Air Pollution Prompts Creative, Sometimes Wacky, Solutions"). Although it is a good viable solution to pollution; but because of cost and all the problems this solution might cause this solution is very unlikely to be ever implemented here. Air pollution is a problem and it doesnt seem to be reducing and if the pollution in the air keeps increasing, the government might be forced to consider such an extreme approach to solve the big problem that air pollution is.

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These are small sacrifices we might have to do to reduce the air pollution in Utah, which is one of the greatest in the United States. They're not great sacrifices when you think about the benefits they will generate, like the reduction of pollution of course, but it would also make people healthier because we wouldn't have to breathe this polluted air anymore.

Works cited Baker, Brandon. "How 11,000 Oil and Gas Wells Gave Utah Community More Ozone Pollution Than Los Angeles." EcoWatch. N.p., 28 Mar. 2014. Web. 09 Apr. 2014. <http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/28/oil-and-gas-wells-utah-ozone/>. Leader, Jessica. "New Utah Air Quality Regulations To Take Effect In August Along Wasatch Front, Thanks To Pollution Increase." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 03 Jan. 2013. Web. 09 Apr. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/03/utah-airquality-regulations-rules-pollution_n_2402604.html>. "AIRNow - Homepage." AIRNow - Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. <http://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.main>. Maffly, Brian. "Utah Air Plan Too Soft on Industry, EPA Says." The Salt Lake Tribune. The Salt Lake Tribune, 08 Jan. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. <http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57359083-78/plan-utah-pollution-epa.html.csp>.

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Urry, Emerson. "Largest Air Pollution Rally in US History Goes Down on Utah's Capitol Hill." Truthout. EnviroNews, 02 Feb. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. <http://www.truthout.org/opinion/item/21614-largest-air-pollution-rally-in-us-history-goes-down-onutahs-capitol-hill>. Davis, Lucas W. "Driving Restrictions and Air Quality in Mexico City." Resources for the Future. N.p., 18 Aug. 2008. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. <http://www.rff.org/Publications/WPC/Pages/08_15_08_Driving%20Restrictions%20and %20Air%20Quality%20in%20Mexico%20City.aspx>. Agren, David. "Model for Megacities? Mexico City Cleans up Its Air." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 22 Apr. 2013. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. <http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2013/0422/Model-for-megacities-MexicoCity-cleans-up-its-air>. O'Connor, Anne-Marie. "Mexico City Drastically Reduced Air Pollutants since 1990s." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 01 Apr. 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/03/31/AR2010033103614.html>. Wan, William. "Chinas Air Pollution Prompts Creative, Sometimes Wacky, Solutions." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 27 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/chinas-air-pollution-prompts-creativesometimes-wacky-solutions/2014/01/25/dc7d47fa-82a6-11e3-bbe56a2a3141e3a9_story.html>.

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"Utah Air Quality." Utah Chapter Sierra Club. Sierra Club, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. <http://utah.sierraclub.org/content/utah-air-quality>. Stewart, Kirsten. "How Does Utah's Bad Air Hurt Our Health?" The Salt Lake Tribune. The Salt Lake Tribune, 26 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. <http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/57322168-90/hawthorne-health-httplake.html.csp>. Utah DEQ. "DEQ Home DAQ Home Current Conditions." Utah DEQ: DAQ: Current Conditions. Utah Deparment of Enviromental Quality, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. <http://www.airquality.utah.gov/aqp/currentconditions.php?id=slc>.