As members of Utah’s environmental community and public health advocates who are working to make the Wasatch Front a clean, healthy, safe and economically viable community in which to raise our families, we are pleased that Kennecott Copper has committed to reducing its use of coal in its smelter operations. This is most certainly a step in the right direction for the largest stationary, industrial source of air pollution in the valley. Any such measure is a very positive move towards cleaning up the continual air pollution problems in our community and also a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

This also demonstrates positive leadership in our business community and is a model that should be followed by others throughout the Salt Lake Valley.

We are particularly disappointed, however, that Kennecott is choosing to continue to burn coal for decades in the future when there are cleaner, viable options that should be equally considered. We are disappointed that Kennecott will not commit to a schedule in which their entire use of coal can be completely phased out. In the larger scope of their proposed mine expansion that will most likely add additional amounts of pollutants into our airshed, and in light of the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible, we believe it is imperative that Kennecott Copper makes a commitment to eliminate all uses of coal. We will continue to request this of Kennecott officials and work with them directly to make this complete transition to cleaner energy a reality.

Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment
Utah Moms for Clean Air
Post Carbon Salt Lake
Utah Chapter Sierra Club
Breathe Utah
Peaceful Uprising
Renewable Energy Resources

Utah’s Care to Clear the Air campaign is about to begin. After two successful summers, the challenge is now focused on reducing the impact of our winter inversions, when frightening levels of pollution get trapped in our valleys. Although awards will not be handed out for the winter challenge (maybe in the future), you can still track your impact at the site’s TravelWise Tracker

The program starts in January 2011. Once registered, participants will receive special assistance to make a winter-friendly TravelWise commute a snap. Through interactive community events, Yellow/Red air day text alerts and other tools, participants will find it easy to do their part to help clear the air during inversion season.

Cache Valley Daily
By Jennie Christensen
Story Created: Dec 9, 2010 at 11:45 AM MST

Winter inversions came to Cache Valley earlier than usual this year and Bear River Health Department officials remind Cache Valley residents there is no magic way to deal with the air pollution.

On KVNU’s For the People program Tuesday, environmental scientist Grant Koford said it helps that cars have become cleaner but, on the other hand, there are a lot more cars on the road. So what can be done?

“The mass transit system around here is going to have to be improved, upgraded and modified, or whatever they need to do to add more buses, and so forth,” Koford answered. “Personally, all of us have to look at this on a personal basis and say, ‘what can we do? can we carpool? can we make less trips to the store? can I not burn my wood stove on a red air day?’.”

Koford says some kind of emissions testing will probably be part of the future. Meanwhile, he says young children, the elderly and those with chronic diseases are reminded to be outside as little as possible during an inversion.

The health department is utilizing multiple methods to inform the public about current air quality conditions, including www.brhd.org, twitter.com/bearriverhealth, facebook.com/BearRiverHealth and updates every morning and afternoon on KVNU 610 AM / 102.1 FM.

I will say it again, ARRRGGHHHHHHHHH!!!! As a mother of two young children whose lungs are still developing, I feel sick that my babes are forced to breathe this smelly gunk we call air. Every time we enter this toxic haze, my heart sinks wondering what impact this is having on their tiny lungs and hearts, not to mention their life-time cancer risk.

As of today, we have had three RED air alerts in a row, the first, but surely not the last, of this winter’s inversion season. I feel deeply frustrated already and I wonder how I will manage the entire winter…. physically, psychologically…. sometimes I feel it would be so much easier to just move my family. But, we love Utah, we love Salt Lake City, we love our home, our community, the mountains….so I continue the fight for the right to breathe clean air.

To find out about current air quality (or lack thereof) conditions check out Utah’s Department of Air Quality

You can also sign-up for air alerts on this same page. On Red air days such as today and thru this coming weekend, Utah Moms for Clean Air advises the following:

1. Keep children indoors as much as possible. Let them burn off that extra energy at bounce houses, your local gymnasium, indoor swimming pools, ice skating rinks or take them up to the mountains for some snow play and blue sky.

2. Make sure your child’s school has a plan in place for high pollution days. Recess guidelines are available at the Utah Department of Health

2. Keep your windows and doors shut as much as possible and keep a HEPA-grade air purifier running in the areas most frequented by your family. At night, put a HEPA-grade air purifier in your sleeping quarters. HEPA-grade vacuum cleaners are also available on the market.

3. Add a few indoor air cleansing plants to your home such as spider plants, philodendron, peace lily, english ivy, ferns and palms. A NASA study revealed these plants and others to have an incredible capacity to clean our air.

4. Avoid running, biking and other high exertion activities.

5. Do not burn anything!

6. Minimize your driving. Do not idle your car for more than 10 to 30 SECONDS. Telecommute. Postpone trips that can wait, carpool or take public transportation.

7. Avoid drive-thru service windows.

8. Minimize your indoor air pollution by eliminating all scented candles and plug-in air “fresheners” (most of which host cancer-causing chemicals). Non-scented candles are available at Whole Foods and Earth Goods General Store.

9. Also minimize the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) you bring into your home. This may sound overwhelming, especially if this is the first time you have heard of them and have no idea what they are, but the basic rule of thumb is if you can smell off-gassing (that new car or carpet smell smell, the smell of new plastic, a recent paint job or a strong chemical whiff of cleaning products etc) then it probably has VOCs. VOCs are a huge environmental health concern due to the breadth of irritating symptoms they cause and their cancer-causing potential. Nearly all products containing VOCs can be replaced with healthier alternatives. For example wool carpet or FLOR’s unique carpet tiles are usually nontoxic and do not create that nasty off-gas smell.
Get indoor air pollution alerts at MedlinePlus (part of the National Institutes for Health).

10. Visit the Breathe Utah website and download their excellent Air Quality Emergency Action Plan which can be tailored to your specific family needs.

If you have other suggestions on how to protect yourself and your family during bad air days, please email us at: nomadicmuse@yahoo.com

Salt Lake Tribune
Dec 4, 2010
By Bob Mins

Salt Lake Valley began Saturday with a dirty, smelly, gray shroud of aerial gunk — air deemed bad enough for a “red” air quality alert. More of the same is expected Sunday.

Blame it on northern Utah’s dreaded winter air inversion and the automobile and industrial emissions it is trapping over the region’s valleys. Until possibly early Monday, when the National Weather Service predicts a low pressure front from the Pacific via California and Nevada may bring rain and snow, Utahns will just have to scowl and live with it.

In addition to Salt Lake County, the Utah Division of Environmental Quality issued red or “unhealthy” air warnings Saturday through Sunday for Davis, Weber, and Cache counties.

DEQ officials cautioned people with heart or lung disease, older adults and children to shun prolonged or heavy outdoors exertion. In fact, those with breathing ailments should stay indoors, and motorists were urged to avoid adding to the pollution woes by putting off unnecessary travel altogether.

Only Utah County, which had a “green” or moderate rating for Saturday and Sunday, seemed to be escaping the worst of the health-comprising effects of the inversion.

Salt Lake Valley, in particular, is geologically made for winter air inversions. Indeed, in colder weather the usual conditions of cool air at higher elevations and warmer air below is reversed, or “inverted,” DEQ air quality experts explain.

Northern Utah’s winter inversions thus trap thick layers of cold air under the warmer air, confining pollution near the valley floors. The longer the inversions last, undisturbed by incoming storms or winds, the worse the pollution levels — and their subsequent health impact — will become.