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Air Pollution Report

By: Carina Chavez

As Utahns, we have all dealt with air pollution.

Utah is effected by air pollution, especially in the winter and summer months.
As a Utahn I was not aware just how much air pollution could be affecting my health.

Dr. Brian Moench, a local Utah physician and air pollution activist, was quoted recently in the NY Times saying, If the 40,000 women in Utah who are pregnant suddenly started smoking, that would constitute a genuine health emergency, but our levels of air pollution are causing the exact same consequences as if all these women were smoking.

Fatal Lung Disease in Three Utah Counties

In 1990, a study was done at the University of Utah called Fatal Lung Disease in Three Utah Counties.
This study looked at respiratory cancer and non-malignant respiratory disease in three Utah Counties. The study found that 30%-40% of deaths in these diseases were attributed to community air pollution. The study also found that after a steel mill was put into one of the Utah counties, the number of fatalities spiked (despite low smoking rates in the county).

Air Pollution Claims Lives

The NY Times recently reported on a report that linked 7 million deaths to pollution worldwide. That number is the conclusion of the World Health Organization.
To put that into perspective, the World Health Organization estimates that 1.2 million people die in car crashes per year. Pollution kills almost seven times more people than car crashes. Or to put it another way, one in every seven deaths can be contributed to air pollution.

State of the Air Report 2013

In the American Lung Associations annual State of the Air Report 2013, Salt Lake City and Ogden are #6 (out of 25) on the list for most polluted cities by short-term particle pollution. Also according to this report, ozone and particle pollution are the most responsible pollutants for illness. Salt Lake City was ranked 51 out of 277 metropolitan areas for high ozone days and 6 for particle pollution.

The images below shows the health risks Utahns can look forward to with the air pollution.

The Air is Putting You and Those You Care About at Risk

Our health and everyone elses, the people we love and care for everyday, is at risk because of our dirty air.
Even just by doing our little part like car-pooling, not burning coal, emailing our senatorswhatever it takes, we will be boosting our quality of life in Utah, and as a result hopefully set an example for other parts of the world plagued by the same problem. We must also remember that while we are responsible for a large amount of pollution, Big business is as well. Its just not right for our government to protect the lifeless entities that are big business when we are the ones being affected.