Asthmatics suffer in Cache Valley's winter air pollution

Related story: Task force grapples with PM 2.5

By Chris Calvert

December 13, 2004 | The simple act of breathing became a difficult task for some Cache Valley residents last winter. Utah State University student Ann Passey, of Logan, said she can remember few winters as bad as that of 2003-04.

Passey said she is normally active and tries to keep in shape. She said she jogs three to five miles a day, bikes, and when she lived on 600 East and 1000 North she said she liked to walk to and from school. Passey also suffers from asthma, and during last January's inversion she had a hard time maintaining her normal way of life.

"I remember one day I tried to walk to school and I couldn't. I was physically able to make it up the hill, but for the rest of the day I had a hard time breathing, and I couldn't catch my breath," Passey said. She said when she breathed, her chest felt tight, and she felt she couldn't open her lungs enough to let an adequate amount of air in.

Passey is one of an estimated 17.3 million people in the United States who suffer from asthma. That is roughly 10 percent of the population nationally as well as locally.

The Environmental Protection Agency website says any type of particulate matter (PM) is associated with serious heath effects, especially difficulty breathing. Last year the air in Cache Valley had the highest level of PM2.5 particulates in the air in the nation and one of the worst levels of this pollutant ever recorded.

During a press conference with USU journalism students on Oct. 27, Logan Mayor Doug Thompson said the effects of last winter's pollution were much worse than most people thought.

"Statistically, last winter, three people died prematurely because of the air quality problem," said Thompson.

The pollution problem occurs when ammonia a common byproduct of raising livestock, and nitrous oxide common in car exhaust fumes mix, forming ammonium nitrate which is a PM 2.5 pollutant. PM 2.5 pollutants are particles smaller than 2.5 microns (2.5 millionths of a meter, or roughly the width of a human sperm) in diameter. According to the EPA, "particles of 2.5 microns or smaller (PM 2.5) exacerbate asthma, and they can even reduce the lung capacity of otherwise healthy adults."

Passey was one of those "healthy adults" affected by the particles. She was originally diagnosed with asthma when she was 10 years old; however, when she reached puberty the asthma attacks went away. This is a somewhat common occurrence, according to emedicine. However, the attacks returned last winter.

Passey said she remembers, last winter, being outside and needing to finish some tasks but having a hard time breathing. She said she didn't know what was happening and it took her a few days to realize the pollution was causing her asthma to recur. By that time, she had begun coughing up mucus and thinking she had contracted bronchitis.

She said the pollution disrupted her life. She said she was no longer able to do the outdoors things she enjoyed doing. In fact, she said the only time she spent outdoors was the time it took to walk to her car or to walk between classes at school.

"It's really weird. I lived in downtown Salt Lake and an urban part of Michigan for a while with no problems, but last winter my asthma just came back," said Passey. "It's not like Cache Valley has a lot of industrial pollutants or anything, so I don't know what it is."

Thompson agrees that pollutants are a big issue and something he is trying to resolve. He said he and the City Council had heard many ideas on how to reduce pollution in Cache Valley. These included purchasing big wind machines and blowing the pollutants out of the north or south ends of the valley.

Thompson said there isn't enough time to implement a program to affect this coming winter inversion, but he and the council hope to have something in place by next year. Thompson said he is considering having local residents undergo a "voluntary emissions test," if the cars passed the owners would be given a sticker which would allow them to drive their car on "red burn days" or days when air pollution is expected to be high. Cars failing the emissions test would be granted a sticker if the owner made the necessary changes to the car exhaust system needed in order for the car to pass the test.

This plan of emissions testing contradicts what Thompson said in the Oct. 27 press conference concerning the need for such testing. "Even if every car on the streets last year had passed an emissions test it would have made little difference in the overall air quality of the valley," he said. "Mandatory emissions testing is not the answer."

Passey disagreed with Thompson, saying, "I know it won't eradicate the problem, but I think it will help."

Thompson said many factors affect the valley's problem of pollution. He said the air quality in Cache Valley is a "unique situation." He said the inversion level in the valley is only about 500 feet, meaning air in the valley will stop rising at 500 feet. An inversion is a situation when the temperature of air in a particular zone of the atmosphere actually increases with altitude instead of decreases with altitude as air normally does. Since it is the natural tendency of warmer air to rise, the air in the inverted zone rises to a level until the air above it is colder than it is. The warm air doesn't continue rising but stays put just under the colder air. Since the mountains don't allow the polluted warmer air to escape, it becomes more and more saturated with pollutants.

Another factor influencing the high level of pollutants is the large numbers of livestock in the valley, contributing to a very high level of ammonia in the air. According to the USDA's website there were 65,950 cows and calves in the valley in 2002.

With nearly as many cows as cars in the valley, residents and local governments will need to decide where the future of Cache Valley lies, in being an urban community, of continuing its place among rural, farming communities.

Thompson said he hopes the future of technology will allow for greater prediction of pollutants in the air so he and his successors can encourage people to use alternate forms of transportation on the days with the most pollutants.

"The core element in keeping air quality high is to stop people from driving their cars, especially if the cars aren't in good shape," Thompson said.

Passey said she didn't know what the key was to maintaining a high quality of air in the valley, but said it was very necessary, because people with severe asthma could and have died because of it. She said she remembers a roommate she had while living in Michigan. Her roommate also suffers from asthma, but much worse than she does. Passey said she believed her roommate would have been much more affected by the pollution if she lived here last year and could have even been one of those who died because of the bad air.

NW
MK