Air Quality in Salt Lake City (Logan, Tooele: how much, house, allergy)

[jjtdjr]

What's it like living with the air quality in Salt Lake City? It doesn't sound good for anyone with a lung condition. We are considering a move from the east coast and are curious how much of a probem it is. It does sound like SLC has a great quality of life and excellent access to the outdoor activities, but if the air is not breathable?
Thanks for any information.

[SergeantL]

In reality, your question is not easy to answer. I visit southern California frequently, and I am sure you know the reputation of the air in that location; yet, it doesn't bother me, other than the appearance.

Someone told me, but I don't know whether it is true, Salt Lake air pollution is actually worse because of woodstove particulates; however, based on a strictly subjective comparison between LA and SLC air quality, SLC seems very good to me.

Now, what is breathable for you is the really tough question to answer. If you have any preexisting respiratory conditions, you should probably consult your physician for information on what you can tolerate. I will retire shortly, (Yelling Yippee and dancing a little *** as I write the words retire shortly) but I have lived and worked in the allergy capital of California for most of my life. Although this has never bothered me before, as I age I find that my eyes itch and water during the spring bloom, when they never did before.

Finally, keep this in mind. If you are retiring and not saddled to a job, you can live anywhere in Utah you desire. My wife and I are building in Price, which is about two and a half hours southeast of Salt Lake City. Other than strong winds that kick up the desert dust, the air quality is fine, and I am sure there are many other places in Utah that are just as good or better.

I have included this website for more information on air quality in the state.

http://www.airquality.utah.gov/Permi...neral_Info.htm

[coolcats]

Originally Posted by jjtdjr

What's it like living with the air quality in Salt Lake City? It doesn't sound good for anyone with a lung condition. We are considering a move from the east coast and are curious how much of a probem it is. It does sound like SLC has a great quality of life and excellent access to the outdoor activities, but if the air is not breathable?
Thanks for any information.

It is usually fine with one big caveat. For the last two weeks, there has been no visible smog and I can easily see mountains 50 miles distant. However prior to this, there was an inversion, where stagnent air was trapped. This inversion, one of the worst ever, lasted for three weeks straight. It got so bad, I could barely see the mountains less than 10 miles away. It didn't personally affect my health (that I could tell). But I made sure to exercise indoors, which is recommended.

I wasn't happy to think that my family and I were breathing it. I believe this year was particularly bad, but in any given year, I think you could expect 2-4 weeks (not necessarily consecutive) of inversion conditions. I read that inversions only happen in the winter from November to February.

[mariewendan]

When we had the inversion- the news stated Salt Lake City's air quality was TWO AND A HALF times WORSE than L.A.! Now that's scary. However, I think that's rare and isn't usually that bad- just a bad winter from what I hear. I haven't had any problems breathing, but that's probably because we are way out in Tooele County (about 25 miles out of salt lake city) where the skies are BLUE.

[Intersection]

Frankly, we are probably moving away from SLC after last winter. You would be hard-pressed to find it on the SLC air quality page, but last january there were something like 25 days of RED air quality - that's where they say childen, elderly and people with poor health shouldn't leave the house and you can't exercise. The air was terrible last winter, it was about 10 degrees for weeks on end, our eyes hurt, we coughed all the time and so on. You could tell it was actually bad because the news even mentioned smog instead of "haze". I think they call it haze because it sounds nicer and less like something that will poison you and might have come from your giant truck.

You can see video of what the inversion looked like at its worst, here:

Time Science - Projects - Meteorology


In general, there is maybe a week of red air quality days in slc. People talk about doing something but it is really hard for people here to think about the environment as something that effects them directly rather than something that liberals just whine about. One example... we will have 10 days straight of unbreathable air, there will be a storm and blow it out and then the air quality rating is green. With green air quality there are no restrictions on anything so you can burn wood to your heart's content, tear down huge buildings downtown (actually they were still doing that during the worst of the inversion), etc. So one day it is bad to burn wood and drive, but the next it is fine because the air is great. The fact that the green air days predictably turn into red-air days due to lack of enough mass transit options people and people burning stuff, etc. seems not to not be on anyone's radar.

Logon's air is worse. I'm not sure about south of SLC, but most pollution blows south from here.

hope that unbiased opinion helps

[grimbasement]

I hate the winters here weeks of not seeing the sun really can get to you. Thankfully, all one has to do to get out of the air you can taste is take a trip to Park City which gets you up out of the inversion. See the sun then prepare to dive back into the soup. Utah air is the pits especially if you have breathing difficulties.

[bob rulz]

If you have a lung condition, then winter in Salt Lake City isn't a good place to be; there's usually at least a week of inversion. As many people have said, last year was particularly bad; it was very cold and smoggy for about 3 weeks straight. It's generally pretty good for most of the rest of year, but in any valley area it's bad during a winter inversion. Logan is better than SLC overall, but not during an inversion (the shape of Cache Valley really creates nasty inversions).

[malindall]

Is Park City the only place to get out of the inversion and still be near SLC?

[eggalegga]

You could go north to Davis county or south to Utah county if either of them are not having red burn days (bad air quality days.) Other than that, Park City is the closest city to get away from the bad air.

[alexei27]

the inversion is 500-1000 ft thick when it is at its worst. SLC is 4280 ft above sea level...so you typically need to get above 5300 ft to avoid it. Obviously there is day to day variation...but I live at 4800 ft in Davis CO and frequently can see over the top of the inversion.