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Hey guys. I am looking to relocate in the near future.
I am from South Jersey, 15 minutes away from Philadelphia. I went to college in Burlington Vermont. Obviously very different worlds, including very different levels of pollution.
I am an asthmatic, as well as have chronic fatigue. When I attended Burlington, I was the most active and healthy I had ever been in my entire life. I enjoy VT, but the Winters are brutal, and the summers can get pretty humid as well.
It is not surprise to me that when I check out stateoftheair.org that Burlington's environment is obviously extremely superior to the Philadelphia / Tri State Area. It has all A's and one B.
My area Fails High Ozone Days & Particular Pollution as well as has a 461,724 vs 19,258 Adult Asthma at risk rate.
I recently was lucky enough to travel to Portland Oregon & Seattle Washington. I enjoyed both of the areas and while I wasn't there long enough to gauge any major health changes, I did a lot of walking and felt pretty good. My perception of both Oregon and Washington was that they are very "Green" cities but have looked up both their Air Quality Indexes and have been extremely surprised...
Portland & Seattle have C's in High Ozone Days and both Failed 24 hour Particle Pollution, but both Pass Annual Particle Pollution.
Without sounding too ignorant and not having a ton of knowledge of Air Index Numbers my area is known for being pretty unhealthy, having a high cancer rate, and abundance of pollution, so I was surprised to find the Pacific Northwest not scoring as high here as I imagined, am I missing something? Thanks for any help / discussion!
I can't explain the "green" thing because I don't really know just how that fits in with the air quality and the stats you read but they are accurate. The PNW rates high on the list of allergens. Before relocating there if you have asthma or allergies, take an allergy testing panel to all the things that grow there to see if you react to them. Grass is a big culprit. So are various forms of trees. These things can trigger an asthma attack if you are allergic to them.
What you are missing is the factor of the every increasing traffic overload that not only clogs roads that were not built to handle the numbers but that cause a great amount of air pollution and that's only going to get worse. I have asthma as well as Pulmonary Sarcoidosis, when I lived in Portland around 2012 (I moved there in 1978) my pulmonologist told me she had such a great upturn in her patients' seeking help she couldn't keep up. She was seeing new patients who were having breathing problems for the first time as well.
I would not advise anyone who has breathing problems to move to Portland but if you like the PNW there might be other towns with better air quality you can handle if the grass and tree thing isn't a problem for you.
I moved from NJ to PNW a couple months ago and have had no allergies since I've been here. Back in NJ and east coast in general I'm basically dying throughout the summer months from allergies. That is just me of course. Can't speak for everyone.
I moved from NJ to PNW a couple months ago and have had no allergies since I've been here. Back in NJ and east coast in general I'm basically dying throughout the summer months from allergies. That is just me of course. Can't speak for everyone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seattle4321
I have no allergies in the PNW. Air is probabably bad cause so much traffic.
Good examples of why the OP should take the PNW allergy panel because while some are bothered by the flora of the PNW others are not. I have friends there who take seasonal allergy shots and some who have never so much as sneezed during the grass season. Also what you find in Seattle can differ from Portland and vice versa.
Air quality in Portland is bad especially in the summertime due to heavy traffic. I think the OP should seriously GOOGLE this to see just what the extent of it is. Also there have been some problems of late with some manufacturers dumping pollutants into the air. Information can also be found online. Here's one.
Thing is, asthma is nothing to fool around with. If it's a problem you have to be very careful where you choose to live. I've been hospitalized with it enough times to know and that was in Portland which for me was great up until about ten years ago. I lived there from 1978-2014. I know it's hard to believe but I have actually had to use less treatment since I've been in the Cleveland area. Still, I realize everyone is different so I urge the OP to thoroughly check this out for himself.
Hey guys. I am looking to relocate in the near future.
I am from South Jersey, 15 minutes away from Philadelphia. I went to college in Burlington Vermont. Obviously very different worlds, including very different levels of pollution.
I am an asthmatic, as well as have chronic fatigue. When I attended Burlington, I was the most active and healthy I had ever been in my entire life. I enjoy VT, but the Winters are brutal, and the summers can get pretty humid as well.
It is not surprise to me that when I check out stateoftheair.org that Burlington's environment is obviously extremely superior to the Philadelphia / Tri State Area. It has all A's and one B.
My area Fails High Ozone Days & Particular Pollution as well as has a 461,724 vs 19,258 Adult Asthma at risk rate.
I recently was lucky enough to travel to Portland Oregon & Seattle Washington. I enjoyed both of the areas and while I wasn't there long enough to gauge any major health changes, I did a lot of walking and felt pretty good. My perception of both Oregon and Washington was that they are very "Green" cities but have looked up both their Air Quality Indexes and have been extremely surprised...
Portland & Seattle have C's in High Ozone Days and both Failed 24 hour Particle Pollution, but both Pass Annual Particle Pollution.
Without sounding too ignorant and not having a ton of knowledge of Air Index Numbers my area is known for being pretty unhealthy, having a high cancer rate, and abundance of pollution, so I was surprised to find the Pacific Northwest not scoring as high here as I imagined, am I missing something? Thanks for any help / discussion!
Perhaps the PNW, the western parts where most of the people live anyway, has a high mold count?
I will say this about the Philadelphia/South Jersey area, I noticed that they usually have more "heat advisory" and "excessive heat warnings" then the NYC area despite being relatively close by (however today is not a good example since there are excessive heat warnings all the way up to Springfield, Massachusetts). I know high humidity makes it harder to breathe so that cannot be good.
Thanks so much for your replies everyone. Yes indeed, Jersey these last few days with the extreme heat, humidity, and allergies is pretty debilitating for me. Really stuck inside with air conditioning, but even inside the air still is pretty thick to breathe. Nothing worse than feeling like you have constant brain fog, feel tired, hazy, and dizzy. For an asthmatic here, the Summer almost can become like a second winter of staying inside.
I actually stumbled upon the "Dirty Little Secret" Portland article not far after posting this and am appreciative of the comments. I suppose the AQI levels do speak for themselves, and I most likely had a uninformed perception of the states not based on fact.
Getting a PNW allergy panel is a great idea, I actually took weekly allergy shots for probably 8 years in New Jersey, and am still on maintenance shots biweekly.
If staying on the east coast I would consider moving back to Vermont again for the great health alone, but the winters are brutal, and Burlington is a little small for me, thus I have been looking into other areas. I have spent a little time in Boston and it does seem to score around the same as Portland and Seattle.
I'm not even sure exactly what it is about the east coast that I have allergies to. I just know it sucks and it seems the further south I went the worse it was. I lived and grew up in New England and had it there. Lived in NYC for 12 years and it seemed a bit worse there. South Jersey about 10 minutes from Philly even worse. Also was in the military and was stationed in SC and FL and even worse in those spots. SC and NJ seemed the worst offenders for whatever reason.
PNW is the best of the two choices about which you asked, in my experience.
MSR
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