[MRVphotog]

than if you live in Vermont your in a good place. Yup, urban/suburban places have their advantages and living in Vermont has it's challenges. Breathing clean air and drinking clean fresh well water is priceless.

Air Too Dirty to Breathe in 345 Counties - AOL News

[arctichomesteader]

I can tell you the air in Rutland is anything but clean...

[harry chickpea]

I hate headlines like that. If the air is too dirty to breathe, do people living in those areas have gills?

The air is NOT too dirty to breathe. Someone devised a measurement and someone else set guidelines or limitations as to what it SHOULD be according to their personal thoughts, and now some frootloop is declaring that, because it doesn't meet those arbitrary standards, the air is too dirty to breathe. This is the type of sloppy, over-the-top headlining that reinforces the agendas of the eco-nuts.

I'm all for clean air, and I'm old enough to remember how bad it was like when the gas plant was operating on Pine St. in Burlington, Moran was going full-blast, and coal was a dominant fuel, but the hyperbole of some reporting these days smells far worse and begins to make me choke in reaction to the ravings of some of these phlegmatic hacks.

At the same time that this is getting headlines, buried on the interior pages of some papers is an article about lifespans, where one gerontologist makes an off-the-cuff remark that he has not seen a single centenarian vegetarian. However, that doesn't fit the media's definition of news. Playing to fear and playing to the perceived desires and press releases of the dominant special interest groups had become the SOP for most news media, and such "reporting" has become grossly condescending and offensive to those few of us who don't follow the herd.

Vermont often has bad air days during the summer, and MRVphotog you know it if you are a photographer. Try to get that wonderful crystal clear shot from the top of Mansfield when the valleys below sit in a hazy stew. Visit the Hazecam site on the web during those hot days of August and September:

Burlington - Haze Cam Pollution Visibility Camera Network

And if you want news that is a little more real or in-context than AOL, or Fox, or the NYT, or other play to the crowd media, add this site to your list:

ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

It won't be a sugar rush of candy coated fluff, but it will help keep you informed about stuff that could matter.

[flu189]

Yes I do feel fortunate that the air quality is good here. But, the stats surrounding standards and measurement seem to be constantly changing. Back when I was growing up in NY despite the practice of incinerating trash at each and every apartment building, the use of leaded gasoline, etc the air standards were deemed acceptable more often than not. Of course it's good that some of the old practices have been changed, but quite a bit of air quality despite human influence depends on geography and weather patterns. There is no way we can eliminate human influence and despite the desires of many we can't manipulate nature. Quite a bit of air quality is measured on the particulate matter. When I lived in Anchorage we had worse conditions due to natural conditions from airborne dust than anywhere else I have ever lived, so despite being well over 1800 miles from any major industrial complex we had worse air by a set standard than folks who live near industrial centers.

[MRVphotog]

I believe the summer haze has the more to do with humidity than air pollution.

[arctichomesteader]

I hate headlines like that. If the air is too dirty to breathe, do people living in those areas have gills?

No, the issue is it's going to cause serious health problems in people living in these areas in greater numbers than elsewhere. It's a slow process often, though not in those sensitive to it more such as people with bad asthma. I've noticed the results in myself (no I don't have asthma or anything that would make me particularly sensitive to it), living in a city in VT where all you can smell if you walk outside is the car fumes, it's given me trouble breathing at times, and I'm sick far more often than when I've not been in cities (at all times of the year I've seen this).

[MRVphotog]

Originally Posted by arctichomesteader

I can tell you the air in Rutland is anything but clean...

How so? The EPA says otherwise. I'm always open to differing info.

And if you want news that is a little more real or in-context than AOL, or Fox, or the NYT, or other play to the crowd media, add this site to your list:

AOL, Fox, whatever, is simply reporting a recent EPA air quality survey by county. I don't see how the source would make any diference in this context. I would assume Burlington would have the worst pollution in Vermont but this is about counties and as you can see from the survey Chittenden County is below the standard. No one is saying that we don't have days with pollution/haze.

Vermont's high taxes, low pay and lack of good jobs are often discussed topics in here. Not saying it's not important, to some more than others I suppose. For me clean air and clean water is a top priority. Heck, my well water is better water than half the bottle water in the store.

Maybe it has alot to do with living out west, where the water is scarce and some of it is undrinkable from the tap. Makes me appreciate the abundance and quality of most of the water in Vermont excluding Lake Champlain, of course. Hope, someday they can clean up LC, it is gorgeous to look at, for sure. They have been working hard on it, spent alot of money but not making much progress.

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by MRVphotog

How so? The EPA says otherwise. I'm always open to differing info.



AOL, Fox, whatever, is simply reporting a recent EPA air quality survey by county. I don't see how the source would make any diference in this context.

What the EPA says doesn't replace experience on the ground. I wonder how high up, what areas, how many, etc., they sample/test? Maybe people notice it less while driving as they're out less time, but walk around the streets, especially the busier ones, and smell the air. You'll smell car fumes non-stop in many parts of the city. That's not healthy...nor is the amount of sand and salt you'll get in your lungs either. I've experienced the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning after some long walks in Rutland. Something's wrong there, and I'm not the only one to have noticed this. Of course, a lot of people in cities get so used to it they don't realize just how dirty it is because they don't even know what clean air truly is...have to be far from roads to find any.

[Sherylcatmom]

Originally Posted by arctichomesteader

What the EPA says doesn't replace experience on the ground. I wonder how high up, what areas, how many, etc., they sample/test?

I am familiar with this experience. For example, I think the area temperatures posted in weather reports are taken at the airport, which as anyone around here knows is sometimes quite different from the weather in the city.

Depending on which Rutland streets we're walking on, we've also had the experiences you described. At times it's reminded me of living in New York City: exhaust-heavy air that we smell in our noses and feel in our lungs after we go back indoors.

Meanwhile, you can click on the links at this website to see some air quality indicators for Rutland. Of course, may of the readings are supposed to cover all of Rutland County, so who knows where they're being measured.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by arctichomesteader

What the EPA says doesn't replace experience on the ground. I wonder how high up, what areas, how many, etc., they sample/test? Maybe people notice it less while driving as they're out less time, but walk around the streets, especially the busier ones, and smell the air. You'll smell car fumes non-stop in many parts of the city. That's not healthy...nor is the amount of sand and salt you'll get in your lungs either. I've experienced the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning after some long walks in Rutland. Something's wrong there, and I'm not the only one to have noticed this. Of course, a lot of people in cities get so used to it they don't realize just how dirty it is because they don't even know what clean air truly is...have to be far from roads to find any.

Well considered. Back in the 1950s, Burlington smelled fine up by the campus, but as you got closer to Pine Street the gag reflex started kicking in. (Except within a few feet of the Maypo plant <sigh>).

The haze in the summer isn't just moisture. The local conifers are a source of "pollution" as well. It just is what you are willing to accept and glorify, or what you demand has to be corrected for the health of the citizens. If pollution comes from a forest, then it isn't politically correct to call for it to be cut down.

I agree that there are still problem areas in the country that need help. I've been in Birmingham midsummer, when the air was so sharp that it made my eyes water. OTOH, Ft Lauderdale was cited as bad in pollution for a while, even though the sea breezes swept it clean and it consistently had clearer and cleaner skies than Vermont ever had in all the time I grew up there. So much for EPA measurements. Clean air in Vermont is dependent on Canadian highs coming down and sweeping the atmosphere clean more than anything happening locally.

The point is that governmental report cards often have more to do with politics than good science or common sense. What I despair is the lack of independent thought of people reading the packaged news, and the lack of reaction to stories that are overblown or fallacious.