Discussion: Air quality

In the last day or so there was a small thread in BorisGr's log concerning air quality/pollution during the summer. I thought the following EPA air quality site would be of general interest.

EPA AIRNow

Of particular significance is the hourly reports. In general, the worst time to run is in the late afternoon and evening. Conversly, even on orange/red days, the morning is still green. Because of that and the Dallas heat all my workouts shift to the morning hours during this time of year.

And it should be noted that while there are no reports from WY, that is only because the gov. hasn't yet establish badger-odor safety levels, which, whatever they are, are certainly exceeded in most WY towns.

Today in the big-D: high of 94, with "red" level air. Wonderful... not.

Where are you seeing the hourly reports? I could not find them.

--Mikkel

"Click" (select) your city on the map. Select "current conditions." Select "This map in motion."

For the Bay area, the only thing that changes is whether there is an observation that hour or not. Every hour is green. :)

In Ontario, info is available at Air Quality Ontario. It's been a bad smog year for us too, with a number of training sessions rescheduled or shortened because of poor air quality. The Ontario Medical Association recently released a report estimating that 5800 people die in Ontario each year as a result of poor air quality. Athletes (including children playing soccer after school) increase their risk because they breathe in more air when they exercise. Several years ago, the OMA estimated that the cost to Ontario's economy (health care, lost productivity, etc.) was over $1 billion per year, not including any dollars for all the deaths. With numbers like that, renewable energy starts to look like more of a bargain.