Air pollution not just a local issue

The scientific journal The Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Science published an article on July 31, saying that, absent changes, the Earth is moving toward a hothouse state.

That would mean uncontrolled warming that could make the planet hotter than it has been in 12 million years. Sea levels would rise 30 to 200 feet and vast area of land where people now live would become uninhabitable.

Two days later, on Aug. 2, the Trump administration announced its plans to roll back the stricter auto emissions standards proposed by the Obama administration and to do away with the waiver that lets California set stricter standards for vehicles there. All in all, morepolluting future.

And, on Aug. 7, Connecticut had its 17th bad air day this year. It’s likely we’ll have about 20 of these days by the end of this summer — not as bad as the 31 we had in the drought year of 2016, but no real improvement.

These things — grand and small — are all tied together in a weave that includes kids with asthma, Midwest power plants, global climate change, and politicians steering the ship of state. First, local health.

On bad air days, sunlight mixed with air pollution causes a chemical reaction creating ozone, an unstable oxygen molecule that irritates the lungs. It’s especially hard on people with existing respiratory problems.

Dr. Yogen Dave of Asthma and Allergy Care in New Milford says his office gets busier on bad air days, especially with children with asthma.

“Absolutely,” Dave said. “It’s pollution, it’s ozone, it’s pollen.”

Dawn Martin, director of patient care services at Danbury Hospital, said bad air days bring adults with

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — COPD — to the hospital’s emergency department, in need of respiratory therapy.

“If you’re out in the heat, you’re likely to have problems,” she said.

This isn’t however, strictly a local, or even state problem.

Prevailing winds carry lots of pollution to Connecticut from big Midwest power plants. We are at the mercy of other states’ environmental policies.

Chris Collibee, spokesman for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said if Connecticut shut down all its factories and banned all cars from the roads on hot summer days, we’d still have bad air days. About 95 percent of the ozone-creating pollution in Connecticut comes from other places.

“Air pollution knows no political boundary,” Collibee said.

It’s also a global, climate change issue. The hotter and sunnier the summer days, the more ozone, the more bad air days and the more people having trouble breathing.