Fun with particle pollution

Posted on Sun, Sep. 16, 2007

Smear a little Vaseline on an index card, weigh it, stick it up in the air and leave it there. Take it down a day later and weigh it again, and that gives you an idea of how much particulate pollution's in the air. The tiny particles stick to the card.

Neat, huh? Doing nifty science experiments like that is just one of the advantages to having air so polluted that it's exceeding federal air quality standards. Another advantage is that when local leaders learn the federal government's about to force us to clean up our air, they try to clean it up first.

That's what happened in the late 1990s when folks here heard the Columbus area was exceeding the limit on ground-level ozone pollution: They formed a task force and came up with ways to get businesses, governments and average residents to reduce ozone pollution.

But then the weather changed locally while nationally the feds imposed new regulations on major ozone producers, and ozone readings dropped. That got the feds to back off, so everyone quit worrying about ozone and slacked off.

The good news is our air's now so polluted that we're finally going to have to do something about it, again, and the bad news is it's polluted with tiny particles.

The difference

Ozone typically is a problem only in the summer, on bright sunny days when the air is stagnant and chemicals from fuels and car exhaust float up and cook in the sunlight to form ozone molecules. Each ozone molecule's made of three oxygen atoms. Unlike the stable oxygen molecule of two oxygen atoms, ozone's very unstable, and goes around looking for ways to ditch its extra atom. Breathe it and it can damage lung tissue.

Particulate pollution hangs around all year long. It's made of microscopic particles that drift in the air and cause all sorts of problems.

The airborne particles the feds limit are 2.5 microns, about a hundredth the diameter of a human hair. Unless they're in a cloud of larger particles, like wood smoke, you don't notice them usually, but you can breathe them deep into your lungs. That can lead to heart and respiratory ailments, and that's why the feds limit particulates.

Now what?

So now the air in Columbus and Phenix City is over the particle limit, and if we don't do something about that, the feds are going to say we have failed to attain their air quality standard. That's called "nonattainment." Once you're in nonattainment, just about anything you do that could increase air pollution -- like recruit a major industry or build a big road -- invites federal oversight for the next 20 years.

That scares local business and government leaders. A road project now takes about seven years to finish. In nonattainment, it would take longer as the feds reviewed its effect on air quality, and it might not happen at all. A major employer might be unable to expand. An industry thinking of coming here might decide to go elsewhere.

In December 2008, the feds are to decide who's in nonattainment and who's not. Between now and then, they want us to prove we're working to clean up our air. If we can show we're making an effort, that can keep us out of nonattainment.