Essay On Salt Lake City Air Pollution

Air pollution in Utah, specifically the Salt Lake City Valley area is at a high. The valley was given the air quality grade of an F during the “state of the air” grading period of 2015. Many groups and research grants have been formed and given to start working on the issue of Utah’s air quality and what can be done to help better it for now and future generations. There are many solutions on the government, business and individual level that can be implicated in order to lower the air pollution for Utah and that can also be used anywhere in the United States and World.

Salt Lake City Air Pollution Short-term particle pollution and smog in Salt Lake City, Utah are reaching unhealthy levels. 1 Particle pollution is the term used to describe

1 These particles can come in many different shapes and sizes and can be made up of hundreds of different chemicals. Some, known as primary particles, come directly from their source such as construction sites, fields, smokestacks, fires or unpaved roads. Some from in complicated reactions in the atmosphere of chemicals like sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides that are emitted from power plants, industries and automobiles. These are known as secondary particles and are responsible the most of the fine particle pollution in this country. 3 Short-term particle pollution can last for hours up to several days and increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, emergency room visits for cardiovascular disease and asthma, and increases the likelihood of early death. Nearly 50 million Americans living in 66 countries experience too many days with an unhealthy spike in particle pollution (stateoftheair.org, 2013). While this figure is lower from the previous reports, and nearly 13 cities have lowered their short-term particle pollution levels, Salt Lake City is still one of the top seven worse cities for pollution holding an air