PM 2.5 Concentrations in Downtown Fairbanks, Alaska, Feb 15, 2011, from 5:55 PM
This PM 2.5 concentration map is from data collected by the Fairbanks North Star Borough instrumented “sniffer” vehicle traveling on public roads in Fairbanks, Alaska. Schools in the area are Barnette and Denali Elementary.
This map is an instantaneous snapshot of what was happening at that time, not a 24-hour average or a 1-hour average.
The contours (colors) correspond to EPA PM 2.5 24- hour levels from the Air Quality Index chart. To better understand, view: Judging Particulate Levels In Your Area.
The legend shows approximate locations of coal and wood heaters and woodstoves. Some of the heating sources shown on the map may have changed over time or may not be in use. The PM 2.5 concentration maps do not show all possible area sources.
The maps capture areawide PM 2.5 concentrations at the time of the sniffer vehicle runs. Winter neighborhood levels are typically higher than at the downtown monitor. However, even the sniffer runs do not capture the highly dangerous peak hourly concentrations. Peak PM 2.5 exposures are most strongly associated with adverse health effects including hospitalization and death. Review the medical studies in two articles linked in this previous post: Wood-fired Hydronic Heaters: Hazardous but Unregulated.
On February 15, 2011 at 6 PM, particulate levels measured at the downtown monitor (675 7th Ave in Fairbanks, the lower star) were 76.6 micrograms/cubic meter. At 12 midnight the concentrations climbed to a subdaily peak of 141 micrograms. The 24-hour average for February 15 was 58.8 micrograms, making it UNHEALTHY.
No Air Quality Advisory was in effect on February 15 although DEC declared one the next day. After 26 consecutive hours of PM 2.5 levels over the state and federal limit (including 5 hours above 100 micrograms), DEC declared the Air Quality Advisory on February 16 at 11 AM, stating:
The current Air Quality Index in Fairbanks, North Pole and the immediate surrounding area is UNHEALTHY.
During February 2011, 5 UNHEALTHY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS days and 2 UNHEALTHY days were recorded at the downtown monitor.
During the winter of 2010/2011, the peak hourly PM 2.5 concentration recorded downtown was 174.2 micrograms on January 20 at 6 PM. 30 UNHEALTHY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS days and 11 UNHEALTHY days were recorded downtown.
Cities can make laws regulating air pollution stricter than federal laws. When the federal laws are bad and come from a non scientific congress dominating scientific bodies like the EPA and DHHS, then cities should make more restrictive laws to protect life, health, safety, welfare. Congress is forcing the EPA to promote a changeout program and burn it smart campaign even though the latest science from the EPA and other groups is proving it is bad. Congress can’t adapt partly because no one except donating lobbyists and industry can reach them. Gov works down the chain of command and not up it from the scientists and power get’s abused. Exampole: global warming where 99% of the scientists say global warming exists but business won’t allow anything to be done because it hurts their business as is.
The consensus science is that wood smoke is 4 times more toxic than pm from oil and gas yet it is treated the same. See the CDC wildfire smoke website and Dr Browns work on owb’s for the EPA. The safe dose from conc x time is 180 mcg/m3,hr. Regulate around that. Follow the constitution and honor the rights to life and health not the lower and ever changing pm stds proven wrong 4 times in the past. Ie the stds were 150,75,65,35 mcg/m3 and are ordered to be changed by the courts again.
If people are getting sick at supposed legal doses, then the legal doses are wrong and higher law takes precedance. Common nuisance law also applies. People do not like the smell of wood smoke and the EPA says if you can smell wood smoke, there is a health problem. That is because the EPA says wood smoke pm is different than ambiant mixed pm. Gov does not have the money to do a tox profile for wood smoke unless ordered by congress or the president but DHHS policy says they must investigate, research, stop and prevent threats to life and health. If they do not investigate whether Browns consensus doses are right, they are violating policy and law. Then local DHHS must be called on to order the dose determination and to determine whether the smell of wood smoke indicates a health problem as the EPA writes. See The Coalition Against Wood Burning Polllution.
Violations of the pm std of 35 mcg/m3 is illegal and levels up to AQI indexes above that should not be allowed. The AQI index needs to be revised to conform to the new pm std. It is essentially outdated.
Professor Brauer outlines the 3 layers of air pollution with wood smoke. Regional pm is an underlying layer. City pm is imposed on top and then hotspot pollution is imposed. But only regional pm is regulated by the EPA. Hotspots are ignored. The typ pm levels are 25, 50, 75 or more for hotspots. Thus the city must regulate the hotspots by law other than the ambiant pm stds. Nuisance laws come in. Noxious fumes laws come in. Rights to life and health come in. The Golden rule comes in above it all.
Grandfather rules from the past must be updated to coform to the new science. Grandfather laws are unconstitutional when they cause death, and injury and poor health. It is not enough to monitor every stove. Classes of equipment must be modeled to determine safety before sale and after every major pm std change. Precedant is large source law. Stoves create on ave 75 mcg/m3, 24 hr ave in Maine, but are allowed. They create twice the pm as a large source limited to 35 mcg/m3. There is the equivalent of thousands of power plants being allowed to violate the pm stds. The law must be changed at the lower level to conform to the higher const law like second hand smoke laws because wood smoke is 12 times more carcinogenic.
Alaska is much worse than the lower states because of climate. Temperature inversions happen daily and calm winds do not allow the heavier than air molecules to mix and rise. The mol wt of carbon rings for exaple is 90 more than 28 for N2. Pm is heavy too and the liquid takes away any sail effect. House eddy currents concentrate pm more than ambiant air in the street and the hotspots at houses are where the problems are but are not investigated per DHHS policy. The whole system is wrong, and dangerous. The ambiant pm system was designed for mixed pm from oil and gas in a time before the energy crisis and wood burning.
NYSERDA and Can Lung regional monitoring and regional modeling shows the pm mixes in valleys at least to pollute lare areas, making the wood smoke a public health problem. The portable mnitoring is pegged to fixed 24 hr momitrs to get artio and 24 hr pm can be estimated for large areas and the portable monitoring always is larger than the pm at one site. The ALA says that the existing monitoring system cannot monitor all the pollution most of the time. The advanced monitoring is showing the problem is a public health problem and case law in Corpus Juris Secundem says that when a safe energy source is available along with an unhealthy source, then the safe, healthy source must be used.
Workshops are like court cases where all these problems with science and the law can be resolved. It is an emergency.
The switch to certified stoves has been proven to only reduce pollution 20% when pm has doubled from wood burning in Libby MT. Census data can be used like Hampstead Quebec did to detrmine wood urning was causing a doubling of pm going into the air. They concluded it was causing a doubling of pm conc even if the monitors were not picking it up and causing widespread p violations. So they banned all stoves and fireplaes except pellet stoves.
Banning old stoves will suddenly reduce global warming impacts by 300 times as oldstoves are 300 times more poluting than oil. Just divideemission factors from EPA tables on wood stoves sites.
Houses, cities, regions the size of countries arebeing photographed engulfed in wood smoke and the US CDC says if you can see or smell smoke from debris and wildfire smoke, then you should consider evacuating if youa re being made sick. Life and Health are the most things to be protected by all law, according to judges.
Officials should be directed to http://www.BurningIssues.com and other similar sites for referance to the law and smoke stories documenting the problems.
Ernest Grolimund