Thursday, July 01, 2010 11:01 AM
By Kacey Hoover
Checking the Internet in the morning has become a daily routine for me. However, I'm not concerned about the latest Facebook status update or how many people have read my friend's "tweet." Instead, I'm reading about the day's air quality forecast.
Knowing the forecast helps me determine how I will travel and how much time I will spend outside. Being involved as a student and an intern with the Center for the Environment at Catawba College has opened my eyes to a recurring problem that we are facing every day -- poor air quality.
I wasn't always concerned about local air. Growing up in Concord, I was worried about simpler things. At Weddington Hills Elementary School I could tell the difference between a hot, muggy day that made it hard to breathe and a nice cool day, but I never attributed either to air quality. The haze in the sky could be a rain storm approaching or pollution traveling from the city into my backyard.
Who would have thought that something as simple as walking outside to breathe could be dangerous? On days when the forecast was orange or red, I stayed inside instead of spending time outside at Frank Liske Park. My mother limited my outdoor play on those days because of my allergies, which made the air feel thick and heavy to breathe.
Our air quality issue became apparent to me while I was a student at Jay M. Robinson High School. This high school is built directly beside a landfill, and on hot, humid days the sea gulls would flood the parking lot and the smell would linger in the courtyards. In addition to the pollution from the landfill, traffic played a dramatic role. I lived less than five miles from the school, but it would take me 45 minutes to make it to my parking space. Students drove their individual cars leading to a significant traffic jam both in the mornings and evenings. The idling cars were a nuisance and a health concern to the public.
An increase in emissions from autos or industrial plants and rising summer temperatures create ground-level ozone, the air pollution of greatest concern in Cabarrus County. Here in North Carolina we are known to have Carolina blue skies, but for how much longer? The Charlotte-Gastonia-Salisbury area, which includes Concord and Kannapolis, ranks 13th worst in the United States for ground-level ozone, according to the American Lung Association.
Our status doesn't seem so threatening until you look at the health risks. Health problems, such as cardiovascular disease and respiratory diseases, have been shown to increase noticeably with a higher level of ground-level ozone. On days that the air quality forecast is orange or red, specific groups of people, such as the elderly, young children and people with asthma, have to be cautious about what activities they perform outside. ?I'm concerned because I may be young and vibrant today, but what about in 40 years? If we don't start to find a solution for this problem today, decades later it will have dramatically increased into something we may not be able to control.
My biggest concern is how the next generation is going to handle this issue if we don't build them a foundation to grow on. Creating programs to eliminate vehicle idling or encourage the use of mass transit can get us one step closer to bluer skies. Educating the public about our air quality is a wonderful start, but people need a message that is tangible. I encourage my family and friends to reduce their impact on air quality, and now I encourage you. Today I will ride the bus for tomorrow’s bluer skies.
