Letters: Inversions are not new

Published: Friday, Jan. 11 2013 12:00 a.m. MST

Looking over the Salt Lake Valley with the winter inversion blanketing the valley Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2013.

Stuart Johnson, Deseret News

Summary

I'm an old man who has experienced Salt Lake City weather conditions for many years. In the early 1940s, I drove to work with my father on cold winter mornings. Nearly all SLC homes were heated with coal or wood. The fog and smoke was so thick; we could only see half of a downtown city block ahead of us. Inversions have happened year after year in the valley, when not a soul was living here.

I breathed air saturated with smoke and fog from inversions during all my youth. Yes, my physician says I have minor asthma. But, as I breathe SLC air today, I experience no difference breathing whether I'm inside or out — summer or winter.

Somewhere between those who cry "crisis" and those who say "all is well," there is likely an answer to our inversion problem.

J. Rulon Teerlink

Salt Lake City

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Emajor

Ogden, UT

You're fortunate. Like most of us your lungs are healthy. For those among us whose lungs aren't, it will justifiably seem like a "crisis".

6:10 a.m. Jan. 11, 2013
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Hutterite

American Fork, UT

I have a poster on my wall with the title "Tradition". Underneath the picture of people running with the bulls is the caption: "Just because we've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid".

3:59 p.m. Jan. 11, 2013
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Kalindra

Salt Lake City, Utah

Medical knowledge has advanced greatly since the 1940's. Just because we didn't know something was harmful and just because some people suffered no ill effects from something, are not reasons to ignore our greater knowledge.

7:03 a.m. Jan. 11, 2013
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