Comments about ‘Group rallies for cleaner air’

It is obvious that something needs to be done to improve the air quality along the Wasatch Front and in the Cache Valley; but please, legislature, do not enact one-size-fits-all laws that will be detrimental to the other areas of the state where the air is clean and clear.

The amount of stupid in that article and picture is so high I don't know where to begin.

The air along the Wasatch Front during inversions is not "equal to smoking 11 packs of cigarettes", nor anywhere close to it.

If the Legislature is going to pass a law, please let it be one that requires anyone protesting on the subject of air quality at least have some idea of what they are talking about.

My kids have had more indoor recesses due to bad air than to low temperatures this winter. While the masks may have been a bit overkill, I am in favor of whatever it takes to get Congress' attention.

We live about 400 yards away from the I-15. If I try to swim, or run, or do anything very active, my lungs close, and I'm left gasping for air. It's time to do something reasonable in order to reduce the air pollution throughout the Wasatch front.

Beautiful photos!!!!

Brian Moench: As a doctor, you should be especially ashamed of yourself for insinuating that a boy died because of a red air day. There are people who die from acute asthma attacks on GREEN air days, too. When two things happen at the same time, that doesnt mean that one caused the other, and as a doctor you are well aware of this scientifically faulty logic.

Yes, cleaner air is an important goal, but it shouldnt automatically override every other consideration. As an environmental activist, you are misusing your professional credentials in fraudulent attempts to change public policy. Hopefully the legislature will have the wisdom to ignore you.

I do not think that Dr. Moench implied that the red air day itself caused the asthma attack, but rather there is a correlation between air pollution, which is known to cause and exacerbate conditions like asthma, as well as causation. Red air days along the Wasatch Front are absolutely terrible. My mother and younger brother have had days when they've felt like they're dying from headaches, coughs, and bloody, runny noses, and there is a correlation between those kind of days and red air days here. Especially after that oil refinery at Woods Cross had a large explosion not long ago. The poisons formed a lethal, grey to brown soup that obscured the mountains. Before and after we've been rated among the worst for air pollution in the entire country. After so many years of this, haven't we had enough? People are suffering, sick, and some are dying. Even kids. I remember growing up with peach and apple orchards close by, and smelling the blossoms in the spring. Those were bulldozed for houses and condos. There's no way what I smell now in spring could be described as perfume.

You have thousands of neighbors that live along I-15 that do not suffer from asthma when they exercise. Yours is obviously a problem of oversensitivity.

Do you suggest shutting down I-15 whenver you swim?

If you're especially sensitive to emissions along I-15, try moving more than 400 yards away from it!

Tree hugger activists can never find it in themselves to be truthful or sensible about these things.

We that have been here more than the last couple real estate cycles, know that the air in Utah is significantly cleaner today than it was 10, 20, 40 years ago. We have significantly fewer inversions, and almost no one burns wood or coal for heat in the winter anymore.

Dressing kids up in gas masks and protesting the cleanest air we've ever had, as if we're intentionally poisoning our young is simply political hype.

And, it's a lie.

I developed respiratory problems while living in Utah, and left to find a better place for me to live. When I went back to visit, the air quality was so bad that I developed a respiratory infection after only a few days of being there. I hope that the future of Utah does include cleaner air, because I do miss my home state.

Why would anyone defend having polluted skies? Only in Utah would you find idiots who find it their duty to argue with those committed to improving our quality of life....it is appalling how many ignoramuses live here!

My wife had a bad healt issue because of the air quality during bad summer fire season and we weren't sure if we should go camping at Jordenelle Resevour. The doctor told us to go their. When we arrived there, 15 minutes later my wife breathing a lot better. Maybe the best solution was leave the city limit area is a best thing to do. Any of those major county you live in and including Logan is not a good place to be because of the trap near the mountain is not an ideal place. So ranting at the Capital Hill is not an ideal solution!

Like so-called "global warming," this talk of needing clean air is simply bogus science! A volcano will spew more pollution than all the pollution emitted along the Wasatch Front on any given day! Does that mean we have to regulate volcanoes? Please -- use some logic folks! Pollution is just a natural outcome of our human existance.

valleys surrounded by mountains, we will always have thermal inversions during the winter. Yes we can have less pollution to be trapped, and things can improve. But we will always have air quality issues during the winter, the geography isn't going to change.

Neglect your fish bowl - fish soon become sick and die. Same difference with humans living in a quagmire of dirty air which permeates every fiber of our lives.

I am so happy we are finally getting the courage and wherewithall to STAND UP AND DEMAND SOMETHING BE DONE!

Well what did they expect when they moved to the wasatch front? If they are so worried about it move somewhere else nobody is making them stay.

Do the protesters realize the air in Salt Lake valley is visibly cleaner now than 25 years ago when there were fewer people?

Do they choke as they drive down the center of air pollution--the streets and freeways?

Do they support the only viable alternative power source--nuclear power?

Everyone is for cleaner air, but some of us realize the limits Nature has placed on a closed basin.

Fact: The air in Utah is NOT the worst in the nation.

According to the EPA's AirCompare website, Salt Lake County had 37 "unhealthy" days for asthmatics in 2007.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County in California had 100 unhealthy days, Riverside County had 146, and Pinal County in Arizona (Tuscon) had a whopping 200.

Fact: The air in Utah is cleaner now than any time during the past 50 years.

Based on figures obtained from the Utah Divison of Air Quality's website, levels of every measured pollutant -- particulates, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, lead, carbon monoxide, and ozone -- have declined significantly since air monitoring began in the early '60s.

Fact: The air quality in Utah is getting better, not worse.

Based on Division of Air Quality data, the levels of the two pollutants of concern -- fine particulates and ozone -- have slowly declined or remained steady since the year 2000. Until the EPA recently lowered the standards for both pollutants, Utah was in compliance with federal air quality standards.

It's not surprising noisy activist groups have to resort to distortion, exaggeration, and hysterical publicity stunts to get their message across: The truth is not in their favor.

nonsense. This article is filled with unsupported claims. And the use of kids in this campaign is exploitation.

You want clean air? Really? Then there has to be no energy usage and no air entrapment. None of us can change the air entrapment in our valleys--that's out of our control.

But the only way we'll have no energy usage is for there to be no air conditioning in the summer, no heat in the winter (especially wood or coal burning fireplaces), no manufacturing (including the printing of this juvenile newspaper), no airport, no electric or gas motors, no efficient transportation, etc. Put simply, to eliminate pollution, there must be no people.

Set the example yourselves, geniuses, and leave. Adios to you and the Subarus you drove in on.

While there are things that may be done to clean the air, we're still going to have inversions every year. Maybe lawmakers can regulate to tear down the mountains to improve the air quality!

I wonder how they all got there?

I am assuming everyone walked from their zero discharge homes scattered throughout the valley.