Speak Out: We're Not Out of the Fog Yet

Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action and the American Lung Association of Colorado spoke out today on Denver's recent spat of dangerous particulate pollution.

The op-ed, published in the Denver Post, again expressed the need for the state of Colorado to adopt safeguards to protect us from fine particle pollution. As we wrote earlier, although fine particle health standards were adopted nearly 10 years ago, the state of Colorado has yet to adopt a plan to keep this pollution in check. The consequences are not hard to see, or smell for that matter.

The comments in today's Denver Post could not have come at a better time. Although Denver's skies have been relatively clear since the nine day stretch of dangerous pollution between February 7 and 15, today's fine particle pollution levels have climbed again.

As of 8:00 P.M., monitors in Boulder and Denver showed fine particle pollution to be on the threshold of exceeding health standards, reaching 32 and 31 micrograms per cubic meter, respectively. Although the health standard of 35 micrograms per cubic meter was not exceeded, it's disturbing that fine particle pollution is still threatening our health.

Unfortunately, we're not out of the fog when it comes to fine particle pollution. I think we speak for most when we say the sooner the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division gets safeguards in place to keep this pollution in check, the better off we'll all be.