Stay at Home?

While people in the Denver metro area are being urged to "stay at home" this weekend due to unhealthy ozone pollution, we'd rather take the steps needed to keep ozone from rising to unhealthy levels in the first place.

It's the classic response the state and the Regional Air Quality Council like to give whenever ozone pollution, also known as smog, threatens our health. "It's the weather," they say, that creates conditions favorable to the formation of ozone. So, they say, "the best we can do is take cover." We disagree.

Ozone doesn't form magically. It comes from air pollution released by smokestacks, tailpipes, and evaporating hydrocarbons at natural gas wells and oil refineries. Sure, the weather can create conditions favoring ozone creation, but ozone doesn't come from the clouds, it isn't beamed in from the sun, and it doesn't come blowing in from the land of smog. Wind, rain, clouds; this is weather. The crap that comes out of a smokestack? Sorry, that's not weather.

So why is this such a big deal? Well, since ozone is an air pollution problem, it means we can do something about it. It's not like a tornado where all you can do is cross your fingers and hope for the best. We can actually take steps to keep ozone in check, even when the weather may favor the creation of ozone.

And doesn't that just make sense? Why cross our fingers and hope for the best when we can actually do something about ozone pollution? Like getting old, smoky cars off the road, keeping trucks from idling for hours on end, cutting ozone forming pollution from smokestacks at coal burning power plants, or even offering discounts on mass transit during the summer ozone season. There must be a million things we can do to to keep our air clean and healthy.

But staying at home? By avoiding the problem? Right, and maybe while we're at it we can go smoke a pack of cigarettes. Either way, all we can do to protect our health is cross our fingers and hope for the best. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

We need to get on the Regional Air Quality Council and the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division and tell them to do more to cut ozone pollution. Let's start by sending an e-mail to Regional Air Quality Council Director Ken Lloyd and Air Pollution Control Division Director Paul Tourangeau.

Let's ask them to stop blaming the weather and start focusing on reducing ozone pollution in the Denver metro area. Let's tell them when it comes to our health, staying at home doesn't solve the problem.