"The gathering was also told the most significant sources of formaldehyde comes from vehicle exhaust and of all the formaldehyde from vehicle exhaust, 60% comes from diesel engines."

-------------

The oil refinery in town is geared towards diesel production. Coincidence or conspiracy?

I don't get the importance of too much
formaldehyde gas in the air, guess I'm just not up on it.
My Dad is over a hundred, he used to put
three drops of formaldehyde in a glass of
water and drink it when he had flu or pneumonia and it worked, claimed the gas
killed the infection. Diluted, he'd put it
on an area where there was blood poisoning
and it worked. My brother breathed the fumes of boiling water with a few drops, got rid of flu.
Anyone out there really know why its so
dangerous?

It's a known carcinogen Slim; in large quantities it has been shown to cause cancer. That is the importance of too much formaldehyde in the air.

" Coincidence or conspiracy? "
Conspiracy.
Husky and gordon campbell are out to poison PG so they can more easily conquer us and take over operation of the city. How can we foil their evil plot?
metalman.

Well, ya can't directly compare us to other cities that does not get inversions.

the "bowl" under a inversion condition keeps building up with the exhaust and other fumes. until the inversion passes by, and the essence is spread out, we will have a high reading.

all these people that are complaining should walk everywhere as not to pump anymore exhausts into the environment. Hey, what about the natural gas they burn in their furnace. They obviously would not light a fire in their fireplace, or the evil wood stove.

Get a grip, humans are living longer than they ever had, of course we are going to have health problems in our fading years.

Itwouldn't matter where the diesel came from, formaldehyde comes fromm the burning of the fuels not the making of them. He spoke has it right, metalman and eagleone are out to lunch.

"humans are living longer than they ever had"

Yes... that is because most cities in the world have cleaned up their act ....

Just because the world figures show humans live longer does not mean they live longer here in Prince George ... in fact, many still move away to live longer someplace else so that they do not spend the later years in their lives wheezing an coughing and being out of breath .... :-)

http://www.pgairquality.com/files/pdf/PGAIR_OdourPresentation(Nov2009).pdf

Take a look at the above from the MoE.

- Lots of carbon disulphide
- lots of dimethyl suphide
- tons of formaldehyde
- lots of MEK
- on top of the list by a large margin of about 30 cities across Canada for beta-pinene
- same for camphene
- second for isoprene .....

Guess what .... all those cities have cars, road dust, potholes, diesel trucks, railways, people with gas, oil and wood heated homes, and Tim Hortons where they line up waiting for their coffee and Timbits while they keep their engines idling since it is free.

They are all Canucks living in a northern climate and don't do anything much different than we do.

All have inversion days, still air days, many are in valleys since that is where most cities are built, adjacent to bodies of water that strangely enough happens to be sitting in the lowest part of most communities. Few are lucky enough like Vancouver to have a high frequency of off-shore winds that take the pollution and move it up-valley.

So why is PG on top of the lists?

In my opinion:
- high heavy industrial concentration
- low public demand to clean it up (smell of money, remember)
- an ineffective MoE that has had little support from the community to get it to clean up and does more CYA than monitoring effective programs.
- a solid industrial lobbying effort.
- a long term disinterest by the City, Regional District and the province to solve the problem by slowly moving heavy industry out of the air shed and the population that has settled there to a more appropriate location away from the population concentration.

"The gathering was also told the most significant sources of formaldehyde comes from vehicle exhaust", Wow the air must be bad in bigger city's like Vancouver then!

Don't worry all will be forgotten in few months folkes...

Good post Gus.

Dr. William Osei, Chief Medical Health Officer for Northern Health, told the gathering the amount of formaldehyde detected in those tests was about the same as you would find in a home with new carpeting.

I complained to MoE about air quality and guess what they told me thar Dr Osei tells them that there is a close balance between industrial polution and residential polution.

So guess whos side this guy is on
Cheers

slim2229, formaldehyde kills bacteria very effectively, but it is so irritating in practice that it should not be used, and never consumedas it also kills body cells and cross links the proteins, hardening them.

It is carcinogenic in very high concentrations for a long time, as has been noted. To get cancer this way you would have to breathe in concentrated formaqldehyde for months at a time. having breathed this in for a few seconds, I can tell you that you would choke to death (literally - it stimulates a choking reflex so you can't breathe) well before you got cancer.

In low and very low concentrations (as in the airshed) it is rated as a potential (i.e. unproven) carcinogen. It is still unpleasant to breathe, though. A perspective is needed.

I always understood that PGs air problems were due to being in a valley and heavier gases settled in the valley or were forced into it by an inversion. In other cities the winds blow such materials away and the air is less stinky (depending on the city)

I have lived in Toronto. Trust me, one does not have to live in a valley to have inversions and stagnant air hanging around for days.

Remmber, when we see comparative figures for other cities, those bad air days there are included as well.

Prince George is not unique. Take Canada and the USA and look at where smaller cities are built. Typically in a valley. Some more closed in than others.

Kelowna, for example. It is socked frequently in the winter. Go to Big White and you are above the fog.

So, why does Kelowna not have some of the problems we have. Count the heavy industry and you might get a hint. Count the cars, buses, trucks, heated homes, etc. and there won't be that much of a difference on an area basis.

When a doctor speaks, most people feel that they are wise and know what they are talking about.

In this case, he is totally wrong by a factor of about 20 when it comes to the maximum figure recorded.

People have to learn to ask for the verification of what people in positions of repsonsibility are saying, especially when they are not experts in a topic.

SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP! Where is the carpet?

you know this news story is more than just air quality here or anywhere !!! its the attitude and absolute disgrace as how our govt now treats the people!!! they were brought in to serve !!! it is the people not the govt who makes bc !!!!!THIS ATTITUDE OF CONTROL AND SCANDELS WITHOUT PENALTY IS A RECIPE FOR DISASTER !!! JUST WAIT AND SEE

Talk about getting blown out of proportion. Its to bad the NDP isn't in power then the air in Prince George would smell like roses.

Yeah if the NDP was in power there would be no industry and no people living here, so there would be no problem.