Health First : Do Something About Air Quality

Sunday, August 19, 2007 03:45 AM

The BC Lung Association recently released the 2007 State of the Air in BC Report, in which Prince George was listed as having the highest ambient particulate matter levels in British Columbia.

In a 2007 survey on the quality of life in Prince George, 65% of respondents stated that industrial development is having a negative impact on their life and 88% said that air quality is the main reason for that negative impact. In response, the People’s Action Committee for Healthy Air recommends Prince George citizens take these 10 steps to improve our sensitive air shed.

1 Report bad air quality to the air quality hotline or to the PACHA website http://pachapg.ca/ - voicing public concern is the first step in improving air quality

2 Encourage your employer to use practices that protect citizen health

3 Discuss solutions to air quality issues with your friends and neighbours – problems get solved when people get involved

4 Reduce your idling – idling your vehicle for10 seconds uses more fuel than shutting off your car and restarting it

5 Use alternative transportation – biking, walking and using public transit improves air quality. Go to http://www.busonline.ca/regions/prg/?p=1.txt for routes, schedules and fares in Prince George

6 Compost your combustibles – send organic material from your yard to the city compost or your own backyard compost. Contact the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George for information about their composting services or visit our local Recycling and Environmental Action Planning Society’s website for helpful information on composting http://www.reaps.org/

7 Write to your MLA (http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/3-1-1.htm), MP (http://canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html) and city councillor (http://www.city.pg.bc.ca/cityhall/) regarding the air quality in Prince George

8 Plant a tree – a growing tree captures carbon dioxide from the air

9 Start drying your winter wood supply early – dry wood burns cleaner and more efficiently

10 Join PACHA (http://pachapg.ca/member.html) –People’s Action Committee for Healthy Air will work to improve Prince George air quality. What a deal!!

Dave Fuller is the President of PACHA and the owner of Ave Maria Specialities at 1638 20th Avenue in Prince George

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Posted on Sunday, August 19, 2007 03:45 AM in Health by Dave Fuller

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Comments

Posted by: jonnypg on August 19 2007 5:18 AM

WOW, we have to do our "own" reporting now... what happened to all those studies!
and don't blame todays vehicles they have never run as clean...write your MLA! for Christs sake there just finding out now there "is" a problem... Use alternative transportation! thats pretty hard to do considering I live on the Hart and work in the BCR site...Plant a tree! aren't we surrounded by them.
by the way I will report the culprits now, there called PULP MILLS and REFINERIES but thats just falling on death ears as always

Posted by: diplomat on August 19 2007 10:46 AM

11 Do everything in your power to prevent a (planned for downtown!!!) beetle wood burning power plant from becoming a reality. No additional release of pollutants into the already overloaded airshed! It must be located at a higher elevation out of the bowl! A powerline (what a novel idea) can deliver the generated electricity to where it is required.

12 Remember to vote those out of office who still insist that it MUST be located downtown - at the earliest opportunity, the next municipal election.

Posted by: heidi1555 on August 19 2007 12:10 PM

I live by the mohawk on the hart, husband works at northwood pulp and you should see the "stuff" that comes home on our van. We are up on a bit of a hill and can smell pulpmill/refinery almost what seems like every day. My neighbours came home from Alaska a short time ago and the first day home she needed to take an allergy pill.

Posted by: Palopu on August 19 2007 4:39 PM

Diplomat. The idea of a Wood Burning Power Generating, plant to produce hot water belongs to his honour. If it was located out of the downtown East end it could not provide hot water to heat the Government buildings between Victoria St., and Queensway.

Firstly the whole idea of heating these buildings should be scrapped, as it is a ill conceived idea. The the Co-Generating plant if built should be built outside the City. The electricity generated would of course be sold to Hydro, and any savings could be used to reduce the cost of heating these buildings by using some electric heat, or some variation, however under no circumstances should be we burning wood, to heat water, to heat buildings, when we are inundated with electricity and natural gas. Even if it is more expensive using elec, or gas, it is still better than increasing the pollution level of the bowl.