PACHA Hosts 'Better Air' Symposium

Saturday, February 02, 2008 04:02 AM

View of the city from University Way on Cranbrook Hill (Opinion250 photo)

Prince George, B.C. - The People’s Action Committee for Healthy Air (PACHA) will host an all-day symposium on air quality.

PACHA President, Dave Fuller, says, "Our goal is that this symposium be a community event and we hope to see anyone concerned about air quality come out."

"Whether we realize it or not, the air we breathe relates directly to our quality of life, our health, health of our children and, ultimately, the future of this community," says Fuller.

The event begins at 9am this morning at the Coast Inn of the North, admission is free, and there will be childrens’ activities on site.

Dr. Catherine Elliot will be the first speaker of the day. Dr. Elliot co-authored a study done by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control about the link between mortality and particulate matter in air emissions, with a specific reference to mortality rates in Prince George linked to poor air quality. The preliminary results of the study were released in December, she will release the more comprehensive findings at the symposium.

The keynote speaker will be Mark Bekkering, the City of Toronto’s Environment and Planning Acting Manager. His address will focus on working together on the issues of climate change and air quality.

In addition, PACHA will hand out the 1st annual ’Prince George Clean Air Awards’ over the lunch-hour.

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Posted on Saturday, February 02, 2008 04:02 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: lunarbase on February 2 2008 6:35 AM

While I support PACHA I wish they hadn't violated the city's sign bylaw and put large signs up at major intersections on the light poles. Besides being unattractive they are a distraction for drivers right at a critical moment in any intersection.

I hope they actually take them down today, right after the event, hint hint.

Posted by: pglady on February 2 2008 11:19 AM

I also support PACHA in hopes they and the city will pass a law that stops people in city limitts from having outdoor wood furnaces.. We have a hard time breathing in our area of the Hart because someone in the neighbourhood has one of these, the smoke here is unreal. They should be outlawed in city limits. We have heard of someone in the area having the smoke alarm in their house go off because of this. Try breathing that all the time..I know it is not a pulp mill or sawmill but it still is hard on everyone. I love wood heat but in it's place

Posted by: red2b on February 2 2008 11:39 AM

pglady, I agree with you. We drive past one of those wood stove houses everyday. We have to hold our breath. Can't imagine living next door to the smoke.

Posted by: owl on February 2 2008 2:04 PM

Wood is environmentally friendly ... greenhouse gas neutral ....

yeah right!!!!!

That is currently in the run for the spin of the dedade.

;-)

So what does city hall say when approached? I suppose the thing has CSA approval and may even be burning those wonderful environmentally friendly pellets.

Posted by: diplomat on February 2 2008 2:05 PM

pglady, right on! Every morning when I open the front door to get the newspaper I almost choke! The acrid wood smoke is so thick one could cut it with a knife!

I don't live on a 5 acre or 2 acre lot here in the Hart! It is a normal density subdivision with a bus stop in front of the house!

Air advisory or not, the wood heating stoves start up in the fall and are on until end of March!

Every one of those houses is on natural gas and hydro!

Forget about phone calls to the City! The City won't do a thing!

Posted by: owl on February 2 2008 2:08 PM

"with a specific reference to mortality rates in Prince George linked to poor air quality"

So, she is going against the opinion of all those wonderful "experts" on the other side of the issue that say that PG's population is too small to study and get meaningful data .....

Thus, for those individuals, her study will conveniently fall under the meaningless data anlaysis.

Posted by: owl on February 2 2008 2:10 PM

They are outside the bowl ..... there is no monitoring going on there because the air is as fresh as mountain air .....

;-)

during a forest fire in the valley ...

:-(

Posted by: pglady on February 2 2008 2:57 PM

This one in my area is burning year round. The owners disconected the Natural Gas and this heats the house, shop, hot water etc. The owners have been approached about some kind of longer pipe so the smoke is less but nothing has been done. City hall says it is in the guide lines. Our lungs say different, when I can not leave windows open any time summer or winter because of the wood smoke in my house I can not hang clothes out to dry because of the smoke, that is not in my guide lines. Some evenings you can not see accross the street from smoke.
I guess no one monitors the hart area

Posted by: owl on February 2 2008 6:06 PM

pglady ..... I do not know how many others there are in PG that do the same.

Based on what you say, it appears to me tht no matter what the air advisory says, or how much the bowl is polluted, you and others in similar situations are affected to a much greater extent than most of the population.

If only one percent of the residents heat their houses, etc. in this fashion, it will have little effect on the population as a whole. That is left for the mills and diesel driven vehicles, etc.

However, the at least additional 2% of the population that live immediately adjacent to such a wood burning device are affected in a major way. I would hazard a guess that it is much worse than secondhand cigarette smoke when it comes to impacting human health.

This is sure a good indicator that the City bylaws are really meaningless. They are s show piece, not something that is effective at protecting the people in this city from such activities.

Posted by: charles on February 2 2008 6:48 PM

If anyone knows what kind of a turnout this PACHA meeting had today could they please post the information.