LETTER: Quality of air is up to everyone

Editor,

In reaction to our current dismal air-quality situation, many community members are disconcerted at the way the problem is being dealt with. Granted, the news coverage has been widespread, many people we know feel that the suggestions offered are not taken seriously by the general public. We have become too dependent on our vehicles. In Logan we have FREE mass transit and a small enough community that car pooling should not be too difficult to coordinate.

Logan prides itself on being a community that cares deeply for their neighbors. The most potent way to show this is for each person to take initiative and not contribute to the daily worsening of our air quality. Every time we drive our cars we add to the problem. I know it is freezing outside and that cars are necessary to a degree, but there are many things we can each do to slow the worsening pollution of our air.

The suggestions of not burning wood stoves, car pooling, keeping your vehicles properly maintained and avoiding idling your vehicle are good ideas, but are vain attempts without any real consequences. We imagine that many others are feeling the negative effects – sore throats, coughing up mucous chunks every morning, headaches, and increased asthmatic symptoms. Since realizing that these health problems are the result of the air, several people I know have decided not to drive their cars and to walk, bike, or bus the round trip to and from work every day.

A suggestion for those not able or willing to separate themselves from their vehicles: Do not use drive-through windows (banks, fast food, gas stations, pharmacies) to avoid idling.

Or, if people are not willing to take initiative to curb their driving and burning, perhaps everyone who has a fire place or wood stove should burn all their wood within the next week and leave their vehicles idling in the driveway rendering the air quality so dangerous that Utah will have no choice but to impose fines and declare a state-of-emergency. What will it take, Cache Valley residents?

Brooke BushmanChris Webster