oh to be a civil servant

It must be great to be a civil servant. You can say what you want without proof and as we have seen do what you want as well. The following article is a serious bad joke.

Study: Air Pollution Impacting U.S. National Park Visitation

Posted by SGB Media | Jul 19, 2018 | Outdoor, SGB Updates, Update | 0 |

More than 300 million visitors travel to U.S. national parks every year to experience America’s iconic landscapes. But poor air quality in parks may negatively affect visitation, according to a study published in Science Advances by researchers from Iowa State University and Cornell University.

The researchers studied ozone levels in 33 of the largest national parks in the U.S. They found that from 1990 to 2014 average ozone concentrations in national parks were statistically indistinguishable from those of the 20 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, conditions that previously sparked federal legislation. To protect parks, the Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments of 1977 and 1990 designated national parks as Federal Class I Areas.

“The U.S. has spent billions of dollars over the last three decades to improve air quality,” said David Keiser, assistant professor of economics at Iowa State. “Given the popularity of national parks, as well as the fact that people go to parks to be outside, we believed it was worth better understanding air quality trends in these areas and whether people, through their actions, respond to changes in air quality in parks.”

Research Results

The study found that ozone levels improved in metropolitan areas starting in 1990; however, national parks improvements have only been apparent since the early 2000s, corresponding to the passage of the Regional Haze Rule, a 1999 EPA regulation that strengthened air quality protections for national parks and wilderness areas.

The authors first compiled data from extensive ozone monitoring efforts led by the National Park Service and the EPA. Data show that since 1990, national parks have seen only modest reductions in days with ozone concentrations exceeding 70 parts per billion, levels deemed unhealthy by the EPA.

The researchers then matched the pollution data to monthly park visitation statistics at 33 of the most heavily visited national parks and found that visitation responds most to ozone during months with poor air quality. Unsurprisingly, this response is largest in summer and fall, the seasons when park visitation is highest. They also explored two potential causes for this result: air quality warnings (AQI) issued by parks and poor visibility. They found that the visitation response is more strongly associated with potential health warnings and less correlated with visibility.

Visitor Health Implications

A recent survey found that nearly 90 percent of respondents had visited a national park area in their lifetime, with one-third of respondents anticipating visiting a park in the coming year. In spite of improvements over the last two decades, air quality in many national parks remains unhealthy for sensitive groups on average for two-and-one-half to three weeks per year.

Indeed, despite the decrease in visitation found by the authors during months with poor air quality, an estimated 35 percent of all visitor days occurred when ozone exceeded the 55 ppb “Moderate” AQI threshold and nearly 9 percent of visitor days when ozone levels exceeded 70 ppb. Exposure to these elevated ozone levels has important health implications; visitors have an increased chance of adverse health outcomes, including hospitalization, respiratory symptoms and mortality for sensitive individuals.

The number of park visits suggests potentially large human health benefits to further air quality improvements at national parks.

The British scientist who discovered the ozone hole in Antarctica a number of years ago stated that he was sorry he publicized it because he came to realize the hole appears every year during the Antarctic winter as it does over the arctic in winter. In order to have ozone you must have sun light and when there is none the layer gets thinner and thinner until it is gone.

People visit the national parks during the summer so ozone is there and the national parks are never without sun light even in winter so there is always ozone.

David Keiser is a civil servant in my opinion and would never admit that the government wasted several billions of dollars studying something that never needed studying in the first place.

Imagine the air quality in the pristine wilderness being more polluted than the air quality in cities.

How about the haze rule? Maybe these researchers are going into areas of forest fires so they can experience the “haze”?

Do you now understand why it is great to become a civil servant; you can say what you want without any repercussions.

If you want to live a long life stay out of the national parks and just visit metropolitan areas where the air is cleaner!!!

Hello Jerry,

I can confirm what you are saying about weak recycled polyester

Many Years ago, I was on the "Green Side" since of my German influence, they love to recycle there.

So I was sad to throw worn out polyester gear to the garbage, I thought there was surely a way to recycle those wastes.

I made some research overseas and found that some US companies were making huge efforts to reuse those used stuff.

Unfortunately they met problems with VISCOSITY after the process was over, the viscosity lowered from the purest index at 55 to a mere 40 or 45.

What was learnt is that the purest way was certainly to get the tiny polyester balls from plastic PET bottles and not from used apparels, which had a lower index to begin with!

And if you used apparel clothing, it would lower the index well below 40.....so here was the issue!!!

My 2 cents!

Bye, Jason

Seems that I am not the only person who to now knowledgeable of what happens to polyester fiber when it is reprocessed! I have to believe that the people in the industry who do the reprocessing know all of this, but will they share it with Patagonia or Adidas and whoever else there is out there looking at reprocessed polyester is a proper question to ask of them or as I strongly believe these companies do not care or better said “give a damn”. Why should they because the same statement applies to gore who also do not give a damn that their product does not work.

My advice is that you go to Target or Sears or whatever store you want to frequent that sells competing brands for ¼ the price.