Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Clean Air

Is it me or is the sky clearer? I read a Forbes.com article that China has shut down some major industrial polluters. That pollution gets blown east across the ocean to the U.S. And now I wonder if our sudden clear skies are due in part to China's reduction in air emissions?

There is a history of China's air pollution including mercury traveling east over the ocean to the United States. Maybe with China's air in better health we can also take a deep breath.

Buffalo, NY has a history with air pollution and strong winds like China. As it happen the polluting industries that are still left here are in three major hubs...to the north in North Buffalo & Tonawanda, NY, to the east on the Buffalo-Cheektowaga boarder and to the south in the South Buffalo area. The wind blows from the southwest to the northeast. So, anyone living east of these facilities get doused with air emission. The south towns, Buffalo's west and central areas seem to be are relatively safe. This is simply because they are up wind from the factories.

To see who the top polluters are you can go to scorecard.org For Buffalo, NY readers here is a list of Top Polluters. The two biggest polluters are both in Tonawanda the Huntley coal plant with 2.6 million pounds and 3M Co. with 684,000 pounds of pollution.

For the Huntley plant Mercury compounds, Lead compounds and Hydrochloric Acid top the list of chemicals. From 1998 to 2002 the non cancerous chemicals have increase by 2969%. No I did not leave out a decimal point.

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