Posts Tagged: air quality

Guidance for managing poor air quality conditions

As wildfires continue to burn in the north and south portions of the state, many of us are also affected by poor air quality. For the past several days, throughout much of Northern California, air quality measurements have ranged from “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” to “Very Unhealthy” as measured by the Air Quality Index (AQI).

Based on public health and air quality management information, we have developed the following recommendations:

• Monitor your local air quality predictions and real-time data. Most county or regional Air Quality Management Districts post this information on their website. You can find your local Air Quality Management District here: https://www.arb.ca.gov/capcoa/dismap.htm.
• As much as possible, avoid strenuous work or other activities outside when the AQI is in the Unhealthy range or above. Most buildings have air filtration and the effects of the poor outdoor air quality are reduced inside.
• Since individual employees can have different sensitivity to poor air quality, supervisors should allow employees to take a sick day, or modify their work activities, if needed to reduce exposure.
• If you cannot postpone outdoor work, consider using a respirator that will filter the particulate pollution that is in the air, such as an N95. However, be aware that when a particulate respirator is working effectively, it can slightly restrict air flow and make breathing more difficult. People with chronic respiratory, cardiac or other medical conditions that make normal breathing difficult should check with their doctor before using an N95 or any respirator.
  • If you are using a respirator, read the instructions on proper use, so you know what it will protect against, and how to wear it properly. The respirator must fit tight in order to be effective. For more information about how to properly wear a respirator, see http://www.sparetheair.com/assets/FaceMasks-FiltersInfo.pdf
  • Normally, the use of a respirator at work is to prevent exposure to workplace breathing hazards and a medical evaluation and a fit test are required. However, due to these extreme environmental conditions, voluntary use of a respirator may be appropriate, as long as the employee is provided the following information about respirator use:
    http://safety.ucanr.edu/Programs/Respiratory_Protection_Program/Voluntary_Use_Provisions/
  • For more details about use of respirators, see NIOSH: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/respirators/
• If your office needs to close due to fire-related conditions, the County Director, REC Director, or other leader should contact Brian Oatman (baoatman@ucanr.edu or 530-304-2054) to inform ANR administration of the closure.

The UC ANR Fire in California website has additional tips and information:https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Current/Health/Air_Quality/

You can also consult the UCANR Environmental Health & Safety website at: http://safety.ucanr.edu.

Brian Oatman
Director, Risk & Safety Services

 

View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Kern County UCCE hosts air quality study

A 60-foot tower near the UC Cooperative Extension office on South Mt. Vernon Avenue in Bakersfield has been built to hold instruments aloft for air quality studies in the area, the Bakersfield Californian reported.

Researchers from around the country are conducting the studies to gain a deeper understanding of the environment and to inform air quality regulatory policy.

"You need to measure what's in the air, and then from that you go back and look at crafting regulatory policy," UCCE farm advisor John Karlik was quoted. "But science has to precede policy."

The tower is hosted by the UC Cooperative Extension and funded by the California Air Resources Board.

Bakersfield was chosen as a site for the project, which began in May and runs through the end of June, because of its problems with air quality and its relatively strong sources of atmospheric compounds, the article said.

The participating scientists - representing UC Berkeley, University of Wisconsin and University of Miami - have already begun assessing data.

"It's all about how we put those data into a larger framework," Karlik was quoted. "We think it's of broader public interest."

Not a lot of greenhouse gas is from animal ag

There's been some confusion in recent years about the impact of animal agriculture on global warming. UC Davis Cooperative Extension air quality specialist Frank Mitloehner will share his findings on the subject this month during a free webinar on the eXtension website, according to an article in Pork magazine.

The 2006 United Nations report "Livestock's Long Shadow" said the livestock sector is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a higher share than transportation. Mitloehner said livestock's contribution is more like 3 percent, yet wide distribution of the misinformation has put Americans and others on the wrong path toward solutions.

The webinar, which will include information from Mithoehner's report "Clearing the Air: Livestock's Contribution to Climate Change," is at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time June 11. Forum participants will have the opportunity to ask questions, post comments, upload photos and share their experiences. All the details, including links to background information and to the webinar, are in this eXtension flyer.

Black and white swine.

Valley ozone story takes off

Research by UC Davis scientists that revealed a substantial amount of San Joaquin Valley ozone is generated by animal feed is getting wide coverage in the news media. Google News reported 126 articles on the subject.

Many newspapers ran the Associated Press version of the story, written by Fresno-based Tracie Cone. She reported that the study — funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, California Air Resources Board and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District — was initially intended to measure the impact of animal manure, urine and flatulence on ozone levels.

However, the researchers discovered that millions of tons of fermenting cattle feed bears greater responsibility.

Mark Grossi of the Fresno Bee noted in his story that the study was published last month in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. This week's flurry of interest was generated by an April 21 news feed from the American Chemical Society press office. ACS publishes the journal.

In his story, Grossi wrote that the cattle feed explains only half of the Valley's ozone problem. The other half, Nitrogen oxide, or NOx, comes from vehicles. San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District believes NOx is more important to control, the Bee article said.

Meanwhile, Capital Press reported yesterday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rescinded its long-standing exemptions for agriculture under emission-control rules.

"Air quality in the San Joaquin Valley is consistently among the worst in the nation," said Deborah Jordan, director of the Air Division for the EPA's Pacific Southwest region, in a statement. "New and modified facilities will now be subject to the most stringent requirements, which will contribute to the health of our communities."

A dairy cow eats its rations.

San Francisco meeting generates research buzz

A meeting this week of the American Chemical Society turned two interesting UC research projects into headline news.

UC Davis nutrition professor Paul Davis reported that walnuts slowed prostate tumors by 30 percent to 40 percent in mice, according to a UPI article. The dose was equivalent to 2.5 ounces for a typical man. Not only was prostate cancer growth reduced, but the mice had lower blood levels of a protein that is strongly associated with prostate cancer.

Completely unrelated research presented at the meeting, also from UC Davis, questioned an often-quoted UN statistic that said animal agriculture produces 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than all transportation combined.

Air quality specialist Frank Mitloehner says the U.N. reached its conclusions for the livestock sector by adding up emissions from farm to table, including the gases produced by growing animal feed, animals' digestive emissions, and processing meat and milk into foods. However, for transportation it only considered emissions from fossil fuels burned while driving, according to a CNN story.

"This lopsided 'analysis' is a classical apples-and-oranges analogy that truly confused the issue," Mitloehner was quoted in the original UC Davis news release announcing his results.

At least one blogger wasn't fully convinced that the world can go back to eating meat guilt free. The writer of Guardian UK Environment Blog, Leo Hickman, wondered why more media outlets hadn't reported that Mitloehner receives a significant amount of research funding from the meat industry.

"I'm not saying that Mitloehner is a bought-off scientist in the pocket of Big Beef. . .," Hickman wrote. "My beef is that this funding information has not been deemed worthy of inclusion in the reports and blogs that have been so quick to leap on Mitloehner's findings as, in their eyes, further proof that environmentalists are just a bunch of unscientific cranks."

The American Chemical Society's national conference concludes today.

Frank Mitloehner

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