ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150051
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
HARD TO believe, isn't it, that in one recent study, the Roanoke Valley ranks 25th among 239 urban areas for dirty air.
Right behind Chicago. Well ahead of Newark.
Roanoke? Where suburban sprawl has hardly begun compared to densely developed Northern Virginia, with its heavy veil of commuter-generated auto emissions?
Roanoke? Where the evening rush hour downtown is actually 15 minutes of moderately heavy traffic?
Roanoke? Where it is virtually unheard of to wait through more than one cycle of a traffic light - unless, of course, the driver at the front of the line has to turn around and correct the kids in the back seat through most of the green?
Yep. The study, by the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, ranks the valley's air high in particulates - specks of dust so small they can't be seen but which, nevertheless, can cause breathing problems and, in some cases, death.
An average of 141 deaths a year in the Roanoke area, the author of the report estimates. Yet Roanoke's particulate measures are well within federal environmental standards.
So what gives?
A Yale University researcher working on a separate air-quality study cautions that arriving at such health-risk assessments requires many assumptions to be made along the way.
While the Natural Resources Defense Council is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to tighten the dust standard, more evidence clearly is needed before any action is taken. And there may be responses more creative than simply tightening a federal standard.
But that's not to say we shouldn't take seriously the possibility of a big problem. Anomalous as air pollution excesses may seem in a valley where tree-covered mountains are easily visible from the heart of downtown, residents cannot assume that what looks healthy is, indeed, healthy.
The valley's thermal inversions do trap air, and pollutants. Further research on the effects may well support a call for regulatory changes.
Meanwhile, federal mandates aren't required for the valley's localities to act to reduce air pollution. We can help contain suburban sprawl through better planning, and encourage alternative means of transportation. A network of greenways, for example, would be helpful.
LENGTH: Short : 50 linesby CNB