May
1, 2000
Many regions of Ontario surprised by early smog day
(Toronto, ON) The first of May brought high smog levels to much of Ontario
on Tuesday, May 1, 2001. Many
high smog readings occurred in rural and northern locations and had not been
forecasted.
A Smog Day occurs when pollution concentration
measurements on the Air Quality Index (AQI) reach the “Poor Air”
designation of AQI-50. Usually
the Ontario Ministry of the Environment issues ‘smog alerts’ to warn of
impending high pollution levels, but none was issued for Tuesday.
“It’s very important that Ontario have a mechanism in
place to give timely and accurate warnings of impending smog days,” said
John Wellner, Pollution Probe’s Air Programme Director. “If you want to keep your kids inside when the smog is at
its worst, you’ve got to have easy access to air quality information.”
The following are the highest readings for a number of
monitoring sites that exceeded the provincial Poor Air designation of
AQI-50.
Brampton
AQI-54
Grand Bend
AQI-56
Guelph
AQI-53
Haliburton
AQI-62
Hamilton Mtn.
AQI-55
Kitchener
AQI-51
Niagara Region
AQI-51
North Bay
AQI-54
Parry Sound
AQI-61
Peterborough
AQI-58
Sarnia
AQI-54
Simcoe
AQI-58
Tiverton
AQI-53
York
Region AQI-55
The highest smog reading of AQI-62 was recorded near
Algonquin Park, in Haliburton at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
“Today’s air quality readings show us that smog is not
just a big city problem,” said Wellner. “We have bad air from Grand Bend
to Peterborough, and from Simcoe to North Bay. If you thought that getting out
of the city meant breathing cleaner air, you were mistaken.”
The Ontario Medical Association has studied the effects of
air pollution on public health and found in the year 2000, 1,900 premature
deaths could be attributed to air pollution in Ontario.
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For
additional information, please contact John Wellner at Pollution Probe,
416-926-1907 (ext.236) during regular business hours or at home, 416-539-0041
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