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Smog in Valley gets even worse
Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 14, 2005 12:00 AM

For the first time since October 2003, air pollution has gotten so bad in the Phoenix area that the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has issued high-pollution advisories for two forms of particulate pollution.

The Valley today and Thursday can expect health-affecting levels of PM-10, consisting of larger particulates, and PM-2.5, the smaller particulates that have a particularly nasty effect on people with respiratory ailments.

The department has issued several advisories for PM-10 this season, but none for PM-2.5 since smoke from a California wildfire reached the Valley more than two years ago.

The larger particulates consist primarily of dust and soot, while the finer particles are made primarily of emission materials from gas- and diesel-burning vehicles.

Besides being responsible for the foglike haze that has hung over the Valley for several days, PM-2.5 particles lodge more deeply in the lungs, causing serious problems for people with asthma, emphysema and other respiratory problems. A study conducted for Gov. Jane Hull five years ago, the Governor's Brown Cloud Summit, blamed PM-2.5 particulates for increased hospitalizations and 250 to 1,000 deaths a year.

Steve Owens, department director, said the double advisory came about largely because stable weather of the past several weeks has allowed particulate pollution to accumulate.

He said that several days that exceeded the federal standard for PM-10 have him concerned that the Valley will not meet a December 2006 deadline to clean up the air. Compliance has been difficult, Owens said, because of growth. More traffic and increased construction throw additional junk into the air.

Bob Kard, director of air quality for Maricopa County, said he is "ramping up" increased enforcement of dust-control laws and open-burning laws. He encouraged the public to report apparent violations to the county.

If the Valley is not in compliance, authorities will be required to submit plans to reduce emissions and dust by 5 percent a year until compliance is reached.

The Environmental Protection Agency can impose steps on its own. It once imposed limits on parking in downtown Boston, Owens said.

"We're a long way from that happening," he said. "We've been good the last couple of years, with no exceedances, but we cannot continue to rely on good luck and good weather."

So basically they're trying to say it's unhealthy, but it could be worse. Gee, really makes me want to live up there

Can scientific advancements survive in today's limelight?

Read this, and call me a liberal. Fine. I can deal with that.

The recent flak about the South Korean doctor who paid for some of the egg donations using in his cloning experiments is being picked up more in the MSM. Not only did he pay for some eggs, but women in his lab agreed to donate as well. These revelations have forced him to resign his position.

Now there's uproars in France (no, they're not burning cars again). It was reported in the New York Times (registeration required, so no link) that the recipient of the partial face transplant had been depressed and may have been attempting suicide when she was attacked by a dog. It was revealed that she was a divorced mother of two and unemployed and using sleeping pills. After a fight with her daughter, she took more than the prescribed dose (the article said 2-3 times a regular dose, but I seriously think it was more). In a sleep stupor, her dog began to chew at her face, thus causing the injuries.

Plus there are reports that the donor herself tried to hang herself (unsuccessfully). What's known for sure is that she died after four days in a coma.

Returning to the South Korean cloning issue. I will consider donating my eggs for stem cell research, but not for free. I'm already on emotional roller coasters just being on birth control, the hormones used for harvesting eggs is much worse. Then you have to have a minor surgery done to get them. I would want compensation for the time, effort on my part to adminster the hormones, and pain from surgery (not to mention no sex during that time). I think it's perfectly acceptable to pay for such a demanding piece of yourself.

I can understand the potential conflicts that donating your eggs to your boss can seem. However, I would probably do it if I worked in that lab. Most scientists are committed to their projects, and will do what they can to help it succeed, and if there was something I could offer to help the research, I would offer it.

Now the face transplant. As someone who's used sleeping pills before, they start to lose their effect after time. So you need to take more and more to get the same effect. I have never taken so many that I wouldn't know that something was chewing on my face, but can only try and imagine. If she kept this pattern up, she might have died in her sleep from this someday (wether it's intentional or not only she can answer). Despite her reckless behavior, I don't see why this would immediately disqualify her as a candidate. If she turly meant to kill herself, being so disfigured you had to wear a mask would be a good enough reason to end it once and for all.

I agree with the doctors that someone who attempted a hanging would not be a good face donor because of the increased pressue might rupture critical blood vessels needed for the transplant. Until I see more evidence that the donor attempted suicide, I'm willing to let it go.

But I seriously wonder if other progress in scientific advancements would have been accepted under the harsh glare of the limelight. For example, check out Bob's take on the first nuclear chain reaction test called Fail Safe Chicago. If the reaction got out of control, "volunteer" students were ready to douse the pile with special water to in theory quench the reaction and prevent Chicago from becoming a nuclear wasteland. Did those students completely understand that if called upon their lives would end that day? I'm sure the MSM could have raised all sorts of issues on why conduct the test in a major city and not a New Mexico desert too. Fortunately for Dr. Fermi, MSM was censored for the war, and the test was successfully conducted without incident.

There's a lot of scientific advancements that if you look at them closely enough can raise ethical or safety concerns. That's what in part makes them so revolutionary. I think the media should stay out of it, let the scientists debate the issues. It was scientists that raised the question about the true source of the South Korean donor eggs, then the MSM picked up on it.

Most people cannot easily make an informed decision. What they learn about the issue comes mostly from the media. I don't want scientists to become a closed society (a bit like doctors in their reluctance to admit mistakes), but peer reviews are obviously doing their job if the issue of the donor eggs was raised. It's good to have a scientific consultant for the media is a good thing to try and explain these issues, but I don't think they're helpful overall (perhaps someone can tell me otherwise).

Nitpicking again

I'll have to give the President credit. It only took him a few years to admit that he led us into Iraq under false intelligence.

I'll probably have more nitpicking after I read today's transcript. But in reading excerpts from the latest speeches, something else jumped out at me:

"It took a four-year civil war and a century of struggle after that before the promise of our Declaration (of Independence) was extended to all Americans," Bush said. "It is important to keep this history in mind as we look at the progress of freedom and democracy in Iraq."

Technially speaking it took even longer than that. Think more like 200 years after the Declaration was signed did the 1960's civil rights movement grant the last basic rights to blacks. Admitedly the fathers of the Declaration didn't picture blacks as equals when they signed it. Such biases require time for general assumptions to change.

I don't think we expect to keep troops in Iraq for that long. But it will take time for Sunnis to think that Shites are inferior (and vice versa). Until such assumptions change, we're going to have to keep them for killing one another. Can they eventually get along? I don't know the answer to that - unless reglious views change to be more accepting, probably not. It's like asking if Jews and Palastenians can get along - right now, that probably isn't going to happen.

Season's rants

Why is it when you're looking for a specific item for someone to get as a Christmas present, you can't find it to save your life?

My mom said that all she wanted from us for Christmas were dish towels. Her last good ones ended up a sickly green color from a continuously bleeding tablecolth. She only likes the towels that are fuzzy. I gave her a set once of the non-fuzzy ones after I discovered they were much better for things like bread making, and they conviently "disappeared".

Of course, it's the non-fuzzy towels that stores like Target and Kohl's are stocking thsee days. Kohl's had fuzzy dish towels, but there were all Christmas themed. Which would not work in June.

I lucked out completely at Table Talk (it was next to Kohl's so I am not running all over town). I'll stop by Mervyn's after work today, even though it'll bring me in the vicinity of THE MALL. Fortunately, it's nearby, but not in the mall itself. If I luck out there, I'm going to have to break down and start visiting the stores like JC Penny, Sears, etc. (which of course are in THE MALL). If I can get this last gift without visiting a mall, I'll be a much happier person.



I finally finished putting up as many lights on my Christmas tree as I'm going to do. I have only 300 blue mini lights on a 6 foot tree. It still looks neat, but a bit anemic (I usually do 400-500 lights). Since I have to treat the tree like an egg shell since the stand isn't stable, and the last thing I want to have happen is the whole darned thing to collapse. Plus it's more difficult to put lights on the tree when you have a fluff ball camped out under the tree.

Tonight I might even put some ornaments on it. I took some pictures of it's blue glowing beauty before I realized that I was missing the star (opps).

After that was done with, Adira the fluff decided to leave her safety of under the tree and pay a visit to the sleeping Magnum. This is usually when he'll get annoyed that she's invading his personal space and seriously munch on her. But he didn't budge when she plopped down on the ground and butted her head against his. I got some pictures of this conjoined look.

Then to my surprise, Magnum actually licked her head a bit. I snapped a picture, but I don't think it's obvious that what he was doing. Then he fell back asleep, and Adira decided she wasn't up for napping and left to go play ball.

So maybe there'll be peace this Christmas season (in my house anyway).

New Years with my boyfriend

I am really and truly looking forward to New Years Eve this year. My last boyfriend would take me to these big parties, but the only thing that I liked about them was getting dressed up. The paradox was that since I normally don't dress up that much, I wasn't very comfortable the entire night.

Last year, I told myself I wasn't going to stay home again. So I went out, and if it wasn't for the reservist I met, it would have been hell (I felt so old there).

This year, boyfriend said he wanted to come down and see me. I said I'd come to him since long drives aren't good for his lower back. He said he wanted to come. So I had to think of where we could go or what we could do.

I thought about it quite a bit. Mt. Lemmon would be cold and crowded, my best friend in Tucson isn't going to be available, and going up to a night viewing wouldn't really be that intimate. Then it came to me.

Tombstone. He seemed excited about it when I brought it up to him last night. So I'll book a hotel room (rates are very reasonable). Then we'll hit the bars, have drinks, maybe dance a bit. Then we'll go to the room and open a bottle of something (probably wine), and celebrate the New Year. A western, casual, not super crowded event that's only about an hours drive from Tucson.

I suppose I should forward to Christmas more since it'll be here in about a week, then worry about New Years. Yup, in 8 or 9 days, I'll get to see my boyfriend and spend Christmas deep-frying a turkey with the wonderful couple that set us up.