Daily Herald, September 20, 2007

Caleb Warnock

 

Utah Valley's air is so dirty that it is not adequate for raising children.  That was among the opinions offered to about 30 people gathered at the Provo City Library on Wednesday to hear the founders of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and Utah Moms for Clean Air speak about the need to clean Utah County's air. The event was hosted by the Utah Valley Sierra Forum.  All speakers asked those gathered to get involved by demanding that the Legislature put a moratorium on coal-fired power plants in Utah.

 

"We are not mommy pussy cats," said Cherise Udell, founder of Utah Moms for Clear Air. "Individual action is not enough. We are definitely putting pressure on legislators. We are boldly calling for a full-blown moratorium on coal-fired plants in Utah. I like to think of us as grizzly bear mommies. Our cubs are threatened, and we are going to protect them. Grizzly bears do not engage in fights often, but when they do, they win."  During Utah's winter inversions, where air pollution becomes so toxic that the state warns people to stay inside if possible. "I feel like I am locking my toddler in a room of smokers, and that is so repulsive to me," Udell said. "I thought we have to do something about this, we can't just complain every day about how bad the air is."  Since it was formed four months ago, Utah Moms for Clear Air now has 600 members and hopes to open a chapter in Utah County, she said.

 

Dr. Brian Moench said he founded Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, which now has 50 doctors as members, after his daughter got cancer. Eighty percent of cancer is caused by environmental factors, he said. A subcommittee of the state Legislature this week declined to consider paying for more air quality monitors, which made him "madder than hell," he said.  "We are trying to tell the public that this [cleaning up air pollution] is the biggest contribution we can make to the care and health of our patients," Moench said. "We need the public and other physicians to understand it."  Utah has five coal-fired power plants and 14 more have been proposed, hoping to get approval under the Bush administration, fearing the next administration may not be so favorable, he and other speakers said. The groups believe plants must not be allowed to be built.

 

Annually, 26,000 people die in America as a direct result of coal pollution, Moench said. Life expectancy along the Wasatch Front already is shortened two years on average because of air quality, "about the same as smoking a full pack of cigarettes a day. What we now know is that there is no safe level of air pollution just as there is no safe number of cigarettes you can smoke. I don't know about you, but I want those two years back."

 

Dr. Courtney Henley said she got involved in the effort because of her son.  "I can't stand coal smoke in my poor son's life," she said, noting air pollution causes stunted lung development, asthma, leukemia, lymphoma and low birth weight, and the long-term effects take years to accumulate.  "I have taken care of these children that come to get radiation therapy on tumors in their brains," she said. "It's horrible to see. We don't have to take this. We can make a difference."  Children accumulate 50 percent of their lifetime cancer risk before they are 2 years old, which is why action is needed now, Henley said. "The air out there today is not adequate for a child to be raised in and it leaves me speechless what to do, and so that is why I am here," she said.

 

Moench said Utah may be creating a new generation of Downwinder's because of its pollution, and that coal smoke is the largest source of radioactive pollution.  "We have 650 coal-fired power plants in the U.S. and on average each is putting out 18 tons of radioactive pollution a year," he said. "The end result is that people living near a coal-fired power plant are actually exposed to more nuclear radiation than people living near a nuclear plant if it is properly regulated."  "Freeways are cancer corridors," he said, responding to an audience question about the potential health dangers of the proposed Mountain View Corridor. "The incidents of childhood leukemia can increase as much as 500 percent" for those living near roads with heavy traffic "and coronary artery disease is about the same."

 

Caleb Warnock can be reached at 443-3263 This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C1.