8 — Friday, May 11, 1990 - Nosth snore News Station monitors North Shore air quality FIRST TIME POLLUTION MEASURED LOCALLY A NEW Mahon Park-based air quality station promises to tell North Shore residents exactly how fresh the proverbial breath of air is around here. By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter The $100,000 Greater Van- couver Regional District (GVRD) station started sending air quality readings to GVRD headquarters in Burnaby as of April 1. It was open for public inspection at an open house held April 26 in conjunction with Local Govern- ment Awareness Week. The Mahon Park station checks for sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O03) and airborne particulate. A wind speed measuring system is also being in- stalled. Through dedicated telephone lines, each of the GYRD’s 21 per- manent monitoring stations is scanned every minute by computer from the GVRD’s Burnaby head office. The one-minute readings are then stored to calculate hourly averages and air quality index values. Technicians receive hourly and daily reports and are also able to calibrate station monitoring equipment through the computer. At North Vancouver City’s Mahon Park, air samples are taken from above the stadium roof. A manifold draws the sample into a room where it is received by each monitoring instrument. Mahon Park was chosen as the site for the station because of its central North Shore location. Said Ken Stubbs, a GVRD am- bient air analyst and Lynn Valley resident, ‘‘We’ll be continuing to monitor from there and develop a data base from which we can assess air quality on the North Shore here. Basically up in the res- idential areas we didn’t have any- thing really to base air quality on.”’ Air quality is measured on a scale from 0 to 125. Good air ranges between O and 25, fair air from 26 to 50, poor air from 51 to 100 and very poor air is rated at 100 and above. According to the index, air rated as ‘‘good’’? causes no measured adverse health effects. At the high end of the scale, very poor air causes significant irritation to people with heart and lung disease. Specifically sulphur dioxide, which is emitted from the burning of fossil fuels containing sulphur, irritates the upper respiratory tract and increases chance of respiratory disease. Carbon monoxide (from automobile exhausts), in high con- centrations, can cause asphyxia- tion. Nitrogen dioxide is linked to respiratory infection and airway constriction. In high doses, ozone irritates the respiratory system. Ozone-related oxidants irritate the eyes. And small suspended particulates can cause respiratory problems. Stubbs points to the automobile as the largest single contributor to air pollution in the Vancouver area. Automobiles cause as much as 75 per cent of locai air pollution. While the GVRD can ask local industry to curtail activity during poor air spells, the governmental body carries no weight when it comes to limiting driving habits. Said Stubbs, ‘‘We have noticed a slight improvement of certain pollutants with the introduction of newer cats equipped with pollution control devices.”* GVRD SENIOR ambient air technician Fred Prystarz inspects information gathered by aiz quality monitors in- stalled in North Vancouver. The new monitoring facility at Mahon Park is the first station set up locally and NEWS photo Cindy Goodraan Joins a regional air monitoring system in place throughout the Lower Mainland. But he added, ‘‘We shouldn't be complacent — we've noticed a tremendous increase in the volume of cars.”” Meanwhile the province and GVRD are considering the institu- tion of compulsory emission tests on all vehicles within the Greater Vancouver region. Stubbs said people in the Van- couver area usually breathe easily with ‘‘very good air quality.’ But, he said, ‘‘There are certain times of the year, such as during F-A-S-T COLLISION REPAIRS CALL THE PROFESSIONALS AT JAYLORMOTIVE _ 1959 LTD. FREE RENTAL COURTESY CARS B.C.A.A. APPROVED — A.R.A. CERTIFIED 1.C.B.C. VENDOR FOR ALL MAKES . JaNLOAMGTIVE QUALITY WORKMANSHIP TRUSTWORTHY SERVICE 174 PEMBERTON AVE. consuttation NORTH VAN KLEIN KLM fieF PERFORMANCE WRBICYOLES 3026 MGUNTAIN HIGHWAY (across from 7-Eleven} 988-1800 OR APPOINTMENTS 985-7455 BIKES and ACCESSORIES the summer and early fall, when you've got the inversions and hot temperatures that lead to build-up of pollutants, particularly on the east side of Vancouver.”” Winds tend to push everything up the Fraser Valley, resulting in the build up of pollutants. Residents on North Shore mountainsides can sometimes escape locally concentrated pollu- tion trapped by temperature inver- sion. “Up the hill, people at certain levels will notice that they are above it or within the pollutant layer,” Stubbs said. ‘‘That can vary during the day as the inver- sion layer goes up and down due to the surface heating.”’ Heat and sunlight are also key to the creation of ozone. While natural ozone found in the upper atmosphere is being depleted due to the surface release ‘of certain types of volatile organic compounds, particularly, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the automobile contributes to the cre- ation of ozone at ground level. The primary sources of CFCs are re- frigeration and air conditioning applications, both at home and within the automobile. Said Stubbs, ‘‘The ozone at the surface is manufactured when you get oxides of nitrogen and a reac- tion compound such as a hydrocarbon or a volatile organic compound in the presence of sunlight.’* Added the air analyst, ‘‘Gener- ally we’re doing fairly well. Los Angeles has more days of ex- ceeding levels than Vancouver has hours in a year with regard to ozone. They have over 200 days a year where they exceed.” Updated twice a day, air quality index readings are available around the clock by calling 436- 6767. —. MOUNT SEYMOUR LIONS CLUB We serve MOTHER’S DAY BREAKFAST Sunday, May 13 Join us for scrambled eggs, hotcakes, sausages & beverages. Flowers for Mom. $4.99 for Adults / $2.99 for kids under 12 Lions Court 936 Bowron Court 9:00am-1:00pra Reg. $69.95 $5495 Sale For reservations phone 929-6698 Reg. $29.95 $1995 Sale