Air Quality Presentation

It is import to educate our community on air quality.  The most common air pollutants carry dangerous health effects. Kathy Moses, of the Colville Tribes Environmental Trust program spoke with the Omak District Thursday, November 23rd in regards to the work being done with the community to educate and make improvements. Moses presented on the clean-up efforts in Moccasin Flat’s earlier in the month. She talked of the necessity of burn bans during heavy cloud cover and how this low cloud cover can trap particulates in the air. Particulates - Make up the majority of the leaf smoke. Because of the moisture that is usually trapped within leaves, they tend to burn slowly and thus generate large amounts of airborne particulates—fine bits of dust, soot and other solid materials, these particulates can reach deep into lung tissue and cause coughing, wheezing, chest pain, shortness of breath and sometimes long-term respiratory problems. In the meeting Moses said she was asked, “How are we gone to fix this problem when orchards are just going to burn their trees.”  She followed up by saying, "we will work with and educate owners of local orchards on air quality, burning trees and leaves in the fall and how it affects the community."