LOVELAND, OHIO – DIRTY AIR SEASON BEGINS WITH NEW LINKS ON LOVELAND MAGAZINE

LOVELAND, OHIO – Loveland Magazine looks at several government web sites daily to monitor past, current and predicted air quality data. The Loveland area is full bore into the dirty and unhealthy air season and both ozone and particulate data is looked at to provide readers with current information to protect their own as well as their children's health.

Loveland Magazine may be the only news publication in the tri-state that provides this information. For instance, the Cincinnati Enquirer provides air pollution information, but it is information that is collected at 2 PM the previous day. This information is faulty on two fronts. Number one is that the information is a day old, so although it may be helpful to know why your children were wheezing and lethargic the day before, you really need information so you can protect them in the first place. Number two; data from 2 o'clock in the afternoon is almost without exception a very distorted report of air quality, as the dirtiest air is almost always later in the afternoon and early evening.

The Enquirer, by providing data a day late, and data from when ozone is only beginning to “cook” in the air over the area, distorts by an enormous magnitude the true picture of just how dangerous our summer air can be for our children. There were many days last summer that if all you had to go by was the Cincinnati Enquirer you would not have known how dirty and dangerous the air can be.

If you watch TV Weather you sometimes get warnings of “Smog Alerts” but of course you have to be tuned to the TV during the weather broadcast and often the air quality reaches dangerous levels before the smog alerts are issued by the Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services; an agency that has been mandated by the Federal government to monitor our air, but seems reluctant to let the public know the true picture of just how dangerous the air is in the area.

Of course the wise can also just look outside and see the brown sky on many of these days. Not all of the pollution is visible however, and that is why the animated air quality map and other data found at Loveland Magazine will tell you the most accurate and up-to-date story.

The American Lung Association recommends that you, “Keep track of air pollution levels. If the air quality is unhealthy, try to limit the amount of time your child spends outdoors in vigorous play.”

Beginning today, Loveland Magazine will be providing a link to the current air quality conditions directly from several government web sites. The data is not easy to come by and the links to the government sites do not always work, so in a sense this is an experiment, but one worth undertaking so readers can have this information immediately available.

And, as was done last summer, Loveland Magazine will provide information directly on the front page when conditions are, or will be, particularly dangerous.

HOW TO USE THE LINKS

• In using these links you will discover that clicking on the “Air Quality Now” icon you will go to a web page that gives you: the current conditions, that day's forecast, and the next day's forecast.
• By clicking the “Animated Real Time Map” link you will go to a site and be able to watch as plumes of air pollution grow over the State Of Ohio, and Hamilton, Clermont, and Warren Counties. At this link you will also be able to follow other links to see the animation for the previous days.
• By clicking on the link titled "National Air Quality Forecast” you will be taken to a site where you can view animations for other areas around the country.