Posted on 05/08/2003 7:30:06 AM PDT by af_vet_rr
Smoke from south of the border graying much of Texas' skies
By Hannah Lobel ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, May 7, 2003
DALLAS — Smoke from agricultural fires in Mexico and Central America has spread across the eastern two-thirds of the state, sparking an influx of asthmatic children to hospitals from Mission to Austin and graying skies as far north as Dallas.
Some of the fires — burned to wipe out old crops or clear rain forest for farmland — have burned out of control this year because of an unusually dry dry season. Persistent southeasterly winds are picking up the smoke, carrying it about 900 miles and dumping it on South Texas, said Bryan Lambeth, a senior meteorologist with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
"It's definitely above normal this year," Lambeth said. "This is the worst smoke that we've seen since 1998."
That's when the smoky haze was so bad that U.S. fire fighting experts were sent to southern Mexico to help combat the fires, whose smoke had reached as far north as the Great Plains.
South Texas has labored under the gray haze for over a week. The TCEQ warned this week that the level of particulate matter the air in McAllen and surrounding areas was unhealthy for sensitive groups, meaning the elderly, children, pregnant women and people with respiratory conditions or heart problems.
The air quality has been taking its toll on the health of South Texas residents.
About 50 percent more children and about 30 percent more older adults have been coming into the emergency room with respiratory problems at Mission Hospital since Sunday, Chief Operations Officer Mario Garza said. People also were complaining that their eyes were burning.
"You don't expect 100 plus temperatures in the springtime, and to add insult to injury, you have this very difficult breathing situation," Garza said. The smoke was so prevalent that Garza said his collar turned completely black at a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The smoke travels north from South Texas in what Lambeth called pulses. Central Texas has registered moderate levels of smoke for more than a week and the Dallas-Forth Worth was hit by the haze on May 3. A few sites in both regions had levels deemed unhealthy for sensitive groups.
The smoke was a likely culprit in the breathing difficulties suffered by seven asthmatic children admitted to Children's Hospital of Austin on Monday, said Lanora Doud, a respiratory therapist at the hospital, which averages about two admissions of asthmatics a day.
"Kids have a harder time than adults because their airways are a lot smaller," Doud explained. The children also have had to contend with the weather changes, humidity and new plants that May brings, she said.
Her advice to parents of asthmatic children: "Keep 'em indoors."
The TCEQ also recommends setting air conditioning units to the recirculate mode and limiting outdoor activities, particularly physically stressful ones.
Some relief may come to Central and North Texas Sunday, when a cold front is expected to sweep the smoke back to South Texas. But it will probably return by the middle of next week, Lambeth said.
On Wednesday the line of smoke was pushing farther west, possibly reaching Abilene and San Angelo, Lambeth said.
You'll have to excuse the weirdness of my analogy, but I'm tired this afternoon :
It's like we all have one car. There is a problem with the transmission (smoke from Mexico). There is a problem with the brakes (pollution/smog created locally, like in Houston). We take it to the mechanic (The state or city or county depending on problem). They decide to work on changing the tires (ban smoking in restaraunts) and they repaint the car (lower the speed limit).
In other words, they are slapping a fresh coat of paint and new tires on the car and saying it is fixed, when it didn't address the car being able to move or slow down (Mexican smoke or like the smog/haze that is around Houston) or addressed something that wasn't a problem (smoking in restaraunts).
One of the worst analogies ever I know :-)
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