City’s Soot-Ridden Air Deemed ‘Unhealthy for Everyone’

Columbus Dispatch

7/21/06

It’s a bad sign when you can see the air you’re inhaling. The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission warned that pollution levels were so high yesterday that everyone was at risk of breathing problems. It was the first such health alert this year. Soot, not smog, was the culprit. The agency’s previous bad-air warnings were aimed at those sensitive to air pollution — the elderly, young children and people with lung and heart conditions. All this means more work for Dr. James Allen, a pulmonologist at Ohio State University Medical Center. As bad-air alerts increase, so do phone calls from patients complaining of asthma attacks and other breathing difficulties, he said. "This is the kind of problem people need to be aware of and take reasonable precautions on days like today."

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/health/health.php?story=dispatch/2006/07/21/20060721-A1-03.html