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Air Quality Sampling
GTA Air Quality Sampling and Public Perceptions of Air Quality in the GTA
Between May 24th and 29th, 2006, a public opinion survey of voting Greater Toronto Area (GTA) residents, excluding the City of Toronto was conducted for the Clean Air Partnership.
Respondents were first asked to rate the general air quality in each of the following areas using a scale from one very poor to five very good.
View Air Quality Polling Report
Public polling results showed that residents living outside downtown Toronto underestimate their exposure to air pollution. Well over 50% of residents polled who reside in Oshawa, Caledon and Burlington said that air quality in their community was significantly better than in downtown Toronto. In Markham, nearly 7 out of 10 people polled considered this statement to be true. Overall, 62% of all GTA respondents believed that the air quality near their residences was significantly better than in downtown Toronto.
Every day on average, poor air quality in the GTA and throughout the province of Ontario kills approximately 15 people, and leads to about 150 persons seeking urgent medical help. In 2005, 48 smog alert days were issued blanketing the entire GTA. 2005 also presented the largest number of advisories ever issued by the province for days where poor air quality was forecast.
Research by the Ontario Medical Association shows that smog contributes to almost 1,500 deaths each year in Toronto alone. Add another 1,100 deaths when you include the Durham, Halton, Peel and York Regions. If we do not make necessary reductions in air pollution, this number will increase in the next 20 years to well over 4,300 premature deaths every year in the GTA.
In late May 2006, six GTA politicians took part in local air quality testing to gather information and raise awareness of the concerns of air quality especially for those most at risk. The politicians who participated in this project were:
Toronto City Councillor John Filion
Markham Deputy Mayor Frank Scarpitti
Acting Pickering Mayor Rick Johnson
Ajax Councillor Colleen Jordan
Peel Regional Councillor Annette Groves
Burlington Councillor Joan Lougheed
Hand-held instruments were used to measure particulate matter produced from direct vehicle tailpipe emissions. Particulate matter is so small that it is measured in microns. This small dot (.) is equal to about 600 microns. Two sizes of particulate matter (PM) were measured; fine particulate matter, less than 2.5 microns in size (PM2.5) and sub-micron ‘ultrafine’ particulate matter, less than 0.1 micron in size (PM0.1).
Individual particles cannot be seen with the naked eye, but together they can appear as grey haze or soot causing reduced visibility.
Each participating municipality sample area included a busy road and on a residential street to compare the different concentrations of particulate matter showing the local and regional effects. Levels of PM2.5 were relatively consistent across the region whereas levels of ultrafine particulate matter varied dramatically depending on vehicle traffic.
The sampling showed that air pollution is both a local and a regional issue. PM2.5 is a regional concern due to its ability to stay in the air for days or weeks and travel for hundreds of miles. PM0.1 is a more localized concern because of its size; however, research is still in its early stages. Municipal, provincial and federal governments, as well as all individuals and businesses and industry must show leadership and commitment to cleaner air, in order to protect all GTA residents from air pollution’s damaging health effects.
The air quality sampling is part of the annual Smog Summit. At the Smog Summit on June 7th representatives from all levels of governments commit to clean air initiatives by signing the Toronto and Region 2006 Intergovernmental Declaration on Clean Air.
Press Conference
A press conference was organized by the Clean Air Partnership at Queen’s Park to deliver the data of the regional air quality testing and provide expert analysis of the results. Analysis was provided by Professor Greg Evans from the University of Toronto and David Pengelly from the McMaster Institute of Environment and Health.
At the press conference, Dr.David Pengalli and Professor Greg Evens underlined that there is no ‘safe’ level of air pollution. Both experts stressed the notion that poor air quality does not just occur during smog alerts, but the repeated exposure on typical days in Southern Ontario may also be long term problem.
Dr.Pengalli said that it is important to note that smog is more likely to form on oppressively hot days, which are in themselves, dangerous to human health. Thus, it is important to note that the GTA may experience an increase in the number of days with poor air quality because of climate change.
Professor Greg Evens went on to discuss the regional nature of many air quality problems, including some types of particulate matter and ozone, which in some cases, is found at higher levels in suburbs. He mentioned that because the effects of air pollution impact both local neighborhoods and entire regions in the GTA, both local and regional efforts should be combined to effectively pursue cleaner air.
Eva Ligeti, Executive Director of the Clean Air Partnership, stated that joint commitments and actions from all levels of government are needed to combat air pollution because no one level of government, certainly no city or region, and indeed no single country, can effectively deal with solving the problem of air pollution in our air shed.
Eva Ligeti noted that addressing issues such as increasing transit ridership and urban sprawl are important steps that we must now make to improve the quality of the air we breathe.
The Clean Air Partnership would like to thank all those who participated in the project. This includes the politicians who generously set aside some time to help conduct the project, as well as Dr. Greg Evans of the University of Toronto, who helped design and supervise the air quality sampling tests, and student researchers from the Southern Ontario Centre for Atmospheric Aerosols Research, Kelly Sabaliauskas and Amy Peers. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment provided smog advisory data and Health Canada provided the air quality monitoring equipment for the testing samples.
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