PGAQ #12 (FP) by Vic Steblin, Feb 15, 2008

2570 Laurier Crescent, Prince George, BC, 250-564-1123

What an unpleasant shock to learn that exercising during poor air quality days can actually harm your health. Of course lazy people would welcome any excuse to remain inactive, and can now point out the inherent wisdom of their inactivity. Any deep breathing in any concentration of fine particulate will affect health to some degree and it becomes a matter of opinion as to the overall benefit of exercise in poor air. An athlete already in top shape can do more harm than good by exercising in bad air. Consider the irony of putting a 30 million dollar sports activity centre in a city with the worst fine particulate problem in BC. What thinking world class athlete would train here!

It makes sense that inhaling fine particles deeply into our lungs damages our health. It turns out that the smaller the particles, the more chance they have of getting right into our blood. The blood then can deliver these harmful substances to all parts of our bodies like cells, tissues, organs and organ systems.

We should not praise the benefits of any device that makes particles even smaller. Consider those super efficient, hot burning wood stoves that reduce larger particle emissions. They just greatly increase the fine particulate load in the air that now gets into our blood instead of being trapped by our upper lung defences.

The proposed Community Energy System for downtown Prince George is a greater health risk than older less efficient burners. Of course, any burning is undesirable, but the fine particulate poses the greatest health risk. Adding another fine particulate producer in the downtown would further discourage anyone who tries to exercise their way into better health.