Regarding the photograph “Hazy Hike” (Gazette, Aug. 7, page A3), the term “haze” understates the gravity of what we are all breathing this summer, along with much of North America and Europe. Wildfire smoke is largely black carbon, along with toxic residues from burning buildings and other sources. According to a surviving NASA website: “Black carbon is a component of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution, which can aggravate cardiovascular and respiratory conditions and create other health issues.”
EPA by contrast announced on March 12 that it will undo the Regional Haze Program established in 1999 “based on current scientific information and recent improvements in air quality” – falsely implying that climate science has changed since Trump’s inauguration and that air quality is improving (unless you ignore what you are breathing).
Wildfires in progress and the intensity of the smoke plume blanketing much of country east of the Rockies can be followed on the website: https://data.usatoday.com/fires/. It will literally take your breath away.
Rutherford H. Platt
Florence