Hilo ranks 401st in list of world's most polluted

[Cagary]

Hilo is tied for 401st in a list of the world's most air-polluted cities. It tied with Fairbanks, AK and Modesto and Visalia-Porterville, CA.

The survey is based on "Annual mean particulate matter with a diameter of 10 microns or less, per million".

Hilo got a 27 which compares quite favorably with Beijing (121), Ahwaz, Iran (372) and New Delhi (198).

However, according to the list, Hilo has dirtier air than the Los Angeles/Long Beach/Glendale area (25)!

I guess its the vog, but I always thought that the air in Hilo seemed pretty clean.

http://files.onset.freedom.com/ocregiste...focus2.pdf

-Veritas odium parit”(Terence 195–159 BC))-"Truth begets hatred".

[SBH]

The Sierra Club ranks Honolulu as the #1 city for cleanest air in the US and #2 for cleanest air in the world.

http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/green...ed-cities/

[TomK]

All - be careful what studies you quote and what being claimed. The one Cagary cites is air pollution only, the one SBH quotes seems to be a combination of air and other pollutants in ground water etc., so that being the case it's very unlikely they will agree.

I was a little surprised about the result for Hilo but also suspect it's vog. One or two studies measuring the air above Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa have also shown that there are many pollutants being transferred above us by the jet stream from some of the nastier industrialized areas in Asia but I've no idea how much of that falls on Hilo, and suspect it'd also affect Honolulu and other cities and towns in Hawaii which doesn't seem to be the case after a quick look at the WHO data. For many years the stuff being transported above us was thought to be dust from the Gobi desert but from memory I think it's been shown it's industrial pollutants. I can try and dig out a reference or two if anyone's interested.

It'd be really interesting to see what Kailua-Kona's air pollution number is using the scale in Cagary's link (it's not big enough to be included in that study). I think that'd confirm if the pollution was from the volcano or Asia.

Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/