Air Date: Week of January 11, 2002

Living on Earth’s Diane Toomey reports on efforts in Salt Lake City to cut down air pollution as a result of the Olympic Games.

Transcript

CURWOOD: Coming up: more clarity in the hunt to find links between pollution and cancer clusters. First, this Environmental Health Note from Diane Toomey.

TOOMEY: The 2002 Winter Games are less than a month away, and Olympic organizers are working to cut down on Salt Lake City's notorious wintertime air pollution with the first ever Olympic air quality plan. The goal is to offset emissions expected to come from increased traffic, chair lift runs, fireworks displays, even the Olympic torch itself. In total, the games are expected to produce more than 180,000 tons of pollutants. So, the committee asked local businesses to cut back. Since the effort got under way two years ago, businesses have reduced emissions by more than 240,000 tons. They've reached that goal by shutting down old industrial plants and mining operations, as well as by using new technologies. Meanwhile, ten percent of the city's diesel buses have been replaced with cleaner burning natural gas vehicles. And volunteers have planted 80,000 trees in and around Salt Lake City, to soak up pollutants and make the 2002 Olympic Games a little bit greener. And that's this week's health note. I'm Diane Toomey.

CURWOOD: And you're listening to Living on Earth.