Ian Nelson

Professor Gutaj
Research Paper
March 15, 2016
How Our Increasing Population Affects Pollution and Illness in Utah
As we begin our journey into the future there seems like there are many
things that could stimulate our countries growth while there are many other
things that can stunt it. One of the biggest factors that grow with population
is our industry. With an ever growing industry there becomes a bigger and
bigger need to create products, travel, and heat our homes. With a growing
population more and more people play into the role of making our economy
bigger and more powerful. This is where the need comes to expand our
current market. Transportation in the US impacts our environment by
pumping more and more CO2 into our atmosphere. As we try to get places
faster and more effinciently here in the 21st centruy, we end up pouring tons
of deadly gasses into our atmoshere. With the rise of population we
constantly look toward fossil fuels for more ways to transport ourselves. This
process leads to unhealthy problems for our health, and also for our local
ecosystems.
Pollution in Utah is an exceptional problem due to our states unique
topography. Salt Lake City is located just south of the Great Salt Lake and

surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. Its almost a bowl we live in said

Utah politician Michal Orton in an interview with KSL news. Car emissions
get trapped and were all stuck breathing it until the wind blows it away.
Orton is addressing here, how, in Salt Lake we often build up enough
pollution because of the shape of our valley. Because SLC is so irregular
shaped, the pollution becomes trapped here creating a considerable problem
for us. The pollution caught in the air we breathe can irritate our lungs and
even cause sickness amongst both our ecosystem and us.
When it rains in Utah, while there is CO2 in our atmosphere, acid rain
comes down and destroys our ecosystem. With rising pollution levels, a
threat is posed to our local environment. Have you ever heard someone say:
Dont drink rain water because it is mixed with pollution? In reality, this is
true and we shouldnt dink the rain water because it does contain harmful
chemicals due to the pollution. The water raining down mixes with our
pollution and creates an acid that is toxic to our bodies. This is proved by the
following calculation: [CO2] + [H20] -> [H2CO3] -> [H+] + [HCO3-]. When C02
mixes with the water it forms a carbonic acid (H 2CO3) that then dissociates
making the hydrogen ion (H+) that makes the solution a threat to ourselves
as well as delicate plant life. Plants are adapted to function inside a very
narrow PH range (acidity range) and if the H+ ion concentration (acidity)
were to rise it could easily kill the plant. This means that after it rains here in
Salt Lake, after we have been building up pollution in our bowl-like valley, it
will rain Carbonic Acid and H+ ions! This can hurt our ecosystem by giving

plants and animals acidic water to drink. Although drastic changes to our
environment have not yet been widely noticed, if we keep polluting at a
constantly rising rate, the number of hydrogen ions raining down will also be
raised and carry with it the potential to destroy our local plant life
ecosystem.
Utah is currently ranked number 7 for 24 hour particle pollution out of
220 surveyed US metropolitan areas (report by stateoftheair.org). 24 hour
particle pollution is the measurement of particles (of pollution) in the air that
we breathe over a span of 24 hours. Because the ranking for our state is so
high its crucial to point out that pollution in our air is highly dangerous
because the particles we breathe can get lodged deep inside our lungs where
there they can cause serious problems like lung cancer and asthma. In fact
many of the citizens here in Utah already suffer from an illness that pollution
can cause or worsen. The 2013 population of Utah conducted by the census
is estimated to fall somewhere in the order of 2.4 million people (2.4 x 10 6),
out of these 2.4 mil., 195,000 (1.95 x 10 5) of these people suffer from
asthma. To find out the percentage of people suffering from asthma that are
put at greater risk because of air pollution we carry out the equation as
follows. [(1.95 x 105) Asthma Patients (2.4 x 106) Total Population] x 100
8% Asthma Patients/Total Population in SLC. Per my calculations, I
estimate 8% of the SLC population has Asthma and is put at greater risk of
health disorder by the accumulating SLC pollution!

Pollution does not only affect the breathing of those diagnosed with
asthma but also affects the young children of our state. While the young
child is growing up the respiration system we all use to breathe is also
developing. If the lungs of a child are damaged by excess exposure to
pollution the child can grow up with serious health concerns. Lawrie Mott cofounder of The Cool Earth writes in her essay Our Children at Risk: The Five
Worst Environmental Threats to Their Health written for NRDC (National
Recourses Defense Council) children breathe a proportionately greater
volume of air than adults Irritation caused by air pollutants that would
produce only a slight response in an adult can result in potentially significant
obstruction in the airways of a young child. Mott is saying here that because
children are in a state of growing they breathe in more air than an adult and
therefore are more susceptible to pollution related illnesses in the lungs.
When children are often growing up in Utah with illnesses related to and
affected by our growing amount of pollution, the nobility of our state to try
and cure some of these illnesses becomes seriously undermined.
Increased pollution causes our identity to change as a state. As a state
becomes more and more polluted more people suffer from pollution related
illnesses thereby giving the state a bad name when referring to the health of
the local environment. For example, it has become common today to be
moving from state to state often due to forever demanding jobs. Speaking to
people who do move, I hear often that Los Angeles is terrible state to live in if
you wish to breath clean air. This gives California a face and image that the

people see it by. Because Los Angeles is so pollution we often view California
as a densely populated and dirty place. While this may not always be true, it
is indeed true that the amount of pollution a state has in the air does play a
role in determining the states identity. As Utah becomes a more and more
polluted state less and less people concerned for their health will want to live
here. Utah will come to be known as the state of upmost population,
industry, and declining health. I would hope that the Utah state legislator
could take more drastic measures toward cleaner air in Utah than the
CLEAN AIR ACT which only prohibits the smoking of tobacco in, or within 25
feet of indoor public spaces. We need to step up.
It has become common today to dismiss that as the states interest in the
automobile industry rises so does pollution. As more and more people buy
cars, more and more drivers will exist in Utah consequently raising the
amount we drive and our local pollution levels aswell. The most recent report
by Statistica stated that in 2013 the average number of drivers in Utah alone
was 1.7 million (www.statista.com). Today as the population rises the
numbers of drivers also increase above 1.7 million and therefore drastically
increase the amount of pollution in our air. While many people will say the
rising levels of pollution in not only our state but our entire country is
inevitable because we all need cars to get to where we are going I argue that
the problem of rising pollution levels can be avoided if we implement a more
efficient and affordable public transit system here in Salt Lake which would
reduce the need for automobiles and thereby eliminate highway pollution.

By implementing a more efficient transit system in our valley we could

combat rising pollution levels. Currently there are many people riding the
UTA to be cost effective and to protect the environment. With population
rising in Utah more and more people have
access to the UTA route system because of
the expansions the public service takes on.
Recently UTA installed a train line (green)
directed from the airport stretching to the
heart of West Valley (Fig. 1.1) which
accommodates its growing population of
134,000 (US Census Bureau). If we were to
expand UTAs train line and bus routes to
reach further into local neighborhoods and
closer to large local businesses using existing highways and roads as building
grounds for train tracks theres a very optimistic chance that most of the
people here will resort to riding the line rather than driving due to its costeffectiveness and convenience. Horace Martinez, executive director for CAP
co. working in an office building in downtown Salt Lake said in an interview,
If the electric train came to my doorstep, I would ride it to work and back
every day, as would my family. Dallin Larsen, manager for a Fresh Market
said this: If a system of electric trains could reach into the neighborhoods
around here I believe more and more people would use them to come get
their groceries, including me! We wouldnt even need a parking lot.

According to both Mr. Martinez and Mr. Larsen a more effective transit
system would be very convenient for everybody who would have access to
them. This would decrease the need for cars and rid our states atmosphere
from the daily pollution building around traffic occurring on our local
highways I-80 West/East-bound, I-15 and
215 North/South-bound giving us fresh air
to breathe and prosper in.
Overall its important for the state to
keep a healthy atmosphere for both the
people living in it as well as for the
environment. If we are able to implement
an electric transit system that reaches
deep into the Utah suburbs to every persons

Figure 1.1 Current UTA transit

map

doorstep we would have no excuse but to stop driving which could

potentially cut Utahs annual auto pollution down by 100%. If we become a
state to reduce our automotive pollution by 100% we could make SLC the
healthiest and cleanest environment in the U.S. in which to live. This would
attract many people to come live and work here which would increase Utahs
market demand as well as our workforce array. We could plant crops to feed
our growing population and create fields of solar panels to power the next
generation as well as our neighboring cities. After proving our success, the
world could watch and adopt our process used to turn a polluting city into
one that can power itself and preserve its environment, in this way Utah

could become the leader leading the world to a happier and healthier human
race.