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Uploaded: Thursday, January 24, 2013, 2:22 PM                                             

Another Spare the Air alert issued this week
Friday, Jan. 25, will be ninth Spare the Air day of winter season

Posted by smokey, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Jan 24, 2013 at 3:22 pm

I'm surprised they didn't do this earlier. Air quality has been dreadful this week. There is a strong smell of smoke in the air and you can see a thick brown layer when you look down on the city from Foothills Park.

Posted by Smoked out, a member of the Jordan Middle School community, on Jan 24, 2013 at 4:04 pm

No kidding, in spite of the warm spell, I have smelled smoke every night this week.

Bundle up, people....do NOT light that fireplace.

Posted by Spare me the Drama!, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Jan 24, 2013 at 6:12 pm

Please, "smokey" and "smoked out"

Save the drama for your mama. Air quality this week has been MODERATE. MODERATE! Give us a break from the whining, already!

The Spare the Air Day folks and their decisions don't appear to have much rational basis--spare the air on a rainy day? But you are clearly part of a fanatical claque which does not appreciate our wonderful climate at all!

Posted by Paco, a resident of the St. Claire Gardens neighborhood, on Jan 24, 2013 at 7:06 pm

The BAAQMD is a rogue agency out of control. There method of air testing is to look out the window of their offices in San Francisco to monitor air currents. Apparently, they have now begun to use phone complaints of wood smoke as a scientific means (made by highly qualified serial complainers) for declaring "Spare the Air" days. The Bay Area has over a hundred micro-climates,yet,the BAAQMD has no monitoring equipment to determine air quality specific to these micro-climates and instead chooses to issue blanket air alerts out of ignorance and incompetence.

Posted by Robert, a resident of another community, on Jan 25, 2013 at 6:32 am

They are calling spare the air days almost every day. If a spare the air day is called almost everyday of the year, then they start just being another day. Its getting ridiculous.

Posted by Asthmatic, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Jan 25, 2013 at 8:46 am

Well, something is in the air that is giving me asthma attacks and headaches since mid-December, and it isn't pollen. I smell wood smoke every night, and the attacks are worst at night.

Usually my asthma is worst in the spring and fall, not winter, so something is up. My previous hospitalizations have always been in spring or fall, until this year.

Posted by smokey, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Jan 25, 2013 at 8:55 am

Not much rain since mid-December. The pollution is collecting all over the Bay Area, including right here. The light drizzle over the last couple of days doesn't help much to clean out the air. Please wait for a heavy rain before you light your fires. Temperatures are warm enough that you do not need a smokey fire for heat.

Posted by Eaton breathing, a resident of the Esther Clark Park neighborhood, on Jan 25, 2013 at 11:19 am

Using an oldstyle fireplace (without a current insert) for heating your house is STUPID. Really costly, as well. The draw created by the fireplace in the chimney takes most the heat out of your house. The 'vacuum' created by the draw then brings cold air in from outside through cracks and crevices, reducing temps in all the rooms away from the fireplace.

Any one that thinks the air is cleaner now than in the summer merely needs to walk up a local hill a few hundred feet and attempt to look at the East Bay.

I was at Edgewood Park on Sunday (good hiking spot, btw) and could barely, from the top of the hill, make out the East Bay in the smog.

Asthma is real and sends thousands of Californian to the hospital this time of year. Other breathing conditions similarly suffer from the fools who say things like: "Give us a break from the whining, already!" and "...you are clearly part of a fanatical claque which does not appreciate our wonderful climate at all!"

Try appreciating it from the inside of an oxygen mask.

"out of ignorance and incompetence."

Yes. Web Link

"ignorance and incompetence"

Bingo.

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One last though: "part of a fanatical claque which does not appreciate our wonderful climate at all!" I hiked 3 hours, slightly over ten miles, with a 500 foot net climb on Sunday (I'm old and slow.) How do you appreciate our wonderful climate? Burning wood and ruining the lives of those with breathing conditions?

Go away.