Take a deep breath...on second thought, don't!
Spring is in the air. The birds are chirping and the sun is bright and hot on our faces. It’s the perfect time for us to get out and enjoy the wonderful parks and biking/walking paths that the city officials have so diligently installed for us.
Except for one thing. That cloud of smog that seems to linger over our city. It’s something CNN Money says makes us the 10th most polluted city in the entire country…
The City of Brotherly Love was once an industrial powerhouse, with heavy industries like steel, manufacturing, textiles and machinery.
Many of the factories are gone now and Philadelphia has much more of a service economy. The industries that remain are subject to much stricter controls, according to Linda Rebarchak, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Over the past few years, for example, continuous air monitors have been installed over many of the city’s smokestacks to measure emissions. The monitors have helped to alert officials and factory managers to any problems in the systems, she said.
Great, just great. As if the pollen wasn’t infecting my airways enough, now I have plant emissions to worry about, too.
Well, we aren’t going to settle for that. Here’s some suggestions of how you can still get out and enjoy the city without burning the layers of your esophagus and lungs.
• Wear a cool face mask like the Asians. People might mistake you for a doctor, which couldn’t hurt.
• Enjoy the indoor events that Philly has to offer. Museums, theaters and restaurants are a dime a dozen and they’ll all provide a little bit of refuge from the contaminated air.
• Just go to New Jersey. It’s just the length of a bridge away.
Of course, you can just deal with it like we have been for all these years. It won’t kill you immediately, right?
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