Johnson 1
Kenton Johnson
Mrs. Burr, Instructor
English 2010, Section 2
March 27, 2020
Ten Research Questions
1. What would you consider to be the number one contributor to Utah’s poor air quality.
a. “Probably PM 2.5 and Ozone”
b. “Currently we have an issue in Salt Lake County we have a lot of wood burning
that occurs during the inversion season”
c. “Inversion season, which is typically November 1st through like March 1st”
d. “PM 2.5… can get deep into your lungs and blood and cause health problems”
e. “Ozone levels being increased in the summer months because it’s hot and the sun
contributes to that, we’ve been working on getting that down but it’s hard because
we factories that contribute that are beyond our control”
2. How can we best limit the use of ______ in our day to day lives.
a. “Not have any recreational fires”
b. Skiing example
c. “Wood burning smoke is pretty unhealthy, more unhealthy than cigarettes and
you know how bad cigarettes are.”
3. What are some of the negative consequences that our air pollution and quality have for
the average citizen?
Johnson 2
a. “A normal person could pretty much shrug it off… but overtime it builds up in
your system which leads to problems in the future”
4. What effect would limiting _______ have on the overall air quality that we experience in
day to day life?
a. “With the coronavirus you can notice what happened, people are quarenteening
and self secluding and nnot driving as much… the air quality has gotten better”
b. “It’s helping with people not driving and not being outdoors as much”
5. Personally speaking, how has the air quality that we have affected your own life, of
course excluding the creation of your job.
a. “They have issues, they have a tendacie to use their inhalers more and go to the
hospital more frequently, they get colds quicker because their immune systems
are depressed it leads to a whole slue of things”
6. With the hustle and bustle of the world and the need to travel and get things done, is a
solution to this problem attainable? What needs to be done?
a. “Use tier 3 gasoline because it’s cleaner fuel”
b. “Do your shopping in one go”
c. “Don’t idle your car… it’s a big issue”
7. According to statistics from the American Lung Association, just under 100,000 people
in the salt lake county suffer from cases of Asthma. Are those numbers correct? And how
is the air quality affecting their lives.
a. Their immune systems are already compromised and their lung capacity is lower
than us… anything that obstructs their air passage ways is dangerouos”
Johnson 3
8. Inversion.What other areas of concern, despite the breathing aspect of it, does that bring
forth?
a. “Hospital visits increased dramatically during iversion season due to the poor air
quality”
9. Who/ what would you say is most at-risk due to the air quality in Utah and why are they
the most at-risk?
10. According to USA Today, Utah is number 13 on the cities with the worst air pollution/
quality, is there anything that is moving forward or in progress to help drop that number
and bring us to a safer level?
a. “Tier 3 gasoline is a much cleaner gasoline… we’re transitioning to that and a lot
of fuel carriers are transitioning to carrying that Tier 3 gasoline”
b. “There is even a website coming online where you can go and look to see which
gas stations provide that Tier 3 gasoline.”
c. “Our air quality is actually improving overtime except for Ozone”
d. “The salt lake county has improved from the attainment mode to the maitenance
mode”
e. “There is more federal funding that are going to different valley cities to improve
the air quality”
f. “The University of Utah is using some of our sensors to collect air quality data on
trax”
g. “Tier 3 gasoline should be pretty much similar in price because they want the
public to pick it up”
Johnson 4
For my interview I plan on contacting someone in the Air Quality division of the Salt Lake
County Health department. Their website does not give any specific names of who to contact so I
would have to shoot them an email to see who would best answer my questions. Once I find that
name my interview would most likely occur over a telephone call or a google meet call so I can
have that face-to-face effect.
