OPINION

Pollution puzzle

Re: "Pulling a cure out of thin air", (Business, Feb 3).

Although Post reporters did a great job of covering the generally acknowledged basic strategies needed to reduce air pollution, any comprehensive solution to this problem must necessarily embrace complexity. To begin with, the assignment of annual averages and annual average daily limits fails in its unwarranted simplicity. So-called PM2.5 refers to a tiny subset of the complex problem of air pollution. Any measurable level of total air pollution is harmful not only to people directly but to their health indirectly since airborne pollution reaches our bodies in a myriad of ways. All pollution which detrimentally affects Earth's ecosystems inevitably harms us.

An accurate assessment of our global, regional, and national pollution status must include a total value for all pollutants calculated on a daily basis. PM2.5 as a standard allows for relatively inexpensive measurement stations to be spread out at great distances, which produces very approximate data pertaining to one small subset of pollutants. We need to do better, a lot better.

That means spending more on testing and less on the military as a start. Satellite-based sensors need to be tuned to a wide range of atmospheric pollutants not just the imaginary devil, carbon dioxide.

As to generally unacknowledged complexity, the Guardian published an article on June 3, 2022, which revealed that tyres produce 2,000 times the particulate pollution released by vehicular exhaust on a per-kilometre, per-vehicle basis. Tyres also release heavy metals and toxic organic compounds, which are completely ignored by relying on the PM2.5 standard. That article also pointed out that road-based transportation releases huge amounts of nano-particles that are extremely difficult to measure and more harmful than their larger counterparts since they enter the bloodstream easily.

One final note. By consulting with the Chinese, Thai officials will be asking the world's largest manufacturer of EVs and EV batteries and the world's largest polluter, for advice. Not the best course of action, one might imagine.

Beyond addiction

Re: "Fentanyl fantasy", (PostBag, Feb 6).

Whew, and hurray! Finally someone else has had the audacity to say it publicly. Felix Qui in today's PostBag letter pointed out that the drug problem in the US -- and everywhere -- is not the drugs. It is the people who choose to use them. And it is a choice! It is also not guns that are the problem, for the same reason. The drugs and guns are the technical factor; the people are the human factor. Remove the drugs and the guns, and the people remain. If the "why" they choose to use these are not dealt with, they will find something else equally or more destructive.

Wronglish rules

Re: "Do you hear people's voice?", (Cartoon, Feb 6).

I'm frankly amazed at the poor English in your cartoon today.

That's literally all I can say.