Hi Nara - I am glad it was not directed at me, I agree I think we all need to be able to use the forum anyway we please. None of us have to agree with each other at all, just not berate the poster personally!

I am having a bad day and used the thread excuse to post about it.....

I'm not letting you get away with that, agree I'm not as high as you are but my horizon is at last 10kms away and yes I can see a small band of something on the horizon, but too compare it to the Uk, you wouldn't even comment on it their because it would be considered a perfectly clear day. But because the air is so much clearer here generally a slight imperfection is talked up, out of all proportion to reality.
Far as I'm concered smog is where you have trouble driving because you cannot see 50m or less ahead which happens regularly in the UK.

Its not smog anyway, Brisbane gets very little smog. Todays is smoke from the bushfires that have been around & probably some dust, normally when we have hazy days where its not really clear its just a heat haze.

The smoggiest bit and easiest to see is looking South over whatever that mountain range is, looking North by time you get to the Gateway Bridge you can barely see anything. I think this gets caused by low wind, high heat, mountain ranges preventing air movement, build up of Ozone trapping low lying pollution.

Hear, hear!

That's one of the basic rules of the net, but unfortunately some people (and I'm not pointing fingers, don't even have any names in mind) like to use the anonimity of the net to behave in ways they wouldn't if they were face to face with the recipient.

I remember a fog late one night I could not see 50 m in front of me but never a smog this bad in the UK - when and where did this happen regularly please? I lived in Reading and this was counted one of the worse areas because of the Thames Valley and collection of crap in the air. But I never drove regularly through smog of less than 50 m visibility!

http://www.ea.gov.au/soe/2001/atmosp...duction-9.html

A government webside discussing the formation of smog in Australian cities. There is an interesting quote about the percentage of time Australians spend indoors ' 90-96% of the time ' I wonder where the government get their figures?

Well poor little Ceri. This is actually quite symptomatic of your whingeing nature. Rather than come up with an interesting thread yourself, you sit on your backside waiting for someone to 'bring' something interesting for you to debate/talk about.

I myself, like a good debate, not being particularly interested in most of the 'ladies coffee morning chit-chat' that goes on a lot of the time here.
But I get fed up talking about Aus all the time. Stray onto other subjects here and the 'only talk about Aus brigade', along with the newbies are up in arms.

Seems more like synchronised PMT to me.

Now that's funny. lol

Just to throw in my 5 eggs and give you all someone else to rant at.... when my Bloke arrived in the UK from Brisbane 2 months ago, his very first comment was "why is the air so dirty and polluted, I can hardly breathe". He had severe breathing problems and a horrendous cough for the first few days till he started getting used to it - better once we went up to Somerset but he said Brighton was dreadful, he could taste the dirt in the air.
Now he is back in Brissie he says he will never moan about air quality there again.

Pollyna, funny you should mention that, when Dagboy lived in England (near Hook), he always had this really hacking cough. No, he has never smoked, had no breathing problems like asthma & used to run alot of half marathons etc so it wasnt from being unfit LOL. I used to notice it alot when I was on the phone to him. Not sure if he even used to realise that he was doing it, but it was pretty bad. That was for well over a year. Now that hes living here, he never has the problem, only time he coughs is if he has a cold. I have always thought it was just the crappy wet weather but now I wonder if its the same reason as the bloke had problems ie the smog?

Yes nothing quite like going out on a warm day to actually taste the smog - which I did a week ago here in Oxon.

Warm weather makes it worse - amazing how you get used to it though. Still nothing compared to New Delhi - now there you really do literally choke on it.

Coudl easily be the air that was getting to Dagboy. I notice it when I go over to Oz - less sniffles, less days when I am verging on getting wheezy (makes me sound like an old crock doesn't it!) Also my eczema is far far better when I'm in Oz - at first I put it down to just being more relaxed when I'm over there, but I guess the ollution has a lot to do with it as well.