There has been a lot on the news about air quality and smog. We can see the CN Tower from our living room and during the day it has just about been visible through a haze......I assume this is smog?

Can you tell when you are in the smog? I was on the waterfront on Monday, near Cherry Beach and I didn't notice anything smog like, although when you looked towards the tower you could see the haze?

Thanks

Mark

I find the air feels powdery in my mouth and nose. I haven't smoked for a couple of years but, if I bicycle on hot summer days I spit up lumps afterwards so I know it's been smoggy. One way to get the smog out of your lungs is to go for a swim in the lake, but avoid any of the beaches with e-coli warnings and don't go near the sewage outlet.

Thanks for the reply, Do many people swim in the lake? Where is the sewage outlet?

Photchemical smog is the mix of products from sunlight-driven reactions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC), both of which are emitted from fossil fuel combustion and a variety of other industrial and some natural processes. Some of the products, eg ozone (O3) are gases and some form little solid and liquid particles in the air. The haze you see is basically the particles. All of the above are bad for you when you breathe them in.

Some people can smell the foul air and some people have short breath etc. Rule of thumb, on bad air days, stay indoors if you are sensitive and restrict excercise, especially betweem about 1 pm and 5 pm when the ozone levels are usually highest.

BTW, if you think Toronto has bad air, you should visit LA sometime. Still, SW Ontario and the GTA have the worst air in Canada. More than half of the pollution comes over the border from Ohio, Penn and West Virgina.

The outlet is at Ashbridge's Bay. Lots of people swim there, some of them around the outlet marker buoy!

lol...nice!! I'll avoid that then.

What about the sharks or crocodiles in the lake!

Theres Alligators in the sewer!!!

I don't think there are sharks but there's the famous Pickering Pickeral; a three headed carnivorous fish that spawns near the nuclear power plant.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Dangerous territory there!!!!

Do you mind this was my only serious thread!!!