TX Beachgoers Can Relax With New Hazardous Air Quality Warning System

[hatrack]

GALVESTON -- Starting Saturday, this island city becomes the first community in the nation to use an environmental alert flag system to warn beachgoers of hazardous air conditions. When the air quality becomes a health hazard, an orange flag will be flown from the city's 26 lifeguard stands and seven freestanding system stations from East Beach to 9 Mile Road.

The new flag warning program is the first in the nation to enlist lifeguard participation in any environmental public warning system, said Albert Chavarria, a coordinator of special programs for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center based at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

"There are environmental triggers that are serious concerns for asthmatics, for the elderly and for people with heart or lung disease," said Sharon Petronella, an environmental epidemiologist and a faculty member in UTMB's Pediatric Child Health Research Center. "Adding the orange flag to the warnings on the beach is a precautionary measure that we can take to protect precious and vulnerable populations."

Petronella, whose research focuses on childhood asthma, approached the Galveston County Sheriff's Office Beach Patrol to help implement this community based initiative.

EDIT

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3762346.html

[hobbit709]

1. In Galveston

I'd be much more worried about what's in the water than what's in the air considering that most of the time the wind is coming from off-shore instead of from Houston.

[darkmaestro019]

2. .....(shudder)

I did a sci-fi novel in which there were notifications on certain days that you couldn't go outside without a mask, and everyone carried one all the time in case such a warning came when you were already out. And some days on which it so dangerous you were required to stay inside. Wrote it ten years ago and was trying to be a wee bit hyperbolic at the time. Sheesh.



edit: clarity