The Era Banner October 24, 2004 Newmarket air quality worse than Toronto Town had 48 days of unsatisfactory air quality this year, ministry says By comparison, Toronto had 39 days; Hamilton 44. Ministry spokesperson: “While most people believe there is a clear correlation between big cities and smog, that isn’t necessarily correct. We’re seeing more localized effects. To say smog is coming up (to York Region) from Toronto isn’t correct. There’s a lot of people driving from Newmarket to Toronto. Smog is not necessarily related to industrial towns.” Also attributed to the spokesperson: Much of the problem is from warm air filtering its way from the southern United States and passing over about 200 coal-fired energy plants before settling throughout the province. Greg Evans (UofT): “Toronto is not the sole culprit but they certainly play a role. … As you go further upwind the concentration of ozone increases.”

¤R¤Reporting inaccuracies ¤I¤Inadequate communication ¤P¤Poor understanding of “smog”, i.e. what is smog?

An intensive study of the size and composition of submicron ambient aerosols at a rural site in Ontario, Canada Maheswar Rupakheti 1, W. Richard Leaitch 2, Ulrike Lohmann 1, Katherine Hayden 2, Peter Brickell 2, Gang Lu 2, Shao-Meng Li 2, Desiree Toom-Sauntry 2, Jan W. Bottenheim 2, Jeffrey R. Brook 2, Bob Vet 2, Dave MacTavish 2, John T. Jayne 3 and Douglas R. Worsnop 3 1 Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada 2 Meteorological Service of Canada, Toronto, ON, Canada 3 Aerodyne Research Incorporated, Billerica, MA 01821, USA for submission to AS&T

(1)April 1-3; (2)April 11-12; (3)April 15-16

Measurements from the U of T Chemical Engineering Building August 21 to September 25, 2003 Richard Leaitch, Gang Lu, Desiree Toom-Sauntry, Katherine Hayden, Shao-Meng Li,, Jeffrey R. Brook (MSC) Mahes Rupakheti and Ulrike Lohmann (Dalhousie U) Greg Evans et al. (UofT)

Aug 21,

Sept

Summary Rural - Egbert –dominance of nitrate events that occur primarily during the dark hours; sulphate peaks in afternoon; oxygenated organics in the afternoon –some smaller sulphate peaks related to trajectories from Sudbury region –nucleation frequently observed - not shown here Urban - U of T –strong sulphate signature during regional event early in study –otherwise, organics dominate the aerosol –no immediately obvious tendency for organic concentations to peak during day or night; will be looking more at this. –lots of small primary carbonaceous particles Contrasting rural and urban –major difference is the much higher level of secondary processing evident in the Egbert aerosol, especially the inorganic aerosol but also in the organic –although more organic mass in smaller sizes at U of T, smaller organics occasionally at Egbert

Aug