Salt Lake City Utah Asphyxiating in Toxic Smog

Doctors say the microscopic soot - a shower of combustion particles from tailpipe and other emissions - can tax the lungs of even healthy people. "We're in a public-health emergency for much of the winter," said Dr. Brian Moench, a 62-year-old anesthesiologist and president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, which delivered the petition demanding action at the Utah Capitol. A group of Utah doctors is declaring a health emergency over the Salt Lake City area's lingering air pollution problem.

Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment planned to deliver a petition Wednesday demanding immediate action by elected officials. The group wants Gov. Gary Herbert and mayors of northern Utah cities to cut the pollution. The problem hits home for Michelle Francis, who keeps one eye on Utah's air quality index and the other on her 9-year-old daughter's chronic asthma these days. The air pollution is so awful in her Salt Lake City suburb that Francis keeps her daughter indoors on many days to prevent her cough from being aggravated. "When you add all the gunk in the air, it's too much," Francis said.

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