Fourth graders gather to learn about air quality with Janelle Jarvis, a member of the Mayor’s sustainability committee who works closely with the Breathe Utah Workshops. Here, the students get to apply their science core standard in weather, along with learn healthy tips to keep pollution down.

Jarvis explained the pm 2.5 particle, known as smidge, is an air pollutant that is so small it can get into one’s lungs and cause both asthma and lung irritation during the winter months. The ozone is a problem in the summertime, when the ozone layer is destroyed by gas guzzling machines it gets farther down to where we live, causing our lungs to burn.

Cars produce more than 50 percent of our pollution. So, students came up with ideas to contribute to cleaner air which included avoid idling, walk, bike, or take the bus to school, carpool, turn down the heat and create less fires. They were introduced to the air.utah.gov website in order to identify what the air quality is for the day. Green represents good, yellow is some, orange is bad, red is severe, and purple is very unhealthy.

Breathe Utah Workshops are inviting all parents and teachers to participate to see how they can be part of the solution to solving Utah’s air quality issues. Eleven teachers from Canyon Crest have contributed so far, with hopefully more participating as time goes on. and only hope for more