Living along the Wasatch Front, we face air quality challenges, especially during wintertime inversions that trap harmful pollution in the valleys between our mountains. Great amounts of very small particles in the air — known as PM 2.5 — are easily inhaled, and pose significant threats to human health. Even one day with poor outdoor air quality can cause harm. University of Utah studies document the link between bad air and increases in the number of ER visits, cases of heart attacks, pulmonary distress, asthma, pneumonia and other severe respiratory illnesses, and even deaths.
While some of the PM 2.5 in the Salt Lake City air is natural mineral dust and liquid, other components include smoke, as well as metals that fallout from fireworks detonated by people during celebrations. A 2024 Brigham Young University study published in Applied Geochemistry described how fireworks add high levels of barium and copper to our air. Let’s think about why we as individuals should explode fireworks on New Year’s Eve. Fireworks only add more metals to an inversion smog that typically contains arsenic, lead, cadmium and thallium.
Our collective individual choices affect air quality and our safety, and we can all work better together to spare the air in 2026.
Kathleen Nicoll, Salt Lake City
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