I am wondering if I now have permanent heart damage, no joke. My heart was perfectly healthy until recently. I am hoping it will return to its healthy state as soon as this killer Salt Lake City/County air clears up.
UPDATE: See addition at the end of this diary to learn what my Doctor's response was when I called for an appointment. My doctor is nuts!
I got what I thought was the flu and wrote this diary on January 1st which coincided with reports of air quality warnings. I had spent a few hours outside the day before.
Wondering what was what, research led to the discovery of our business-friendly Governor Herbert's Energy Summit, which I reported here:
UPDATE RALLY ON! Is Utah's Air Quality Doomed to Remain Toxic Forever? It May be killing you now!
Ironically, I was too weak to attend the rally and my SLC Kossack Meetup. It was more than depressing that only about 100 concerned Utah citizens attended the Rally. Maybe they didn't or couldn't risk exposure to our toxic air either. More irony!
In restropect, I believe I was/am one of the members of the demographic deemed most vulnerable to Salt Lake City's poisonous air: The elderly! From MSNBC
It all started with sore ears and throat. I immediatey went into garlic and chicken broth mode, etc. I didn't have a fever, although it took about 3 weeks for one ear to stop being sore. I don't think it was the flu in retrospect. I'm pretty convinced the foul air, that has not retreated for weeks, is the culprit. My two year old grandchild hasn't had any illness until this time, either. It took three weeks for her to recover, and only after a respite from the toxic air.
I can honestly say I have never experienced this degree of weakness in my life. It has also left me feeling depressed, also new, so I apologize for sounding negative. .
At the suggestion of my doctor in response to the oppressive weakness, I have closely monitored my blood pressure to see if that might explain it. I found that my blood pressure fluctuates hugely, but definitely spikes if I go outside to the 190's over 110s. It drops to normal after staying inside for a couple of hours. Of course, I avoid going outside and the weakness helps override cabin fever. As I write (9:45), my BP is 184 over 110 even though I have remained indoors and the air is cleaner today. Yesterday, it was 134 over 80. Upon waking, my BP is normal. What the heck!
Today is the first day in weeks I have felt energetic enough to sit up and use my desktop instead of lounging with my iPad.
And much to my dismay for myself, babies, kids with asthma, and fellow elders, business friendly Utah is about to make matters much, much worse in pursuit of the $$ to be made extracting thousands of new fracking wells and tar sands. <== Read this link for the gruesome details of what this will mean.
In the article, it praises "business friendly" Utah:
Despite these challenges, industry analyst and financial writer Bret Jensen, based in Miami, said , "I still like Newfield. They are moving more to oil and liquid production, and Utah is an extremely friendly business state. There’s always been mining and [agriculture], and now throw in oil in a state that’s conducive to furthering those businesses, that’s a huge plus."
There are five oil refineries listed on Wikipedia befouling our air, although it looks like there might be others as seen on Google Earth. There may be more than five refineries. I have tagged a couple of unmentioned locations as "Looks like a refinery" on this Google Earth snapshop. Note the proximity to Salt Lake City and other densely populated areas:
See page 4 for map of bitumen refineries in the US. These are the Salt Lake bitumen refineries found on the map.
Bitumen explodes. Refineries explode. Bitumen refineries are high risk for explosions. Explosions cause even higher toxic releases, putting people at greater health risks. Utah's refineries explode all the time!
Utah's Unstable Oil Refineries
In the past 10 years, Utah’s five refineries themselves have reported fires, explosions, chemical releases and spills, both large and small, on average once every nine days
AND THE REFINERIES ARE GOING TO EXPAND!!!
All five of Salt Lake's oil refineries are expanding and are already refining bitumen. The expansions of production to these refineries will help process the bitumen from Utah's new tar sands production.
35,000 acres of tar sands, in addition to the thousands of wells mentioned in the article above are about to be developed. Tar sands produce Bitumen which has the consistency of peanut butter and can't be piped without lots of chemical additives.
How can anyone believe that the Utah Government cares about our health? Our property values? Our babies, toddlers, and children (most of whom have to walk to and from school)?
Look at the housing development built adjacent to the exploding Holly Refinery:
So, I think the refineries pollution is affecting my heart.
BUT MAYBE IT IS THE GINORMOUS COPPER MINE just a tad southwest of my home.
But maybe it's the giant Rio Tinto Copper mine that is causing me health problems. I live closer to this than the refineries. It's huge, my town water now comes from 150 year old mine sludge that Rio Tinto, the new mine owner, puts through their reverse osmosis system and sells to us. I don't drink or even cook with this water. Our arsenic levels and the long list of other contaminents are below EPA standards, or so we are told.
Here's where Rio Tinto Copper mine is situated west of Salt Lake Valley. This Google Earth pic shows the size of this mine is 6 miles x 3.59 miles or 18 square miles! The mine is 150 years old and still going strong. At night you can see giant flood lights on top of the pit, which makes me wonder if they are digging 24/7. I wouldn't be surprised:
(2010) environmental groups accused Kennecott Utah Copper LLC of violating production limits designed to prevent dust and other particle pollution at the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, the world's largest open-pit copper mine (Greenwire, Dec. 20, 2011).
The debate, proposed rule and litigation showcase the increased focus on mining pollution affecting the air and not just water and soil.
You can read about this state-sanctioned environmental pariah here: The danger down below: Cancer cluster raises questions about legacy of toxic waste in Utah soil
You see, in Utah it looks like EPA doesn't work very well. Huge housing developments have since been built on the contaminated mining soils on the west side of Salt Lake Valley. The mining company owns the land and business-friendly Utah lets them build thousands of new homes over the past decade. The housing boom seems to have re-ignited as hundreds of new homes are AGAIN being built.
OR MAYBE IT'S THE GIANT SAND PITS IN THE MIDDLE OF DENSELY POPULATED South Salt Lake County, pictured here.
This is the craziest project I have ever seen. Practically all of Utah is made of sand, but these people choose to excavate in the middle of the population. And the State/County/Towns let thousands of NEW homes be built adjacent to this behemoth sand pit! This was a tiny operation a decade ago, but has simply boomed with no end in sight.
NONE of this was revealed on the paperwork I signed when I bought a home here. I know, some of you must think I am stupid and perhaps I am. I chaulk up my lack of due diligence to my generation who believed the EPA was protecting us. I don't believe that anymore.
I have completely lost faith in Utah Government which has been gerrymandered into a permanent GOP controlled rule. The pollution will only get worse.
There are huge plans for more housing to be built by Rio Tinto that will double the population of the Salt Lake County. This will increase the pollution from cars, etc.
Only 100 people showed up to protest at the Governor's energy summit!
Greed rules.
Maybe I just have a broken heart.
Thank you to my dkos friends that reached out to see how I have been faring, especially middleagedhousewife. {{{ Hugs }}} You have no idea how much your caring outreach lifted my spirits.
HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF PARTICULATE AIR POLLUTION
For more details about the disgusting environmental state of Utah, go here for info and links.
I know
Mining Jobs
Oil refinery jobs
Tar sands jobs
Sand Pit jobs
And all those polluting trucking jobs hauling the pollutants around the state
Jobs
Hell, we will job ourselves into early graves with all this damn pollution!
I'm banking on it! Literally. I won't spend a dime to save this bag of dust. I'd rather leave what little I have to help my kids survive our Brave New World.
Off to read and rest.
Thank you for dropping in.
THE DOCTORS RESPONSE TO MY REQUEST FOR AN APPOINTMENT
OMGosh. You won't believe this.
My Doctor is nuts.
I haven't seen him for two years and only then because a heavy, tall wooden stool crashed onto my foot. I wanted to make sure it wasn't broken. I had to see him first, get a referral to the hospital to avoid the $1,500 fee I was quoted by the hospital if I came in for an x-ray without a Dr. referral.
I left a long message detailing the BP readings, ending with a request for an appointment.
The Docs nurse called me back. I was given a prescription OVER THE PHONE, without being seen by the Doc, for Lisinopril, 20 mgs, qty 30 pill and told to take it for three weeks and THEN come in for an appointment. I called the pharmacy and there were no special instructions. The cost is only $4.00. Lisinopril is a cheap, dangerous drug.
I asked if the month of air pollution could be a root cause of this seemingly random high blood pressure event and she said emphatically NO.
Well, I don't just obediently take meds. I have been fortunate to not need meds. I worked for a holistic hospital a few decades ago for a couple of years and learned a lot about health and nutrition. So I always research meds first on the rare occasions I might need one.
I found that Lisinopril is a dangerous drug.
And, get this. I reminded the nurse that I had taken Atenolol years ago, for a couple of years, with no side effects and then requested that the prescription be for the lowest dose of Atenolol.
The Doc had told the nurse NO to Atenolol.
I won't be taking the Lisinopril, and certainly not the high dose the Doc prescribed WITHOUT seeing me!
So, then I called the local health food store to see if they had Bonito Peptide Complex which has received rave reviews for lowering blood pressure.
I talked with generous, kind Allison who was very well-informed. Her first question was "What foods have you been craving?" I told her beets, kale, beans, and dulce. She said that made perfect sense. Beets to cleanse the toxins, kale & beans for dietary calcium, and dulce for my thyroid. She suggested I increase my non-dairy, dietary calcium.
I am upping my dietary calcium intake.
Hello kale, spinach, spirilina, beans, etc. and more garlic. As luck would have it, I have some of my frozen kale, garlic, garbanzo soup which I am defrosting as we speak.
What is true is that I haven't been eating properly because of feeling so weak.
Moral of the story: When the strong feel weak, I strongly suggest eating properly regardless of how you feel.
I will report back in a few days.
I hope this isn't TMI.
I was advised by a Health Consultant at Good Earth store to increase food based calcium.