The first rule of the Art Of Surviving Cleveland is PROTECT YOUR DNA!

As reported on realNEO: "what we have learned after sampling and genetically profiling many gull families is that colonies close to integrated steel mills transmit DNA mutations to their offspring more frequently than those at rural sites. In addition, the closer the colony to steel mills, the higher the mutation rate".  Further, "Our genetic analyses of environmentally exposed mice revealed that offspring from the steel site inherited nearly double the frequency of DNA mutations compared to their rural counterparts. Clearly, air pollution near integrated steel mills can induce genetic damage. At this time we cannot identify the class of chemical pollutant responsible, but suggest that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, by-products of coal combustion, are a likely candidate."

In other words, and further: if you want to live a long, healthy, normal life and perhaps have offspring... DON'T live, work, eat, visit or play near a steel mill or any coal-burning facility... DON'T DO THIS:

Cleveland jogger exposing himself to heavy exertion at mid-day, with high heat and humidity and stagnant wind conditions
in the stagnant Cuyahoga River industrial valley, with heavy diesel truck traffic, passing by steel mills and other poison

As the poor visibility in this picture confirms, this was a highly polluted situation that caused humans harm - this man's future children may have a jog on July 14, 2010, 1:10 PM, to thank for any genetic problems in the future, as that is one time when daddy mutated some genes for sure, changing the course of history for all who follow in his genepool.

If you prefer not to be or raise an X-Man: to prevent such mutation exposure, AVOID ever going within miles of anything that looks even remotely like this river valley below... the scenic attraction that seems to have attracted this jogger into HELL is guaranteed to kill:

There is urban legend going around Cleveland that the pollution has gotten better than in "the old days". The fact is if you live near Mittal the pollution is as bad now as in the worst old days, when our river burned - Cleveland has not evolved beyond the 1970s regarding pollution, and that is reflected in the failure of our schools, economy and citizens. 

On a clear day you can see downtown Cleveland clearly from this visibility monitoring point in the Eastern Heights.
On July 14, 2010, around 2 PM, visibility was clearly poor, although NOACA reported generally good air quality, erroneously

According to Air Quality Advisory for Northeast Ohio - Thursday, July 15, 2010 - Ozone - today is an Ozone action day and "so far this year, NE Ohio has experienced ozone exceedances of the USEPA health-based standard on April 15, May 27, June 18, and July 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 15.  Hot summer, folks!"

But then NOACA monitoring is always wrong and even features a "DISCLAIMER" to that effect:

DISCLAIMER: THE DATA PRESENTED ARE RAW. THEY HAVE NOT BEEN QUALITY-ASSURED BY THE OHIO EPA AND MAY CONTAIN INACCURACIES.

My observation is the NOACA data doesn't tell half the story, as the air pollutions monitors used by NOACA to monitor our air quality are so often broken or unreliable as to leave the citizens of the region helpless to the harm of pollution, and I believe that is an intentional deception of the most evil order.

From realNEO, June 3, 2010 - "un-Sustainable Cleveland 2019, Meet realHOE 2010 - Hell On Earth in unReal NEO, Compliments of OUR Leadership!"

Air quality monitoring, notification and remediation in Northeast Ohio is poor if not criminal. We have far inadequate levels of monitoring and it is claimed some equipment in the region has a history of faulty operations. Currently, readings from some of the monitoring stations in Cleveland have shown extremely high, unhealthy readings and frequently the reading data seems to change in later air quality monitoring reports - different reporting systems report different results at different times - no results are real time and all seem subject to human intervention - all NOACA results seem to route through the coal burning Ohio University Voinovich School,  which claims on it's website "The Voinovich School, through the Appalachian Watershed Research Group, the Consortium for Energy, Economics and the Environment (CE3), the Center for Air Quality, and the Environmental Studies program, has established itself as a leader in bringing people together to solve energy and environmental problems."

Ain't working, George! Back to school, OU.

So far reported today, it appears, citizens of Northeast Ohio and surrounding regions (states, the world) have been exposed to levels of Particulate Matter PM2.5 over 152 ug per cubic meter  - about 2.5X the 24 hour concentration of 65 ug per cubic meter, and 10X the Annual Arithmetic Mean of 15 ug per cubic meter, Primary and Secondary, which are acceptable by US EPA ambient air quality standards.

On Memorial Day, when there were few cars on the road, long before folks attempted their BBQ fires, the air was 2X worse than that - as bad as I've ever seen reported - as indicated below.... again, without any warning before or after the fact from the media, environmentalists, airNow or NOACA.... and with very inconsistent "real-time" and historical reporting, which I captured over the course of the day and following morning... what we learn about a real health crisis in NEO from NOACA, at the time of maximum pollution, discussed only on realNEO?!?!:

If all that doesn't make you turn your head around to really think about the pollution in YOUR environment and ours, perhaps you are running away from reality.