II am a Ph.D. chemist, 40 years of industry experience, with a background in emissions controls from motor vehicles, lawn and garden equipment and industrial sources, as well as the propane and natural gas business.
City Council members Ald. William Hall (6th) and Ald. Timmy Knudsen (43rd) are right to point out the blatant mismanagement of Peoples Gas transmission pipe replacement, but presumably this is also a failure of the state regulatory bodies.
They are wrong to point at cooking with natural gas or propane as a major source of benzene, and claiming this as a reason to discontinue the use of these fuels in homes. Methane, the “gas” in “natural gas,” is 87 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. This is the real problem of natural gas, and why the pipeline replacement program needs to be performed far more speedily: We can’t allow natural gas to leak into the air.
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Benzene is a bad actor, but we are more likely to be exposed to high concentrations every time we fill our car’s gas tank. The EPA estimates that benzene from gasoline emissions is over 8,000 times the benzene emissions in homes. The paper the alderpersons cite, if read closely, mixes up short-term exposure risks and long-term exposure limits. These are critical differences, and we can’t allow them to go unchallenged.
An idling car or truck in the street, where the catalytic converter has cooled off, probably emits more benzene than your average bacon and eggs meal tested by the researchers.
If these two City Council members want to do real good on emissions, they should copy Evanston’s ban on gasoline-powered leaf blowers and trimmers and lawnmowers. Battery-powered leaf blowers etc., are cheap, quiet, and have zero air emissions compared with even the best gas-powered models.
Simon Doughty, Ph.D., Lincoln Park
Tent camps are too close to traffic
There is an increasing number of tents along DuSable Lake Shore Drive and some at Inner Lake Shore Drive (at Irving Park). They are extremely close to traffic lanes. If there is a rollover accident, there are going to be some major injuries and possible fatalities. Why doesn’t the city address this now before there is a horrible conclusion?
John Maloney, Edgewater
Lock up Trump
A gag order is not enough to curb Donald Trump’s violent rhetoric. He must be incarcerated like any other defendant who threatens judges, witnesses and anyone else who is part of the justice system that is holding him accountable. Trump has already been treated better than any other citizen would have been. Lock him up.
Michael Shepherd, Bellwood
