Inversions can be an interesting weather phenomenon around Utah County in the wintertime, and can bring with them other strange phenomena, such as increased concentrations of pollution and increased health problems.
Inversions trap the cooler air on the ground, and can also trap pollution, causing the air to become stagnant, said Dr. Donald Morgan, professor of geography at BYU.
'The pollution gradually accumulates and becomes more concentrated,' he said.
The pollutant of most interest is one called fine particle pollutant, also known as PM 2.5, said Dr. C. Arden Pope, a professor in the Economics Department at BYU who is studying pollution.
Pope said that this type of pollutant comes from the burning of gasoline and diesel, and from factories like Geneva Steel. The PM 2.5 particles will eventually aggregate and settle out, and rainstorms can wash them out as well, Pope said.
Utah, Davis, Salt Lake and Weber counties have similar levels of pollution because of the high concentrations of automobiles and industries, Pope said.
In places like Los Angeles and Houston, most of the problems with pollution occur during the summer because of photochemistry, which is the reaction powered by the sun between gaseous pollutants, said Dr. Delbert J. Eatough, a professor in the Chemistry Department at BYU.
The compounds created by these reactions are the compounds that are found in acid rain and smog, Eatough said.
When there is a pollution problem, people might start to notice health problems, especially in the respiratory system, Pope said. Dr. Eatough and Dr. Pope are currently trying to figure out exactly what is going on chemically with the pollution that causes health problems.
'What we see is increased respiratory symptoms,' Pope said.
He said this includes increased coughing and phlegm problems, and that pollution can also exacerbate asthma.
Pope said there is an all-around decrease in lung functioning with pollution, which can increase the effects of diseases already present.
'We often refer to it as a cascade of effects,' Pope said, which means that there can be an increase of death in patients who already have lung and heart diseases.