Thousand invisible particles of photochemical smog started invading tentatively my study through the half open window. Millions of sneaky particles flew in the ether and dragged in the spacious room. They make themselves comfortable of the floor, the couch and the chairs, anything movable and immovable, my office desk. I didn’t notice them at the beginning. I was writing a story when I felt a pinch inside my throat, a tiny slight burning. I hemmed once. I hemmed twice. The invisible dumpling in my throat grew bigger and I ended up hemming every 3 minutes. No glass of iced water could make my sore throat soft, or the dumpling go away. I turned on the fan (I don’t use A/C for environmental reasons) and kept on writing and hemming in 3-minute intervals.
Then my nose woke up, scenting something resembling to burnt rubber with a light fragrance a hot iron produces if you forget it on acrylic pants because the telephone rang.
When it smells and tastes like Smog… then it is one.
Smog-gy Athens
I am quite sensitive to the issue because of my allergies and have hypersensitive noes, throat and lungs. They go on alert and react immediately to dust and pollens, heavy perfumes and environmental pollution. No, this time I didn’t feel the ‘stone’ on my chest. This time the main attack targeted my throat.
I live in a suburb of Athens, which is in fact a city with 4 million inhabitants. A city with a growing number of concrete buildings and cars and a decreasing number of green areas and parks. As Athens has not any industry worth to mention nor using any coal power plants all the brown fog I see from my window on hot days is derived from vehicular emissions. To say it simple… In Athens the Smog pollution comes from cars!
Photochemical smog develops when sunlight hits various pollutants in the air and forms a mix of inimical chemicals that can be very dangerous. A photochemical smog is the chemical reaction of sunlight, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere, which leaves airborne particles and ground level ozone.
I read further that nitrogen oxides are released by nitrogen and oxygen in the air reacting together under high temperature such as in the exhaust of fossil fuel engine ins and that VOCs-chemicals are released from man-made sources such as gasoline, paints, solvents, pesticides and even biogenic sources, such as pine and citrus tree emissions.
Smog-gas masks, USA, 1954
Smog is a common phenomenon in the sunny and surrounded by mountains Greek metropolis. The moment the weather thermometer show 35 degrees C (today it showed 37 C in the shadow) you know what to expect from the day.
I admit that it was worst 20 years ago when a real thick brown line would colour the sky above the mountains bank in Western of Athens. But yet. It is still an unpleasant experience for many Athenians who work downtown and return home at noon or early afternoon. The moment you get out of the office, the heat slaps your face from concrete buildings and asphalted streets, while cars and buses emissions suffocate you. It is the moment you think you die…
Try Akadimias Street on a hot day between 2 -4 p.m., if you do not believe me…
I am not an eco-freak, I am not even vegetarian. But since Greece has a Ministry for the Environment I expect some extra measures on these special Smog days. If you are lucky, you get some fetch of an information that ‘sensitive’ groups of people (elderly, allergic, children etc) should stay home. If you are unlucky you get informed that emissions reached dangerous levels… yesterday!
