Clean air ‘factoids’ pave way

Always on the lookout for additions to the your-tax-dollars-at-work file, the Eye has landed on this new entry: The Indoor Clean Air Note Pad.

Designed by the Fort Collins Natural Resources Department to “provide area renters with important information about indoor air quality,” the message pads were distributed to property managers and real estate companies.

And what’s inside? Factoids!

The pad-user learns, among other things:

* Most people spend about 90 percent of their time indoors, where pollution levels are two to five times higher than outdoors;

* Frequent sweeping and vacuuming will help “cut back on animal hair and dust mites;”

* Combustion sources of indoor pollution include “furnaces, stoves and tobacco products;”

According to an accompanying letter from Sarah Fox, an “air quality planning and outreach specialist” with the city, the message pads are part of “an aggressive educational campaign that would alleviate our need to facilitate additional discussions about indoor air quality regulations.”

The Eye, generally, is in favor of anything that alleviates facilitation needs. And, by golly, the more aggressive the better.

“Our first approach with any air quality issue,” Fox’s letter continues, “is to provide adequate educational resources before working towards the development of new regulations.”

Now, are city bureaucrats tipping their hand?

When Fort Collins gets around to an ordinance that targets dust mites and animal hair, remember that the Eye gave you your first hint.

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