crummy air and cheap lab tests

Today I learned that it feels like particulates well south of town, where I expected the air to be fine. Either the subdivision we visited has stagnant smoke, but in a lesser concentration than town, or there is something else going on in the world. Town smells like pollution, which by definition has particulates in it. I would be interested to know what it's like west of town, but I doubt I'll get over there now because while I feel ok in my house, I don't so much in the car.

In newspaper news, money has bisphenol A on it from all those thermal-paper receipts, and you can get lab tests for Medicare prices, which really are a pittance, if you pay first through a website.

In other pollution news, the forecaster for Phoenix said this:

Forecast Discussion: This mornings Sky Harbor Airport ACARS sounding data indicates that a strong (7-8 deg C) surface-based radiation inversion formed overnight that extends to 2700+. The calculated best mixing depth is near 4K and dispersion will be MARGINAL to FAIR. There were a host of high hourly PM-10 (coarse particle) and a few high PM-2.5 (fine particle) concentrations this a.m. and this continues the trend that began last week. The combination of no recent rainfall, a stagnant air mass, and accumulating PM emissions have contributed to this situation. The strong ridge aloft currently over AZ will weaken the next few days as weak disturbances move east thru the flow; a return to warming aloft will begin on Saturday as another even stronger ridge arrives from the Pacific. Since smoke from wood-burning fireplaces usually increases as the weekend approaches this time of year, a series of PM-2.5 Health Watches are possible beginning on Friday. -Reith

Call me lazy, but they don't archive this stuff, and I'm too tired to remember it.