New Year's smoke yields to wind

Monitoring stations reported the worst fireworks pollution was in Pearl City

Air pollution spiked after midnight Sunday as island residents ushered in the New Year with fireworks, but the state Department of Health said readings fell within state and federal air quality standards.

Clean Air Branch Manager Wilfred Nagamine credited tradewinds with dispersing pollutants and giving some relief to those who suffer from breathing difficulties.

Pearl City recorded the worst pollution from fireworks between 10 p.m. Sunday and 1 a.m. Monday, according to a Health Department release.

Air quality levels are tracked at monitoring stations in downtown Honolulu, Liliha, on 4th Street in Pearl City, Kapolei Business Park and in Kihei, Maui. The Clean Air Branch and state Laboratories Division sampled the air hourly for particulate matter of 10 microns or less. Nagamine described 10 microns as the size of talcum powder particles.

State and federal air quality standards call for not more than 150 micrograms of particulate matter that size per cubic meter of air during a 24-hour period.

The highest hourly reading at Pearl City was 954 micrograms at 1 a.m. Monday. But the 24-hour average for Monday was 57. Last year, the high reading at Pearl City was 1,521 micrograms at 1 a.m., and the 24-hour average for Jan. 1 was 195 micrograms per cubic meter.

The Kapolei readings -- peaking with 752 micrograms at 1 a.m. -- were higher than last year, and that might be attributed to a lack of wind in the area in the early morning hours, officials said.

Last April, the American Lung Association rated Honolulu the third-cleanest city in the nation for long-term air pollution, one of only 34 major cities with no smog or ozone pollution in unhealthy ranges. But the association gave Honolulu a D grade for the 24-hour particle pollution on New Year's Eve.