From:	Robert Watkins <robert.watkins@******.COM>
Subject:	Re: pollution
Date:	Fri, 15 May 1998 15:44:24 +1000

Stephen Delear writes:
>Due to fires in Mexico the air quality this week in Austin is the worst its
>been in 30 years (if your stuck down in San Antonio I feel for you).
>Anyway taking a deep breath outside in 205X seattle is discribed as causing
>burning lungs and watery eyes. At least with smoke (I'm not sure about
>auto exhasut) by the time this point is reached the pollution is thick
>enough that a clear day looks like deep clouds and visibility is impared on
>the ground (all of austin looks sort of like the smoke you encounter a
>couple blocks away from a big building fire). Basically I was thinking
>that the visibility impact of pollution in shadowrun is greatly
understated.


I think you're probably right... during the Indonesian fires earlier this
year, there were several days when the smoke was blown towards the
Australian coast, and my mum (who still lives in Darwin) called me one day
during the peak. Apparently, she couldn't see from the park just across the
road (no more than about 15 meters away). It closed the airport (even for
ILS flights!), and brought traffic to a standstill (in a city where rush
hour consists of cars moving at 60 km/hour, instead of 80!). This lasted
about 3 days, then started clearing, and towards the end the hospital was
flooded with people with respiratory problems.

The smoke was visible on satellite weather pics.

--
.sig deleted to conserve electrons. robert.watkins@******.com