Vernon under another dust advisory

The province said vehicles “stirring up winter traction materials” on Vernon roads is the main culprit in triggering another dust advisory for the city.

Officials put out a dust advisory for Vernon on Monday morning because the amount of coarse particulate matter in the air “exceeds the provincial air quality objective.”

The province said the dust can be especially problematic for babies, seniors and people living with diabetes, lung disease and heart disease.

Officials say if you have a pre-existing medical condition, don’t take on “strenuous exercise” during the dust advisory.

Vernon is no stranger to dust advisories, data from the provincial environment ministry shows. Last March the city was under dust advisories for 16 days.

One factor that may be influencing the frequent high coarse particulate matter readings in Vernon might be the location of the air quality monitoring station, which is behind the Okanagan Science Centre on Highway 6.

Graham Veale, who does air quality work for the provincial environment ministry, notes that the monitoring equipment isn’t right by the highway.

“However, it is located between some busy routes so there’s certainly a lot of traffic impacting on the road traction material,” Veale wrote in an email to Global News.

“The highway traffic routes extend throughout Vernon, especially in the centre of town so I think the station readings are representative of the air quality that a lot of the residents of Vernon are exposed to.”

Veale also said the north Okanagan city is “located in a much more confined airshed than, for example, Kelowna, and is therefore more prone to pollutant concentration building up.”

The province expects the dust to hang around Vernon until the weather changes.