Columnist Susan Snyder: In a haze over our dusty air

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2003 | 8:22 a.m.

I love morning.

A 16-pound cat stands on my head and demands breakfast. Birdies congregate around the backyard feeder, singing their heads off as they drop sunflower seeds on the lawn of the neighbor next door -- the one whose dog howls all night. (We love the birdies.)

The sun creeps up from behind Sunrise Mountain and casts its light on the familiar cloud that settles across the valley like a brown blanket.

Our air. Suck it in. Hack it out.

A fair number of residents likely fall into the 7.2 percent of Nevadans who, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suffer from asthma.

Asthma cases have been increasing nationally since 1980, the agency's figures show. In 2000 asthma accounted for 4,487 deaths, 465,000 hospitalizations, 1.8 million emergency-room visits and 10.4 million doctor's office visits, the agency reports.

As merrily we wheeze along, Greg Kahn hopes we hang in long enough to cough up $24.95 on the Breathe smog mask he has developed.

Kahn, of Toronto, had a simple, spooky display tucked away at the rear of the Sands Convention Center exposition hall. His were among some of of the weirder items being hawked at the annual Interbike trade show, which attracts some 15,000 people from across the globe to see what's new in the bicycle industry.

Kahn's display consisted of a few of his rubbery neoprene gas masks and a brochure that showed pictures of mask-wearing bicycle riders and runners against a backdrop of smoggy, hazy skylines.

You know, like ours.

The masks come in two sizes and four colors. Each disposable filter lasts four to six weeks, depending on how dirty the air and how often the mask is used.

They're big sellers back East and in Los Angeles, Kahn said Sunday. And after a couple of days in our city, he figured it wouldn't be too long before Las Vegans would be sucked into the fad.

"I'm getting some interest here," Kahn said.

Still, our air -- despite its visibility -- isn't as bad as the air in some cities. A study released in August by the Surface Transportation Policy Project said Las Vegas didn't even rate in the 50 worst cities.

That could be a first.

We were 60th, according to an Aug. 20 Las Vegas Sun report. And experts say our asthma rates are rising as our levels of ozone and dust increase.

Locally, more than 13 percent of adults have been diagnosed with asthma, which makes us 17th worst in terms of that affliction.

And remember those CDC figures? They say Nevada's rate of asthma is the nation's worst.

Makes for an airtight marketing campaign.

"We had a couple of forklift operators here ask for them," Kahn said of his masks. "They said (the air) had gotten a lot worse here in the past couple of years."

Likely the closest place completely free of air pollution (and oxygen) is the moon. Luckily, a man up in Gardnerville has been selling lunar property since 1980. About 2 million people bought acreage from this guy. He recently sold his business to an Australian businessman. (The drive-bys must be hellish.)

Amazing. We'll wear gas masks to walk the dog and buy property on the moon before we'll clean up our air.