Soot

Members of Greenpeace stroll 12th Street outside the Reading Terminal yesterday to warn lunchtime pedestrians about the harmful effects of ozone. Greenpeace says if we don't do something soon, everyone will be wearing protective suits like these.

The man known by firefighters as "Vic the Torch" had a burned-out look after setting a Frankford Avenue department store on fire last year. Victor Venziale, 36, should have changed clothes after torching Molley's department store, near Church Street, said Assistant District Attorney Jodi Lobel yesterday. Lobel said that when Lt. Vincent Heeney, of the fire marshal's office, showed up to probe the two-alarm blaze in the early morning of Feb. 29, 1996, he spotted the smoke-reeking, soot-stained Venziale lurking in the area, and ordered a department photographer to take his picture.

EVER GO OUT on a clear day and smell something bad? Maybe bad enough to make you cough or wheeze? Blame it on fine particulate matter, commonly called soot. Even though you cannot see it, it is still big enough to be trapped in your lungs and tragically, Philadelphians die every year due to breathing in these tiny particles. Soot particles can trigger serious health problems, including asthma and heart attacks, stroke, early death and, as new research suggests, lung cancer.Indeed, little things can have big consequences.

When Elsie Boone woke up at 6:45 a.m. yesterday, her bedroom was "a mess. " A dark, oily powder covered her window sill and floor, and the clothes in her closet "were all black. " "I didn't see it coming down," she said, "but I saw it when it landed. " Boone, 88, of the 6700 block of Ridge Avenue, was among thousands of residents in Roxborough, Manayunk and as far away as West Mount Airy who found their homes, cars and other belongings coated with soot from a nearby manufacturing plant.

The first to warn of the trouble was an unidentified Roxborough dog. The dog returned home from an early morning stroll yesterday and tracked oily soot all over the carpet. The owner called the city about 5 a.m. And in the next few hours, other people and other pets confirmed that a large part of Roxborough was faced with the problem of cleaning up a fine, greasy black fallout. The city Health Department, which issued two air pollution citations to Container Corp. of America on Flat Rock Road in Manayunk, said a problem at the plant sent traces of the stuff as far away as Mount Airy.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed that allowable levels of soot in the nation's air be reduced to protect public health. Soot, one of the deadliest forms of air pollution, has fine particles that can travel deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. It has been blamed for tens of thousands of premature deaths in the United States every year. Environmental and health groups praised the decision, but some industry groups said it could stifle economic recovery.

Dear Polly: Do you have any tips for cleaning brown soot stains from glass fireplace doors? - Janet Dear Janet: My favorite cleaning method for glass fireplace doors is to spray them with a foaming bathroom tub-and-tile cleaner, then wipe clean with a paper towel. The cleaner really dissolves the brown sludge, no matter how baked on it is. You can just wipe most of it away with a paper towel. The soft abrasion of a plastic scrubber (non-scratching) is enough to remove more stubborn spots.

The Bush administration yesterday proposed tougher limits on the deadly soot pollution emitted by diesel trucks, buses and power plants, but the standards are weaker than recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's own advisory panel. In many parts of the country, the new standard will not require any new pollution controls beyond what is already planned, said officials at the EPA, which drafted the proposal. In Philadelphia, the sooty particles are estimated to cause hundreds of premature deaths a year, primarily to elderly people who already suffer from a cardiovascular condition.

RINGWOOD, N.J. - State officials are closing Ringwood Manor, the historic museum in the heart of Ringwood State Park in Passaic County, for the winter after a furnace misfired and left a layer of soot covering priceless artifacts. The Department of Environmental Protection said it would work with historical conservators to ensure thorough cleaning of the interior of the manor and its contents. The furnace misfired last month, pushing soot through parts of the first and second floors, according to the DEP. The museum was home to well-known ironmasters for nearly 200 years and is part of a National Historic Landmark District.

This is the fifth in our traditional year-end series of commissioned poems based on recent Inquirer headlines. The article headlined "13 states join to sue EPA to lower levels of soot" appeared Tuesday, Dec. 19, on Page A4. Today we are growing extinction like a marigold seed in a polystyrene cup: Roots reach down. 13 states stand up. Soot pollens froth from the tubes like a pre-cabled television screen; the fine coal points scramble weightless in the trees and lungs.

Question: I had granite countertops installed in the kitchen about five years ago by Riya Imports L.L.C. in Monroe Township, N.J. There is a hairline crack about 22 inches long in front of the sink. I tried reaching the installer, but it apparently is out of business. No help was available at either Home Depot or Lowe's, or at other granite suppliers. Is there anything you can suggest other than replacing it, which is too expensive? Answer: I tried calling Riya, and the number was no longer in service.

EVER GO OUT on a clear day and smell something bad? Maybe bad enough to make you cough or wheeze? Blame it on fine particulate matter, commonly called soot. Even though you cannot see it, it is still big enough to be trapped in your lungs and tragically, Philadelphians die every year due to breathing in these tiny particles. Soot particles can trigger serious health problems, including asthma and heart attacks, stroke, early death and, as new research suggests, lung cancer.Indeed, little things can have big consequences.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed that allowable levels of soot in the nation's air be reduced to protect public health. Soot, one of the deadliest forms of air pollution, has fine particles that can travel deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. It has been blamed for tens of thousands of premature deaths in the United States every year. Environmental and health groups praised the decision, but some industry groups said it could stifle economic recovery.

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency will announce a proposal Friday to tighten the nation's soot standards, a move that could help deliver major health benefits by the end of the decade but force some oil refiners, manufacturers, and other operations to invest in pollution-abatement upgrades. Particle pollution measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, also known as fine particles or soot, is possibly the most deadly widespread air pollutant. Measuring one-thirtieth the width of a human hair, these particles come from activities ranging from wood-burning to vehicle emissions and can cause respiratory and heart ailments by entering the lungs and bloodstream.

RINGWOOD, N.J. - State officials are closing Ringwood Manor, the historic museum in the heart of Ringwood State Park in Passaic County, for the winter after a furnace misfired and left a layer of soot covering priceless artifacts. The Department of Environmental Protection said it would work with historical conservators to ensure thorough cleaning of the interior of the manor and its contents. The furnace misfired last month, pushing soot through parts of the first and second floors, according to the DEP. The museum was home to well-known ironmasters for nearly 200 years and is part of a National Historic Landmark District.

Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that a masterpiece in the basement goes unnoticed for more than half a century. It is a wonder, however, when a neglected nothing, a dirty ragamuffin of a painting, is suddenly noticed amid a quarter-million stored confreres - is pulled out, looked at, looked at more closely, and finally recognized for what it really is beneath the soot, the grime, the clouded varnish: a treasure. This is precisely what happened with George Inness' 1851 landscape Twilight on the Campagna , acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1945 as part of a bequest from Judge Alex Simpson Jr., then shipped to storage Siberia in the early 1950s.

Most days the three Budzilo children can be found fishing along the Delaware River with their grandfather Gene, neighbors said. Relative Alyson Moore said Gene Budzilo is with his grandsons all the time, taking them out to the store and to the playground. "He's the best," Moore said. Yesterday afternoon, Gene Budzilo was with the boys and their pregnant mother, Debbie, when a fire broke out inside their Port Richmond home on Madison Street near Emery. All five were seriously injured, and hospitalized, fire officials said.

This old town has been running from its past for decades and, for the most part, it is a race that has been won. But history bolted in to the present day last week and forced an ironic question: Will this famous city that celebrates its industrial heritage ever really be able to escape the grimy, dark side that came with it? Pittsburgh, rated the "most livable city" in 1985 and again in 2007 by Places Rated Almanac, is now the "sootiest city" in the United States, worse than even smog-shrouded Los Angeles.

This is the fifth in our traditional year-end series of commissioned poems based on recent Inquirer headlines. The article headlined "13 states join to sue EPA to lower levels of soot" appeared Tuesday, Dec. 19, on Page A4. Today we are growing extinction like a marigold seed in a polystyrene cup: Roots reach down. 13 states stand up. Soot pollens froth from the tubes like a pre-cabled television screen; the fine coal points scramble weightless in the trees and lungs.

How much science does it take to persuade the Bush administration to take steps to protect public health? More than 2,000 studies since 1997 have shown that soot damages lungs. Humans inhale soot spewed from cars, trucks, power plants and factories, which burn fossil fuels to create energy. These fine particles, one-thirtieth the width of a human hair, lodge deep in lung tissue or enter the bloodstream. They trigger asthma attacks and aggravate heart and lung disease. They fill emergency-room beds and cause thousands of deaths each year.