dust and smoke

The air was really terrible here today, I am guessing it was more of the "yellow dust' cloud that came through at the end of December, but that is just a guess. It could have been just plain old smog.

Actually, in our neighborhood it was clear and nice so it never occurred to us to think twice about venturing outside. The weather was pretty warm (mid to upper 40s). We went across town toward Konkuk University and the area was thick and definitely yellow and irritating. You couldn't even see across the Han River. The air smell too and it was irritating to breathe. Sounds like a nice day to wander around, eh?

It didn't help that we then wandered lost for awhile through the auto body shop area, where I guess yellow dust storms convince people to repaint cars toward the street all at the same time. The laws about fume capture seem to be a bit looser than in the States.

I had the phrase "known to the State of California to cause cancer" flit through my brain a few times.

I am not sure where you go for information on all of this but it occured to me that the military might be helpful here. They have this Yellow Sand Monitor System but without any date I am not sure what use it is exactly.

I clicked through to some other military medical sites but they have popup warnings that if you use them you consent to government surveillance and whatnot. I'm sure that is scary boilerplate, but I feel like I have enough of that potential surveillance just being outside of the country (the NSA having been unleashed in that regard) so I will find my yellow dust information elsewhere.

I hopeful that this wasn't some residue of this massive urethane fire in Incheon, but I don't think it was.

A refrigerated warehouse caught fire in Icheon, south of Seoul, trapping workers inside the toxic blaze and taking 30 lives as of late last night, while as many as 10 people remained missing, according to local fire officials. About 500 firefighters battled the blaze.
Seven workers escaped unharmed from an inferno that raged out of control for hours, while 10 other survivors were hospitalized, three in serious but not critical condition.
Additional fatalities are feared because of toxic urethane fumes that can knock out or even kill a person in minutes, according to Ahn Sang-cheol, the chief of the Icheon Fire Department.

But it does raise some questions about basic fire safety in this country that I find interesting to ponder. Or maybe terrifying, considering the building codes. I only lived through a house fire in 1995 because of a smoke detector which woke us all up at 3 am. I have never seen one installed in Korea, though I did put one in our apartment here.

The three-story warehouse belonging to Korea 2000 Co. Ltd., a company based in Seoul, had only one exit on the underground level, fire officials said. The refrigerated storage was in the basement with two upper stories leased to a delivery company.
An official at the Emergency Rescue Headquarters comprised of local fire departments at the disaster scene said that the lack of exits and proper fire extinguishing equipment may have worsened the death toll.
In the United States and Europe the use of urethane foam insulation in a building with more than one story is generally not permitted because of the extreme danger from highly toxic fumes in case of fire. But South Korea does not have any law regulating the use of urethane foam as an insulating material, officials at the scene said.
Indeed, there may not have been any violation of Korean building codes. Chief Ahn said the building was constructed in accordance with legal guidelines and was approved by the city.