Originally Posted by
tdracer
I find it telling that no one is taking me up on the suggestion to go start sampling air in and around airports
Some of my colleagues, being scientists rather than activists, have done just that. Their results are similar to those mentioned by misd-agin: The ramp is not a pleasant place to be in terms of chemicals in the air.
One thing that surprised me from the study (not yet published, but under review now) was that smoke from aircraft tires was a strong contributor to local pollution and contained a whole array of nasty substances.