I live in Provo (just south of Salt Lake City), and I start coughing every time I go outside. I'm fine as long as i'm indoors. The last time I felt like this is

I live in Provo (just south of Salt Lake City), and I start coughing every time I go outside. I'm fine as long as i'm indoors. The last time I felt like this is when I lived in Beijing for a stint, and before that when I lived in a couple mining towns in Ukraine with no regard for pollution control (Mariupol and Gorlovka). It's not surprising though, Utah is the perfect storm for this type of pollution. Surrounded by mountains on all sides, the inversions that come every winter drop the temperature by 10 degrees and trap bad air in. Combine that with awful transport (a result of a history of conservatism, a balanced state budget, and towns being spread out as soon as you leave the major freeway), and it's not surprising that this happens pretty much every year. I'm just grateful Geneva sold off the steel refinery in Orem; the air is noticeably cleaner.