Jim Hamblin was told to move to Arizona from Minnesota decades ago because the dry climate would be good for his breathing problems.

Little did he realize at the time that the Valley’s air quality would continue to deteriorate to the point where the climate remains a burden to his breathing abilities.

Hamblin was guest speaker at a recent Noon Kiwanis Club meeting, discussing his observations and recommendations on what can be done to improve the region’s air quality.

“Phoenix ranks 47th out of 50-some metro cities in terms of air quality,” Hamblin said.

“And you don’t see much about it in newspapers because it’s bad news. We have a major booster section in denial.”

 Hamblin said a good air quality bill was passed by the Arizona Legislature last June, due to the determination of Sen. Carolyn Allen (R-Scottsdale), but more remains to be done.

“The brown cloud we see in the Valley is kind of understood,” he added. “We’ve got to do something or the feds will take money away from us because our particulates are too high.

“It’s a start.

“But you can still use leafblowers. The landscapers have lobbyists at the capitol…

“(Last year’s) bill is only a partial step in the right direction.”

Hamblin said many Fountain Hills residents might be under the mistaken impression that the air quality is better here because the “brown cloud” is visible hovering over the Valley as one drives into Phoenix.

But during the warm summer months the heat and tailpipe exhaust combine to form unhealthy amounts of ground-level ozone that generally moves with the winds from the west to the east.

“It moves right into this part of the Valley, and some days Fountain Hills and Rio Verde have the highest readings of ozone,” he said.

Again, Hamblin said it’s not something you see reported too often in the media.

“I’m a skeptic,” he added, “but I believe a lot of this news is suppressed on purpose. The reading stations (for ozone) just seem to keep dropping out of the papers.

“We deserve better consideration…

“Ozone scars the lungs. It’s really nasty stuff, even in moderate levels.

“One in seven of us have upper respiratory ailments aggravated by the brown cloud and ozone. It aggravates allergies, asthma, sinus troubles.”

It’s estimated about 600,000 people out of 4 million in the Valley are adversely affected by the bad air.

 Hamblin said the Legislature is not very attuned to “forward thinking” and often sees other regional efforts in the Southwest and the Western United States to combat bad air as attempt to “usurp” Arizona control.

“The Legislature is very slow to move toward any environmental improvements and changes,” he said. “This really shouldn’t be a political issue. It’s too important.”

Hamblin said one major thing that can be done to help improve bad air is cut down on gasoline consumption.

“We need a better plan for cutting consumption,” he added. “It’s no longer an elective. Hopefully our grandkids will be able to see some type of improvement….There is better awareness today of what we’ve been hiding from.”

Hamblin said he saw a statistic stating that the U.S. produces 3 percent of the world’s petroleum, has 6 percent of the world’s population and consumes 24 percent of the world’s petroleum.