Extreme temperatures, humidity, bad odors, and pollen used to be our only complaints about air. Years ago some of us even enjoyed cigarette smoke, fireplace aromas, and burning leaves in the Fall. We were grateful to live upwind of factories and power plants.

Now we realize how precious fresh air is and how dangerous the air we breathe can be. We should have known coal miners were damaging their lungs underground. The power of air-born asbestos became clear as workers died from it. Tobacco’s threat to health was eventually recognized.

These days we mask, because covid, flu, and common cold germs are spread through air. We install furnaces and air conditioners, filters, and various machines to heat, dry, humidify, and clean indoor air. Outdoors we are subject to societal and government regulation or neglect.

Insidious environmental dangers from coal, gas, and nuclear power plants are necessary for our modern lifestyle. Cars, trucks, buses, and planes are obvious polluters. We cannot live well without them, but they are slowly killing us.

As we breathe air that seems to be fresh, enjoying the scent of flowers and mown grass, let us pause to be grateful and hope our perception of freshness is not deceptive. We need fresh air more desperately than we realize.

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