For the first time in the agency's history, the American Lung Association reports that a city outside of California has topped the charts in particle pollution.
Pittsburgh, which is home to a large steel coal plants, is now the number one polluted city for short-term particle pollution (soot), according to a new report by the American Lung Association.
Los Angeles still stayed number one in the other two pollution lists (year-round particle pollution and ozone pollution, or smog, the deadliest).
However, the city, which has gained world-wide attention toward it's efforts to reduce emissions, saw ongoing improvements in air quality, cutting its year-round particle pollution by about one-third since the 2004 report.
It also saw improvements in levels of ozone pollution, with the weighted average number of days each year with unhealthy levels of ozone dropping by 13 (103.3 to 90.3) from the 2007 to the 2008 report.
Statewide, 26 of California's 52 counties with air quality monitoring stations received failing grades for either high ozone days or particle pollution days. In alphabetical order, they are Amador, But
te, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Merced, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Tehama, Tulare and Ventura.Nineteen counties received an "A" grade for either high ozone days or particle pollution days, with some of these receiving an F in one category but an A in another. The A grade recipients for at least one category, in alphabetical order, are Calaveras, Colusa, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Siskiyou and Sonoma.
On May 1, the American Lung Association of California offered a chance to view the extensive air quality report that shows the grades for each county in the state.
People may enter their ZIP codes for their local air quality grades and other related links or log on to www.stateoftheair.org for the full report., called the American Lung Association State of the Air: 2008 Report.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, American Lung Association of California Board Chair Gwendolyn Young, Sona Patel, MD (allergist and pediatrician)and Oswaldo Hernandez, a 14-year diesel truck port driver affected by air pollution spoke on the matter.
"When you think of the impact of ozone on our respiratory tracts, imagine putting acid right in your eye. It's that corrosive," said Tony Gerber, MD, an American Lung Association of California volunteer and a pulmonary specialist and assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco. "This corrosiveness causes severe irritation and leads to problems like asthma attacks, coughing, wheezing, chest pain and even death."
6 comments:
Hi there! While I genuinely applaud you for your dedication to the environment, I must point out that the photograph you used here is more than a little misleading! If it's supposed to represent Pittsburgh, that is. While I grew up hearing tales of white laundry that would turn black on the clothesline from all the soot in their air, that was a lifetime ago...during my grandparent's tender years. Well my grandparents are getting up in years and Pittsburgh no longer looks anything like its infamous noir image, not even on the dreariest winter day. It's actually quite a stunning place, especially now in summer. I just came home from a year abroad, and I can say confidently that Pittsburgh's verdant, water-filled vistas hold their own against the most beautiful ones I saw all over Europe. (And I'm not being paid by some city-boosting PR firm to tell you this, much as I'd like to be. ;-)
PA does have a nasty track record with deadly gas emissions that we DO need to get on top of. That my hometown heads the list of particle pollution was news to me, but I am very confident that Pittsburghers have enough pride in the enormous progress made since the dark and dirty days of the steel mills (which, by the way, are as good as dead economically speaking...another reason the picture is outdated).
Hope that your blog's readers will not write off present-day Pittsburgh based on old stereotypes...I can assure you there's a healthy and growing number of eco-conscious activists even here in the Steel City.
Looks like I left off the end of one paragraph (my, how I get carried away).
Meant to say: Pittsburghers have enough pride in the environmental progress we've made so far, to keep going until we're in the clear, so to speak. That's my hope, anyway!
According to one source: "Within breathing distance of Pittsburgh, you have three of the five biggest sources of sulfur dioxide pollution in the country -- Hatfield's Ferry, Keystone and Homer City, three coal-fired power plants."
I'm from Pittsburgh and I was unaware of the effects of these power plants on my air quality.
Thanks for the post Laura, I took down the photo. I used that when I just started blogging, but since have been a little more mindful. I live in Long Beach, which has some of the worst Port air in the country.
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