Air quality has improved across the Northeast according to the American Lung Association’s 2017 “State of the Air” Report.
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However, according to the American Lung Association, for data collected from 2013-2015, SLO County received an “F” grade for ozone. Short-term particle spikes can be extremely risky and even lethal. It can cause immediate health problems and continue days later. The nearly year around warm weather may make the state a prime vacation spot, but also reportedly increases the already high levels of ozone pollution.
Seilback says those extremely unhealthy days have gotten fewer.
The Salt Lake metropolitan area also ranked seventh nationally for spikes of particulate pollution, reflecting the valley’s wintry inversion episodes. Exposure can be particularly unsafe for “at-risk groups” like the young and elderly as well as those whose health is already complicated by respiratory, cardiac or other ailments.
This region – which, in the report, includes Monroe County and Warren County in New Jersey – generally experienced fewer unhealthy days of high ozone compared to last year’s report. As recently as 2001, it had more than 30. A mainly rural area between Bakersfield and Fresno was ranked as the area with most year-round particle pollution.
The culprit? Emissions from trucks passing through Interstate 5 and Highway 99, two critical arteries through the state, and agricultural operations including burn piles, construction, oil and gas operations and smoke from wood-burning fireplaces, Corie Goldman, advocacy director for the American Lung Association in California, said.
That’s a description of air quality in Pittsburgh and the Tri-State area, according to the American Lung Association’s annual “State of the Air” report, released Wednesday.
One high-polluting vehicle – or even one high-polluting power plant – will have no notable effect on the global pollution problem. Monroe and Hillsdale were not ranked, while the Adrian and Ann Arbor areas – like Toledo – got a C grade for ozone.
“Important information is available to them, and this is a tool for them to either protect their family’s health and take real action to improve the environment that we have in our community”, Castro said. “We also need to continue working to clean up coal-fired power plants because much of the pollution that comes our way is attributable to these plants”. “The hardest days are when we have to tell the boys they can’t go outside to ride their bikes or play soccer because of the bad air”.
There’s also been a stronger investment in solar, wind, and other forms of renewable energy.
“Because they tend to be outside more and their lungs are still developing”, Mullally said. The bad news is there are still a lot of areas in OH getting failing grades. Plattsburgh is heading in the right direction, but the ozone level was not recorded.
The report says breathing unhealthy air can put residents at risk for asthma attacks, worsened COPD symptoms and cardiovascular harm. That number is done from the 2016 report.
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Salinas landed a spot on two lists of the cleanest cities in the US thanks to zero unhealthy ozone days and one of the lowest year-round particle pollution levels.
