Pittsburgh can expect more smog and ozone

From an Article by Reid Frazier, Allegheny Front, September 1, 2020

Pollution levels in American cities have fallen in the decades since the passage of clean air laws in the 1970s. And even though cars and factories are emitting less, days with high smog might increase in the years to come. The reason: climate change.

David Michuk is 29 and suffers with asthma

He called his doctor and got medications to keep his breathing passageways open. Even with the medicines, breathing has been difficult, particularly on hot days.

“I walk out of my house and it’s like, you just walk into this wall of heat and humidity and it knocks the breath out of you,” said Michuk, who grew up near Johnstown, and lives in the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills. “It’s a scary thing to be out, especially to be younger and be out and trying to just live a normal active life, and you can’t because the air is just killing you.”

One reason why it might be hard for him and others with asthma to breathe? Hot days produce a type of air pollution called ozone, or smog.

High Smog Days Could Be Doubled By Climate Change

Pollution levels in American cities have fallen in the decades since the passage of clean air laws in the 1970s. And even though cars and factories are cleaner than they’ve ever been, scientists predict that the success the U.S. has had in lowering ozone pollution is in jeopardy simply because the world is getting hotter.

That success is because regulations have forced American industry to clean up, scientists say. “We have made a lot of progress,” said Edson Severnini, an associate professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. “You’ll see the graphs and you feel like, ‘Oh, my God, something good has happened.’ ”

But that progress could be upended by climate change, he said. Severnini said ozone starts to really spike above 30 degrees Celsius — or 86 degrees Fahrenheit. He said we’ve already seen the number of hot days increase since 1980. And the number of days when cities in the U.S. reach 86 degrees is anticipated to double by 2050 because of climate change.

“So you can imagine that by midcentury, which is not far from now, you’re going to have very large levels” of ozone, he said.

Asthma Increases When Ozone Increases

Ozone is an irritant inside the lungs and can trigger or worsen asthma attacks, said Deborah Gentile, an allergy and asthma specialist with East Suburban Pediatrics and Allergy and Asthma Wellness Centers in Pittsburgh. She is Michuk’s doctor.

When it contacts the inside of the airways, it causes inflammation and swelling, and the passageway constricts. “So it’s very difficult to move air in and out,” Gentile said. She’s had plenty of patients this summer with breathing problems, during what would be a normally quiet period between allergy seasons.

This coincides with a spike in bad air quality days, when pollution levels will make it hard to breathe for people in certain, vulnerable groups, like those with breathing conditions. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has had nearly the same number of air quality action days already this year as it had in all of 2019.

The agency says that’s because it’s been a hot summer — July was 4.7 degrees hotter than normal in Pittsburgh, according to the National Weather Service.

Heat and Air Pollution Creates Ozone

And heat is perfect for creating ozone, which doesn’t come right out of tailpipes or smokestacks. Instead, it’s formed in the atmosphere when sunlight hits two types of pollution — volatile organic compounds, emitted by things like paint and gasoline fumes, and nitrogen oxides, which are created by fossil fuel combustion in cars, factories and power plants.

Heat waves, which have been on the increase in the U.S., can speed up the process, said Ted Russell, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Georgia Tech.

One reason why is gasoline and other volatile materials will evaporate pollutants into the atmosphere faster on hot days.“Just like water evaporates faster. But gasoline (evaporates) even faster still,” he says. “And paints, on a hot day, they dry faster.”

Another reason why ozone formation increases in the heat: plants and bacteria release some of the volatile gases needed to form ozone. When it gets hot, they release more of them, Russell said. “You’ve also got microbes in the ground that become more active on hot days,” he said.

Urban Heat Islands Mean More Smog

To keep smog below dangerous levels in a hotter world, scientists say, we will probably have to reduce pollution from sources like cars and factories even further. A recent study found that unless climate change is slowed down, there will be an average of 5.7 extra high-ozone days in the U.S. by midcentury.

To make matters worse, cities around the world are growing, supercharging the creation of ozone through the “urban heat island,” said Chandana Mitra, associate professor of geosciences at Auburn University. During heat waves, concrete-packed cities can be 10 to 15 degrees hotter than their surrounding countrysides.

“So more heat, more human activity, more growth in urban areas equals more ozone being created,” Mitra says. There’s a way to limit climate change and the heat it brings, Mitra says, but it’s not going to be easy: lower our greenhouse gas emissions.

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See also: Leader At Environmental Watchdog Group GASP Recommends People Stay Inside Amid Unhealthy Air In Allegheny Co. – Paul Martino, CBS News 2 (KDKA Pittsburgh), July 9, 2020

Denver smog is very unhealthy; Mountains are barely visible!

From an Article by Andy Bosselman, Denver Streetsblog, March 6, 2019

Today from downtown Denver, the peaks of the Rocky Mountain foothills were barely visible through the brown cloud of pollution that covered the region with an unhealthy level of fine particulate matter.

At six p.m., Denver’s air quality index measured 162, an unhealthy level more than three times worse than the moderate rating of 51 now in Beijing. The pollution triggered health warnings across the northern Front Range.

Colorado’s “brown cloud” is an increasingly frequent reminder of the Denver-Boulder metro’s car dependency and the impact of the state’s oil and gas production, which the industry projects will generate $12.5 billion in revenue this year.

Kyle Clark, a News 9 anchor, reported that 30 to 40 percent of ozone levels — a related form of pollution that is not responsible for the brown cloud — result from the state’s oil and gas industry. Traffic generates similar levels, he tweeted. He also pointed out the irony of today’s extreme air quality problems with the intense oil and gas industry lobbying that happened at the state capitol today as legislators considered sweeping environmental reforms.

Reducing car dependency could help the region achieve clearer air, and Denver has plans to do exactly that. But the city is better at setting goals than achieving them. In Denver’s Mobility Action Plan, officials set a strategic goal of reducing single occupancy vehicle commutes from 73 percent of trips to 50 percent.

The city plans to supplement current bus service with a high-frequency transit network. The proposal is part of the long-term planning process known as Denveright, which will be finalized later this year.

But there are no concrete plans for the city to come up with the funding needed to provide the improved transit service promised in the plans.

Meanwhile, the Colorado Department of public health warned all people in the area to “reduce prolonged or heavy exertion” today and tomorrow, especially “people with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children.”

Looking northeast from a downtown high-rise, it was almost impossible to see a nearby refinery. A crown of smog usually hovers over its buildings. But today its dirty halo blended into the thick haze of visible pollution that extended as far as the eye could see.

Thousands die of air pollution every year in the US yet today!

>>> On Tuesday, October 23rd at 6:30 p.m., WQED Producer and Monongahela native David Solomon will present his mini-documentary “Our Water, Land & Air,” portions of which tell the story about the 1948 Smog. A “Question and Answer” discussion will follow with a panel of survivors and local experts. This event will take place in the downstairs Community Room at the Donora Public Library.

>>> On Saturday, October 27th at 1:00 p.m., the Donora Historical Society’s Brian Charlton will present the “The 1948 Donora Smog Disaster” at the Smog Museum.

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New Book!! “Memories of Donora” – by Sidney Mishkin on the Merchandise page.

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American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association

The Donora Smog Revisited: 70 Years After the Event That Inspired the Clean Air Act

Authored by Elizabeth T. Jacobs, PhD, Jefferey L. Burgess, MD, and Mark B. Abbott, PhD

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5922205/

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GASP in Western Pennsylvania —- Together, we can make a difference in our region’s environment. We won’t trade or sell your email address with other organizations or inundate you with messages. Visit our website at gasp-pgh.org or call us at (412) 924-0604 for more information or to become a member today. We can’t do this without you!

The American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2012 report released on April 25 finds that in America’s most polluted cities, air quality was at its cleanest since the organization’s annual report began 13 years ago. This year’s report details the trend that standards set under the Clean Air Act to cleanup major air pollution sources—including coal-fired power plants, diesel engines and SUVs—are working to drastically cut ozone (smog) and particle pollution (soot) from the air we breathe. Despite this progress, unhealthy levels of air pollution still exist and in some parts of the country worsened.

The job of cleaning the air is not finished. More than 40 percent of people in the U.S. live in areas where air pollution continues to threaten their health. That means more than 127 million people are living in counties with dangerous levels of either ozone or particle pollution that can cause wheezing and coughing, asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature death. Those at greatest risk from air pollution include infants, children, older adults, anyone with lung diseases like asthma, people with heart disease or diabetes, people with low incomes and anyone who works or exercises outdoors.

The Lung Association’s annual air quality report grades cities and counties based, in part, on the color-coded Air Quality Index developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to alert the public to daily unhealthy air conditions. The 13th annual report uses the most recent, quality-controlled EPA data collected from 2008 through 2010 from official monitors for ozone and particle pollution, the two most widespread types of air pollution. Counties are graded for ozone, year-round particle pollution and short-term particle pollution levels. The report also uses EPA’s calculations for year-round particle levels.

Major improvements were seen in 18 of the 25 cities most polluted by ozone, including Los Angeles, which had the lowest smog levels since the report was first published in 2000. Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati were among 17 of the 25 cities most polluted by annual particle pollution that experienced their cleanest years yet. Four cities—Pittsburgh, San Diego, Philadelphia and Visalia, Calif., had their lowest-ever, short-term particle pollution level. For the first time, Birmingham, Ala., Detroit, Mich., and York, Pa., dropped completely off the report’s 25 most-polluted cities lists. Santa Fe, N.M., ranked as the cleanest city in the nation.

Meanwhile, State of the Air 2012 finds that nearly four out of 10 people in the U.S. live in counties that received an F for air quality because of unhealthy levels of ozone air pollution, which can cause health problems that day, and even days after. When inhaled, ozone irritates the lungs, like a bad sunburn, and can cause wheezing, coughing, asthma attacks and can shorten life.

The report also finds that nearly 50 million Americans live in counties with too many unhealthy spikes in particle pollution levels, and nearly six million people live in areas with unhealthy year-round levels of particle pollution. Particle pollution is the most dangerous and deadly widespread air pollutant in America. This noxious mix of microscopic bits of ash, soot, diesel exhaust, chemicals, metals and aerosols can lead to early death, heart attacks, strokes and emergency room visits. Only eight counties received a failing grade for year-round particle pollution, further evidence of the continuing improvement even since last year’s report.

Although these air quality improvements clearly result from standards put into place under the Clean Air Act, big polluters and some members of Congress continue to propose to dismantle the law. Recent proposals in the Congress have included delaying implementation and blocking enforcement of parts of the law, and limiting EPA’s ability to consider all of the scientific evidence regarding the harm to public health. These challenges come despite EPA’s estimate that cutting air pollution through the Clean Air Act will prevent at least 230,000 deaths and save $2 trillion annually by 2020.

In the list of the Nation’s Most Polluted Cities, the Pittsburgh area ranks 6^th in most polluted year-round by “particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns” and 6^th most polluted short-term (24-hour) by “particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns.”

To see how your community ranks in State of the Air 2012, to learn how to protect yourself and your family from air pollution, and to join the fight for healthy air, visit www.stateoftheair.org.

For more information, click here.

Source: American Lung Association