American Lung Association ranks Pittsburgh metro area among nation's most polluted

The American Lung Association ranked the Pittsburgh metro area among the worst in the nation for pollution in a report released Tuesday.

The annual ‘State of the Air’ report named the Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton metro area one of the worst in the nation for year-round particle pollution.

The Pittsburgh metro area earned a failing grade in the annual report in terms of its pollution.

The area was named the most polluted in the Mid-Atlantic region for daily and year-round particle pollution, and the 19th worst in the nation for long-term particle pollution. It also was ranked third worst in the Mid-Atlantic region for ozone smog.

For the first time in the report’s 25-year history, the Pittsburgh metro area no longer ranks among the worst 25 metro areas in the nation for daily particle pollution. But just barely, as it sits in 26th this year. One of the reasons for Pittsburgh’s drop in the rankings here, the lung association said, is partly because wildfires have worsened air quality in the western portion of the country.

“Climate change is making air pollution more likely to form and more difficult to clean up, so there are actions we can and must take to improve air quality in Pennsylvania, including adopting zero-emission standards for passenger vehicles and heavy-duty trucks,” Kevin Stewart, director of environmental health for the American Lung Association, said in a statement.

He also called on the EPA to set “long-overdue stronger national limits on ozone pollution.”

Nationally, more than 131 million people live in an area that received a failing grade for at least one measure of air pollution in the annual report. The American Lung Association reported that people of color in the U.S. are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air.

Ozone and particle pollution can cause various health effects, like asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, preterm births, impaired cognitive functioning and lung cancer, the association said.

The report showed the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden metro improved for all three pollutant measures in this year’s report and set a new record for its best values of ozone smog and year-round particle pollution. Despite the improvements, the area still earned a failing grade and was named the worst in the Mid-Atlantic region for ozone smog.

The Erie-Meadville metro area ranked among the cleanest cities in the country for ozone smog for the third year in a row and among the best for the daily measure of particle pollution for the eighth consecutive year.

To view the full report on cities, click here.