Clearing the Air, Is the Fog (Smog) Lifting?

Blogger's Note: The following is a press release about an annual air quality report I received and re-wrote to focus on local results.

There's good news and bad news for our region of Pennsylvania in the latest American Lung Association's State of the Air 2012 report.

It found that although the air quality throughout Pennsylvania has generally improved compared to last year’s report, and in fact was at its cleanest since the organization’s first annual report 12 years ago, the commonwealth continued to be represented among the most polluted metropolitan areas in the nation.

A haze covers Center City Philadelphia

The Philadelphia metro area, as well as Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties all improved their scores in categories such as particle pollution and ozone, but they remain among the worst in the nation.

“State of the Air shows that we’re making steady progress in cutting dangerous pollution from the air as a result of cleanup efforts required under the Clean Air Act,” Deb Brown, president and CEO of the American Lung Association of the Mid-Atlantic, said in a prepared release.

“But millions of Americans across the country, including the citizens of Pennsylvania, are still forced to breathe unhealthy levels of air pollution as a result of air quality standards that are outdated," she said.

The 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 and particle pollution from the air.

The coal-fired Cromby power station outside Phoenixville

Despite the improvements, the job of cleaning the air is not finished. More than 40 percent of people in the United States 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.

“Particle pollution can be deadly,” said Kevin M. Stewart, director of environmental health of the American Lung Association of the Mid-Atlantic.

Children are among those most vulnerable to asthma.

“When you breathe particle pollution, you are inhaling a toxic mix of chemicals, metals, aerosols, ash, and diesel exhaust. It can cause asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, emergency room visits and even premature death," Stewart said. "There is absolutely no question regarding the need to protect public health from particle pollution.”

Ozone (smog), the most widespread air pollutant, is created by the reaction of sunlight on emissions from vehicles and other sources.

“When ozone is inhaled, it irritates the lungs, like a bad sunburn,” says Stewart. “It can cause immediate health problems and continue days later. Ozone can cause wheezing, coughing, asthma attacks and premature death.” 


The Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland Metro Area recorded slightly higher year-round particle pollution levels (going from 13.7 to 13.8 micrograms per cubic meter, with the addition of Chester County monitoring data), and drastically worsening the metro area’s rank from 24th place last year to 10th most polluted city this year.

For short-term particle pollution, even though the area’s maximum number of bad air days improved from 7 to 4.7 days per year (as it turns out, in Philadelphia County), the ranking actually degraded a bit, going from 20th worst to tied for 22nd worst.


Chester County clocked in among the Pennsylvania counties that are among the 25 most polluted in the nation for year-round particle pollution, tying with Madison County, Ill. for 13th worst in the nation.

Pennsylvania continued its seventh straight year of having no counties ranked among the 25 most polluted in the nation for ozone pollution.

However all three of our counties -- Berks, Chester and  Montgomery earned “F” grades.

For High Particle Pollution Days, grades were also mixed.  Montgomery received a “B” grade and Berks received a "C." There was not enough data collected in Chester County for a grade to be assigned.





For Annual Average Particle Pollution, all three counties had enough data to determine a grade and all three received “Pass” grades.

In ozone air pollution (smog), the Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland metro Area worsened from 20th last year to 16th most polluted city this year. Even though fewer bad air days were recorded for ozone in this year’s report, the ranks changed unfavorably because smog levels in other metro areas had improved even more.


Although 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, the American Lung Association said in its release.

Recent proposals in the Congress have included delaying implementation and blocking enforcement of parts of the law, and limiting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’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.

“Dangerous and potentially deadly levels of smog and particle pollution continue to affect public health,” said Brown. “Cleanups have resulted in healthier air to breathe in other parts of the country, but people in Pennsylvania and more than 40 percent of our nation are still breathing dangerously polluted air. We must continue to fight for clean air and demand the full implementation of the Clean Air Act.”

Here are some results from other parts of the state:

Air quality around Pittsburgh is among the state's worst

• In particle pollution (soot), the Pittsburgh-New Castle Metro Area, though still not passing the annual air quality standard, had lower year-round levels (down to 16.0 micrograms per cubic meter from 17.0 in the previous report) and significantly fewer bad air days for daily particle pollution (from 32.5 to 26.3). The metro area came in at sixth worst in the nation for both measures of particle pollution, a small stumble from 7th worst last year for year-round particle pollution as Phoenix, Az., improved even more, but the best rank ever recorded for the short-term measure, improving from 3rd worst in last year’s report.

Air quality around Lancaster is getting better

• In south central Pennsylvania, positive findings were the improvement of year-round particle pollution levels sufficient to remove both the Lancaster and York-Hanover-Gettysburg metro areas from the list of 25 most polluted cities for this pollutant – a decrease to 12.6 micrograms per cubic meter from 13.8 in the previous report resulted in Lancaster’s rank improving from 22nd to 32nd worst; York’s change from 13.7 to 12.2 micrograms per cubic meter produced an even greater improvement in rank—from 24th to 45th worst. In contrast, the Harrisburg-Carlisle-Lebanon metro area, went in the opposite direction of Lancaster and of much of the rest of the country, when its number of bad air days for particle pollution increased from 4.3 to 6.3 days per year, and shockingly shifted the area’s rank from 39th worst to 17th, placing the metro area on the list of 25 most polluted cities for this pollutant measure.

The American people support the need for stricter limits on air pollution standards and the authority of the EPA to enforce these standards, the ALA reports.

A recent bipartisan survey found that about two-thirds of voters (66 percent) favor the EPA updating air pollution standards by setting stricter limits. Nearly three quarters (73 percent) of voters believe the nation does not have to choose between air quality and a strong economy.

State of the Air 2012 grades cities and counties based, in part, on the color-coded Air Quality Index developed by the 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.

The American Lung Association in Pennsylvania urges the public to join the fight for clean air and to learn how to protect themselves and their families from air pollution by visiting www.stateoftheair.org.

The Rights Stuff

Two-hundred and twenty four years, and three days ago, Pennsylvania ratified the U.S. Constitution, only the second state to do so.



Four years and three days after Pennsylvania ratified the Constitution, the first 10 amendments were officially added, having themselves been ratified by enough states to make them the first additions to a living document that continues to guide and confound us to this day.

That makes today Bill of Rights Day.

So it seems appropriate to continue our history theme for another day. (Back to Pottstown matters tomorrow, I promise.)

The back-story on the Bill of Rights is sort of interesting (for those of us who find these things interesting).

The Pennsylvania Statehouse hosted the convention in 1787

Our local metropolis, Philadelphia, was again the setting for a Constitutional Convention, another momentous step forward for this Republic, which was in danger of grinding to a standstill under the inadequate framework of the Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1781, two years before peace with Britain was declared.

Even then, Americans were wary of a strong, central government, never having seen one that had their interests at heart, and the Articles of Confederation reflected that.

But it soon became evident, as states refused to pay their share of national expenses and sought individual treaties with the sovereign nations of Europe, that what they had was not enough.

And so in 1787, delegates from throughout the fledgling country had to make another trip to Philadelphia.

They came with different ideas.

Alexander Hamilton, who favored a strong federal government, with a strong central bank, wanted a president named for life; whereas others believed all that was needed was some tinkering with the current articles.

The end result, as James Madison's detailed notes make clear, was an amalgam of several proposals, hammered out through negotiation and compromise by men who knew that their failure likely meant the failure of the American democratic experiment.

But it wasn't perfect.

As with the Declaration of Independence, our forefathers who established a nation in the name of freedom, were unable to find a way through the tangled political thicket to end slavery and, perhaps worse, in fact enshrined it in the new Constitution by including the now infamous "three-fifths clause."

This allowed the states with legalized slavery to count those who were otherwise considered to be "property," to, in this once instance, be counted as at least partially people for the U.S. Census purposes of representation in Congress and the Electoral College.

In his book "Negro President," historian Garry Wills makes the compelling case that Jefferson and the  parade of Virginians who followed him into the presidency and House Speakership, benefited from this clause, which gave them representation in the House of Representatives and Electoral College disproportionate to their white populations.

(He also argues, with some apparent justification, that from that point forward, Jefferson's earlier and impassioned advocacy for eliminating slavery in the new republic  evaporated into mere rhetoric, as the full benefit of the political windfall the three-fifths clause provided made itself increasingly self-evident.)

But throughout the debate over the Constitution, one other central issue plagued the debates -- a Bill of Rights.

The American Civil Liberties Union sums it up pretty succinctly: "The Federalists opposed including a bill of rights on the ground that it was unnecessary. The Anti-Federalists, who were afraid of a strong centralized government, refused to support the Constitution without one."

The federalists argued that the Constitution clearly outlined the powers of the federal government and that all other powers fell, by default, to the states. They argued articulating a set of rights might make those not articulated unprotected.

But for those who feared centralized control, an assumption was not enough and it was equally important to outline what a central government could not do.

And so the Constitution was ratified at its convention with the promise that immediately after its adoption by ratifying conventions in all 13 states, that an equal effort would be made to draw up and adopt a Bill of Rights.

Drafted by Madison and based largely on George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights, these civil liberties have formed the foundation of some of our most treasured freedoms, as well as the foundation of some of our most vociferous arguments.

Those who argue in favor of gun rights, and those who argue to protect the right to burn the flag both revere the same document.

Only in America.

So take a moment today to consider what life might be like without those rights. It doesn't take much imagination.

Adams looks worried. He was, about his legacy.

And you don't have to look at despotic regimes in third-world countries to do it.

It has happened right here on our shores, most often in times of war, or near war, and often by those considered our greatest presidents.



Just seven years after the adoption of the Bill of Rights, they were challenged by the Alien and Sedition Acts, which made it a crime to speak ill of the administration of President John Adams for fear of fomenting a desire to go to war with France.

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of "habeus corpus," which allows a court to determine if a prisoner has been imprisoned lawfully.

During World War I, Congress passed and Woodrow Wilson signed The Sedition Act of 1918, which outlawed speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds.

During World War II, this nation imprisoned thousands and thousands of Americans in west coast camps simply because they were of Japanese heritage.



And, as Jon Stewart archly noted (does he ever note anything any other way?), last week Barack Obama made clear he is considering vetoing the $662 billion defense authorization bill passed this afternoon, "not because he objects to the executive branch having near infinite power to detain whoever it wants, but because he objects to the executive branch not having totally infinite power to detain whoever it wants" without charging them.

It was not too long ago, 2007 in fact, when the same Barack Obama told an enthusiastic crowd of supporters "we're not a nation that locks people up without charging them."

All of which brings to mind of a quote from James Madison that I have taped to the very computer screen on which I am writing these words, and which I look at every day:

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations."

Happy Birthday Bill of Rights.

It would seem we need you more and more each day.