The Dirtiest City

Congrats, Pittsburgh. Somehow, you beat out LA as the most-polluted city in America. Kudos, it wasn't easy for sure. You beat a city with stagnant air fenced in by mountains and ocean winds - home of the six lane highway, drive through laundromats, and bumper to bumper to bumper traffic at all hours of the day.

You should probably start a public bike program, and pass some more green initiatives. In the meantime, pick up your phone. China's calling. They have some facemasks to sell you.

LA, you can breathe a smog packed sigh of relief if you want to, but you and your laid back Cali sister cities aren't off the hook. According to the  American Lung Association's report, "Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Short-Term Particle Pollution," published in this morning's LA Times,  five of the eight most polluted cities on the list were in California.  Nearly, all of SoCo received an 'F' grade for air quality.

Countrywide, 2 out of 5 people live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution.

--Emily Matchar

Comments

[Elle]

Yes, that's correct. It was measured at the US Steel Clairton Coke Works. They think it's polluted now - 50 years ago you couldn't see the sun at noon. The area has had a major clean up since the steel mills went out of business. People in this area are actually kind of surprized by this pollution rating.

Pittsburgh also has a geographical problem in that the Allegheny Mountains block pollution coming from Mid-Western states. It stagnates and hangs around longer than it should.

[Robert]

I read the data sheet from the American Lung Association and noticed they list #1 as "Pittsburgh-New Castle, PA." New Castle is 50 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, it's not even in the same county. They seem to be playing rather loose with city definitions in their rankings.

As for green initiatives and biking, 0.8% of Pittsburghers commute by bike, which is #17 in the US. Pittsburgh is also #2 in the US for commuting by foot (12.4%). The city is doing well with green buildings, ranking at #5 for the most LEED certified buildings.

[Mark in CA]

I don't like L.A., but they topography and oceanography play a large role in the smog problems in the L.A. Basin. Yes, lots of cars too.. but no doubt if your city was in a basin, you're pollution problems would be significantly worse.

But, like other cities.. it is worse in some areas vs. others. So, to say "they took the test in one bad area.." well, the same could be said of any data where the info is gathered in a limited number of locations.. even L.A.

I suggest you quit pointing your finger at California (Hey, they're worse!!) and work to fix your problems as we are trying to do here.. maybe you heard about the EPA bringing suit (and winning) against the state of CA.. stopping the enhanced emmissions regulations? Yeah, CA passed greenhouse gas restrictions that were more strict than the federal ones and the EPA sued to stop CA from enforcing them. Nice, huh? Meanwhile, the state gets heavily fined by who? The EPA.. when we have bad air days. Go figure!

[Cherryrn]

This was measured badly at an area of town that has a lonely steel mill. This is what I heard.

I don't buy we are more polluted than California.

Cherryrn