The Lehigh Valley's air pollution levels have worsened in the last year, bucking the nationwide trend of improvement, the American Lung Association found.
The Lehigh Valley’s air pollution levels have worsened in the last year, bucking the nationwide trend of improvement, the American Lung Association found.
The association’s annual State of the Air report found the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metropolitan area, which also includes Warren County, is the nation’s 14th most polluted region in terms of particle pollution, which generally measures soot levels.
The region ranked worse in particle pollution than far more populous regions such as the Phoenix area.
The Lehigh Valley also ranked poorly in ozone levels, the American Lung Association found. Though the region’s ozone levels have noticeably improved — and its national ranking increased from 34th to 42nd worst — its ozone ranking remains at the F level, the association said.
“Even though the region experienced increases in particle pollution, the air quality is still better compared to a decade ago,” said Deb Brown, president and CEO of the American Lung Association of the Mid-Atlantic. “But the work is not done, and we must set stronger health standards for pollutants and clean up sources of pollution in the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton region to protect the health of our citizens.”
One area of improvement for the region was the particle pollution levels in Warren County, the lung association said. The county is the only one in the region that improved its particle pollution levels in recent years and earned a passing grade.
“The report gives us very good marks for particulates, reflecting the hard work we’ve done over the years through our power plant standards, programs to address diesel exhaust, and a tough vehicle inspection and maintenance program,” said Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. “We have been doing everything we can to address stationary sources of pollution, and have been encouraging other states to use New Jersey’s power plant standards as their model.”
There are many factors that contribute to high particle pollution levels, said Kevin Stewart, the lung association’s director of environmental health in the mid-Atlantic region.
More populous regions and those with major industry tend to have higher particle pollution levels, he said. But that’s not always the case, with neither New York, Chicago nor Houston — three of the four most populous cities — making the top 25 regions with high particle pollution levels.
The Lehigh Valley’s geography and topography may both be factors, Stewart said. The region is downwind from a lot of large metropolitan regions and is a large valley, he said.
“There’s also the linear arraignment of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton,” he said. “You kind of have a combination of factors.”
St. Luke’s University Health Network pulmonologist Dr. John Kintzer said he’s surprised the region has such a particle pollution problem since it doesn’t have much industry following the closing of Bethlehem Steel.
The Fountain Hill-based respiratory specialist has been in the field for 35 years and hasn’t seen any particular spike in cases.
“Anyone who has lung disease, the air we breathe has an impact on their health, but I don’t see people coming to the office and complaining that the air quality is so bad,” he said.