Worse than Philly and Pittsburgh: Central Pa. leads the state in poor air quality, report says

It is no secret that Pennsylvania, or parts of it, has unhealthy air.

The York County area, for instance, routinely is among the leaders in the state for poor air quality, tabulating the most number of days a year with unhealthy levels of ozone and particulate pollution.

And a new study by environmental and public policy advocacy groups concludes that in 2020, central Pennsylvania led the state in the number of days with unhealthy air quality, with the York-Hanover area ranked fourth in registering the number of days with elevated levels of air pollution at 65.

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The study, conducted by the PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center and the Frontier Group, collated the number of days certain geographic areas had elevated amounts of ozone and particulates in the air — pollution that can be linked to a number of health issues, from increased cases of asthma, elevated cancer risk and dangerous cardio-vascular maladies.

It found that Lancaster County registered the largest number of poor air quality days in the state in 2020, at 107. 

The Harrisburg-Carlisle area was second, at 97. Reading was third, at 82. 

For contrast, nearby Lebanon County ranked low, with a mere 26 days of unhealthy air. That county experienced zero days with elevated ozone and only 26 with elevated particulates in the air.

The central Pennsylvania counties fared worse than the state's urban centers, the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington area, Pittsburgh and the New York-Newark-Jersey City area, which encompasses the northeastern corner of the commonwealth.

“No area is immune to the human-caused effects of climate change,” state Rep. Carol Hill-Evans, D-York, said at a news conference Tuesday.  "York County ranked 4th highest in the amount of degraded air quality days due to the level of pollution in the air. This is an unacceptable statistic, and even one degraded air quality day is too many.”

Researchers reviewed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air pollution records to determine which areas had the most number of days with unhealthy levels of ozone and particulate pollution, which comes primarily from burning fossil fuels and from wildfires. The report's authors wrote that climate change has exacerbated the problem.

"Fossil fuel combustion is the primary human-caused source of air pollution – and the main driver of global warming, which threatens to make air quality even worse in the years to come," the report states.

The report, released Tuesday, found that even as poor air quality remains a persistent problem in Pennsylvania, solutions are "readily achievable," according to a press release. The report's authors call for reducing reliance on fossil fuels, increasing the use of renewable energy and electric vehicles and strengthening federal air quality standards.

The report cites measures in the infrastructure bill now tied up in Congress that would fund clean transportation projects, increase the number of charging stations for electric vehicles and make other investments that would lead to cleaner air and address climate change.

“Our future can truly be better and healthier if we clean up our air,” Eve Lukens-Day, Global Warming Solutions Associate with Environment America Research & Policy Center was quoted as saying in a news release. “Zeroing out pollution from all aspects of our lives will protect our lungs and our climate at the same time.”

U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, a Philadelphia Democrat, was quoted as saying, "Pennsylvanians have a constitutional right to breathe clean, healthy air. ...It’s time to ensure that breathing doesn’t jeopardize our health -- and that means tightening federal pollution limits and passing bold climate action like the current House version of the Build Back Better bill."

Columnist/reporter Mike Argento has been a Daily Record staffer since 1982. Reach him at 717-772-2046 or at mike@ydr.com.