Breathe Easy in Erie?

The American Lung Association has released their State of the Air report for 2008 and the big headline is that Pittsburgh has surpassed Los Angeles as the Sootiest City in America.

So how do we rank here in Erie? While the Steel City grades out at an F for the Ozone Rating and Fails the Particle rating, Erie Scores a C for Ozone and gets passing marks for the 24 hour Particle ratings, but fails the Annual Particle rating.

Watch for the environmental whack-a-moles who are trying to road block the tires to energy plant to jump all over these numbers in their efforts to derail the project.

Here’s the problem; this study lacks any historical context, so there’s no way to gauge if the air quality is bad and getting worse, or if the numbers and air quality is actually improving. Keep in mind that with improved technology there have been dramatic changes in testing quality, but also in the standards for measurements.

Given tougher government regulation and the exodus of large manufacturers and their large, belching smokestacks, I’ve got to bet that the air is probably getting better.

Keep in mind that the Association is getting heavy pub out of this and wants to convert that attention to more donations. All it takes a little bit of critical thinking to not read too much into the results of this study.