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Executive Summary
Air pollution in Pennsylvania makes people sick and cuts lives short. Air pollution irreparably damages lung tissues in ways similar to second-hand tobacco smoke, leading to a wide range of health impacts. Air pollution triggers heart attacks and strokes. It causes diseases like chronic bronchitis and lung cancer. It sends people to the emergency room with respiratory problems, causes asthma attacks, and contributes to respiratory illness in otherwise healthy people. In this report, we estimate the health impact of outdoor air pollution in Pennsylvania. The estimates cover particulate pollution (or “soot”), which comes from smokestacks and vehicle exhaust, and ground-level ozone (or “smog”), which develops across much of the state on hot summer days as a result of emissions from cars, trucks, smokestacks and other sources. The estimates rely on research, data and methods produced by thousands of scientists from around the world, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the World Health Organization. Taken together, information gathered from these sources reveals that air pollution places a significant burden on the health of Pennsylvanians. Every year, air pollution kills thousands of people in Pennsylvania. • Soot pollution causes about 5,000 premature deaths in Pennsylvania annually.
• At this rate, air pollution ranks as the third highest risk factor for premature death, behind smoking and poor diet/ physical inactivity.
Air pollution causes thousands of people to be admitted to Pennsylvania hospitals every year and increases the burden of chronic disease. • Smog pollution leads to an estimated 7,000 hospital admissions for respiratory disease and soot pollution contributes to roughly 4,000 admissions for cardiovascular disease annually.
• In addition, air pollution causes approximately 4,000 new cases of chronic bronchitis in adults every year.
• Among asthmatics, soot pollution causes an estimated 500,000 asthma attacks annually, with an additional 300,000 asthma attacks caused by smog.
Air pollution also causes illness in otherwise healthy people, leading to hundreds of thousands of missed work days each year in Pennsylvania. • Air pollution causes roughly 800,000 missed work days each year, and millions of cases where Pennsylvanians experience symptoms such as shortness of breath. (See Tables ES-1 and ES-2 for a summary of the estimates.)
Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. • Every year, air pollution causes roughly 20 post-neonatal infant deaths and 900,000 missed school days due to illness. (See Table ES-3.)
• Injuries caused by air pollution early in life can have permanent effects, reducing lung capacity and potentially causing chronic diseases like asthma.
Many Pennsylvania residents suffer health problems caused by pollution even at levels that meet air pollution standards. • Despite the fact that air pollution levels in Pennsylvania meet health standards during much of the year, even “safe” levels of pollution can cause damage. For instance, public transit use during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics reduced smog pollution and prevented emergency room visits—even though average smog levels were below current health standards before and after the event. Similarly, for soot, many of the more than 2,000 studies carried out since the last standardsetting review in 1997 show health damage at pollution levels below current standards.
Aggressive action to reduce air pollution can improve public health and reduce the societal cost of illnesses caused by pollution. The two largest sources of Pennsylvania’s air pollution are vehicles and coal-fired power plants. Reducing smog pollution from these sources will help prevent respiratory disease and reducing soot pollution will increase life expectancies and protect respiratory health. Thankfully, the state has many policy options to reduce pollution— at the state, regional and federal level. State Level Actions: • Implement the Clean Vehicles Program and its air pollution standards for automobiles that go beyond weaker federal standards; joining New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, California, Oregon and Washington in requiring sales of cleaner cars. The Clean Vehicles Program will help reduce smog and prevent respiratory disease.
• Adopt limits on air pollution, including soot and smog, from power plants, requiring facilities grandfathered under the federal Clean Air Act to meet modern standards.
• Require retrofitting of diesel engines— including those of bus fleets and construction equipment—with particulate filtration systems.
• Reduce car-dependent land use practices and sprawl.
• Increase transportation funding for transit, rail freight, and other alternative transportation projects.
Federal and Regional Level Actions: • Advocate for adoption of similar policies in neighboring states, especially in the Midwest.
• Restore and enforce the New Source Review provision of the federal Clean Air Act and require the oldest coalfired power plants and other industrial facilities in the country to install modern pollution control technology.
• Limit nationwide industrial emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury to between 10 percent and 30 percent of 2000 levels.
• Strengthen national emission standards for cars and trucks to match or exceed standards adopted by California and other states.
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