Yeahh, What I Said

I forget how many times I told my students that even if Connecticut shut down all factories and all traffic, our air would still be poisonous from all of the industry upwind of us.

Now today it is official.  An article in the Hartford Courant today reports:

Bad Air Kills 168 A Year In State
Connecticut Air Pollution
Deadliest In New England

By GREGORY B. HLADKY
ghladky@courant.com

Air pollution is causing an estimated 168 deaths a year in Connecticut and sending 472 more people to doctors and hospitals for health issues like heart attacks and bronchitis, according to a study released Wednesday.
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The research by experts at New York University found that approximately 9,320 deaths related to air pollution occur annually in the United States. The study, which is being published by the American Thoracic Society, focused on urban regions with concentrations of ozone and particulate pollution higher than the society's recommended health standards.
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This state's air quality has improved since the 1980s, but Connecticut is routinely cited by federal monitors as having among the worst air pollution on the East Coast. The most critical pollutant is ozone.
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“Connecticut has the highest ozone levels in the Northeast, which adversely impacts the health of our citizens and the quality of life in our state,” Robert Klee, Connecticut's commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said recently.
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“Over 90 percent of [air pollution] emissions comes from out of state, from upwind states,” Pirolli said.
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According to the study, more people in Connecticut die each year as a result of air pollution than in any other New England state.
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A major problem for Connecticut is that the state is downwind of coal- and oil-burning power plants in the Midwest and in states to the south that are sending tons of air pollutants toward it.
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Connecticut joined with other states in the Northeast in 2013 asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to enforce tougher air pollution standards in nine states to the west and south that have power plants that are sending massive amounts of air pollution in Connecticut's direction.
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In April, after efforts to negotiate a compromise solution failed, Connecticut and several other Northeastern states notified the EPA of their intent to sue unless the federal agency acts soon.
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The out-of-state pollution problem means that Connecticut, despite efforts to cut in-state pollution, is often exceeding even the higher federal ozone standard.
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The hotter the days become, the more likely it is that ozone levels will rise – an ominous scenario in this era of global warming.
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“I think it could get worse,” Pirolli said.