Coal plants and other sources release into the air tiny particles -- microscopic bits of soot and ash, which can lodge in your lungs and cause disease and even death.
In the annual State of the Air report, four West Virginia cities made the list of the nation’s most polluted metropolitan areas in particle pollution.
The Charleston and Huntington areas are currently tied for the 11th worst in the nation.
The Weirton-Steubenville metropolitan area ranks 16th, and the Martinsburg-Hagerstown area ranked 24th.
Bonnie Smith is a spokeswoman for the Region 3 office of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“The sources are power plants, motor vehicles, all types of combustion engines, trucks, tractors, agricultural equipment,” she said. “It also includes residential burning. There are some natural things that occur like forest fires. Agricultural burning, as well as industrial processes.”
According to the EPA’s Web site, 12 of West Virginia’s counties have been determined by the EPA to fail EPA standards for particulate pollution. Only 211 counties nationwide have been classified as “non-attainment” counties.
Smith said a variety of factors go into the analysis, including emissions, population density, traffic patterns, and meteorology.
So West Virginia’s power plants, as well as its lack of mass transit, likely both contribute to its high levels of particle pollution.
And that pollution can translate into health problems.
“With more and more research each year, we learn that the extent of the public health impact of particle pollution is much greater than we thought it was previously,” said Dr. Norm Edelman, the American Lung Association’s chief medical officer.
“We now know particle pollution has been linked to death from both lung disease and cardio vascular disease including heart attacks and strokes; more heart attacks, especially among the elderly and people with cardiovascular disease; inflammation of lung tissue, even in young, healthy adults; increased risk of hospitalization for asthma, other lung disease and heart disease; increased emergency room visits for asthma and other lung diseases; and last but hardly least, increased asthma attacks for both children and adults.”
Those most susceptible to the effects of pollution are children and the elderly.
The report also ranked the nation’s most ozone-polluted cities and those with the highest levels of short-term pollution. The Washington D.C. area, which includes parts of the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, was ranked the 14th worst in the nation on both lists.
Ozone is created when the volatile organic compounds produced by smokestacks and tailpipes cook in the atmosphere.
Coal fired power plants create both ozone and particle pollution. Janice Nolen, the Lung Association’s air quality spokeswomen, said the Lung Association is working to reduce power plant emissions.
“Mostly it would be requiring that they have additional controls put in place,” she said. “There are different controls that are required for different pollutants. We are looking to provide the best way that we can address the needs of both reducing the raw ingredients for ozone, for particle pollution, as well as for mercury and carbon dioxide as a package.”
There are other indications that the Obama administration will be calling for stricter restrictions on power plant emissions. Hearings on cap-and-trade policies took place last week on Capitol Hill.
Also, the EPA announced on Monday that it would reconsider three Bush administration rules that affect coal-fired power plants.
The rules involve air emissions from the plants under what’s called “new source review.” It’s the requirements the EPA places on new or renovated industrial facilities or power plants.
An EPA press release says this is just the most recent in a series of actions the agency has taken to protect clean air.