A new report on air quality for Clinton County has a mixed analysis.
The American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2014 shows Clinton County is following nationwide trend.
American Lung Association’s Healthy Air Campaign Manager Mike Kolleng says while the number of days of unhealthy particle pollution is down there is an increase in ozone pollution days. Particle pollution can be inhaled into the lungs and ozone can create a chemical reaction in your lungs.
Clinton County received a ‘C’ grade for ozone days and a ‘D’ for particle pollution, which Kolleng says shows it’s not as good as the Lung Association would like to see.
But, he says by focusing on the grades it can take away from the message that there are more unhealthy days than they like to see and they would like to see the trends declining.
He did note that Clinton County’s particle pollution did improve, but they would like to see more improvements.
The Lung Association spokesperson says particle pollution and ozone are the two main pollutants they focus on.
Particles can some from a variety of sources such as factory smokestacks and cars to burning leaves and ozone forms from some chemical reactions of some pollutants. Kolleng says the Clinton County report is a mixed message. He says residents can be proud of the decline in particle pollution. But he added there should be concern about the increase on ozone pollution. Kolleng lined that to climate change.
The report analyzes data from 2010, 2011 and 2012 that Kolleng says is the most complete data available.
He added that the study is nationwide. The American Lung Association Healthy Air Campaign Manager said the organization does have an ‘ap’ for your phone that provides a real time monitor of the air quality based on your zip code.
Link to the Clinton County report here.
