Air pollution in and around the city of Pittsburgh is estimated to claim the lives of more than 3,000 people every year, even as federal regulators move to weaken rules designed to protect public health.
Researchers set out to examine the long-term effects of fine particle pollution in southwestern Pennsylvania. Their findings show that the Pittsburgh region remains one of the nation’s most dangerous pollution “hot spots,” with harms occurring even when pollution levels fall below current federal standards.
The team’s analysis indicates that pollution contributed to roughly one in every nine adult deaths in the region in a single year, underscoring what the authors say is a gap between public health science and U.S. air policy…