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Air Pollution in the Steel City: Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Air Quality in Allegheny County
Voiceover
Presenter (s)
Carissa Lange
Abstract or Description
The city of Pittsburgh has long been viewed as a leader in iron and steel production. However, while an industrial past helped shape the city’s economic, social, and political environment, it also contributed to severe air pollution that continues to persist today. Much of the reason for the city’s poor ambient air quality is due to high levels of particulate matter (PM2.5). In Pittsburgh, 70% of this PM2.5 pollution comes from just two industrial sources, the Edgar Thomson Steel Works and the Clairton Coke Works. Though the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has sickened tens of millions of individuals, lockdown measures have been shown to significantly improve air quality. Thus, this study sought to determine how large of a role the COVID-19 lockdowns played in improving air quality in the Pittsburgh region. Data analyzed were obtained by the Allegheny County Health Department from monitors located in and around the city of Pittsburgh. Upon analysis, it was determined that decreases in PM2.5 pollution were observed when April 2020 was compared to all previous months beginning in 2016. However, when April 2020 was only compared to the previous four Aprils, decreases were only found to be significant at two of the four monitoring locations. The location which observed the most apparent significant decreases in PM2.5 was located in close proximity to the Clairton Coke Works, which experienced slowed coking times during the pandemic. Thus, the results of this study confirm that industrial sources are a larger contributor of particulate matter than vehicular transportation in the city of Pittsburgh. In the future, air pollution reduction efforts should focus attention on lessening emissions at these large industrial facilities. In return, the communities surrounding the facilities should see improved health outcomes which will lead to the reduction of health disparities in Allegheny County.
Comments
Sarah Woodley4 years ago
So interesting! Do you have data on vehicular traffic? Did it decrease in April 2020? Does temperature and humidity affect PMs? If so, can you incorporate that into models (if you haven't already)? April weather can be variable from year to year.
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Carissa Lange4 years ago
Hi Sarah, thank you for your comment! I apologize for the delay in my response, I was preparing for my defense on Friday! I do have data on vehicle traffic and it suggests that traffic during April 2020 decreased by as much as 50%. This is available via TomTom which gathers data from drivers that use the company's navigation devices. As far as temperature and humidity are concerned, temperature did not seem to have much of an impact on PM. Initially we included it, but it changed things so minimally that we ended up disregarding this component. Additionally, humidity can change things to some extent, and we initially tried to include this by incorporating API which accounts for changes associated with the pre/post rain period. However, this also did not seem to influence our results. Still, you make a good point about April weather varying from year to year. This was the primary reason we wanted to include precipitation, because it certainly was found to have an effect on our results.
Serina Tressler4 years ago
Hi Carissa! I really like the figures on your poster, they're clear and easy to understand even though I don't know much about this topic. What kind of health issues does particulate matter present? Are those issues overrepresented in the communities surrounding the Clairton Coke Works and Edgar Thomson Steel Works?
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Carissa Lange4 years ago
Hi Serina - I appreciate your comment! <br /><br />Particulate matter results in a variety of health effects, depending on the size. Whereas PM10 is typically trapped by the upper respiratory system, PM2.5 has the potential to make it into the middle/lower region of the respiratory system making it increasingly problematic. Short-term exposures to PM2.5 can result in cardiovascular and respiratory complications that have been associated with increases in daily mortality rate, and long-term exposures to PM2.5 have been linked to increased instances of cardiopulmonary and lung cancer mortality. <br /><br />To answer your second question, I did not look specifically into diseases that affect individuals in these surrounding communities. However, what I do know is that a variety of studies have observed health disparities in communities with similar demographic makeup. For example, there has been an association observed between PM2.5 and hypertension in communities with a high proportion of black individuals. Additionally, I am aware of health disparities that exist in regard to asthma in Allegheny County. According to the Allegheny County Health Department, asthma affects 27% of black teens compared to 20% of white teens, and this burden of asthma is increased when examining the communities residing in the Mon Valley region. The ACHD also reports that children living in this region are more likely to seek emergency room care and be hospitalized for an asthma attack when compared to children living in other communities. <br /><br />I hope this response helps answer your questions!
Grace Cook3 years ago
I really enjoyed learning about your work! Although it has been quite some time, COVID-19 is still playing a huge role in our lives today and it's great to see we are still recognizing that. Do you have any specific examples of how the particulate matter emissions at these facilities could be reduced?
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Emma Walters3 years ago
I love this whole study! I see all the data backing up your objective but my question for you is what made you think to start looking at the air during covid?
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