Pollution from industry and individuals has combined to give the capital region failing marks on a report issued Thursday by the American Lung Association.
“We’ve got nobody that’s innocent in this,” said Janice Nolen, Washington-based director of national policy. And, despite fewer actual days in the region per year where ozone and particle pollutants reached critical levels, Nolen said, standards once thought safe have been toughened.
“There’s harm at lower levels of air pollution than we thought,” Nolen said. “The Washington, D.C., area, even though it’s cleaner than it was, still has a long way to go.”
The report rated the Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia-West Virginia region as the country’s 12th most polluted for ozone and short-term particle exposure and 21st for year-round exposure to particle pollution.
Not one city, county or district in the capital region got a passing grade for ozone. And none of the communities scored better than a “C” for particle pollution, the microscopic irritants generated by fossil fuel emissions and other sources that can lodge in the lungs and even pass into the bloodstream.
Locally, Nolen said, diesel-powered trucks, buses and trains, as well as gas-powered boat engines on the Potomac River and even small-engine machinery used in landscaping, all hurt air quality.
Polluted air also arrives in the region from coal-burning power plants in the Midwest and Southeast. Dirty air from the capital region then makes its way elsewhere, she said.
Health and environmental departments in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Northern Virginia did not return calls from The Examiner seeking comment Thursday.
Ozone pollution advisories/grades:
» District of Columbia – orange days, 18; red days, 8; purple days, 1; grade: F
» Montgomery County – orange days, 15; red days, 1; grade: F
» Prince George’s County – orange days, 26; red days, 4; purple days, 1; grade: F
» Arlington County – orange days, 18; red days, 7; purple days, 1; grade: F
» Fairfax County – orange days, 27; red days, 10; purple days, 2; grade: F
» Prince William County – orange days, 15; red days, 2; grade: F
