The Environmental Protection Agency is expanding its air quality forecasts for more than 100 cities. That means you’ll be getting air quality alerts during the winter, too. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams reports:
Transcript
The Environmental Protection Agency is expanding its air quality forecasts for more than 100
cities. That means you’ll be getting air quality alerts during the winter, too. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams reports:
The Air Quality Index has five color codes. They range from green for days when the air is good,
to purple when the air is hazardous. In the summer, the index forecasts ozone pollution. Now,
the EPA will use the index to forecast particle pollution year-round.
Particle pollution is the soot that comes mainly from coal-burning industries and diesel engines.
Jeff Holmstead is the assistant administrator of the EPA’s Air Office.
“These tiny particles are almost microscopic, and they can actually bypass some of the body’s
normal protective functions and embed deep in the lungs and cause problems.”
Holmstead says particle pollution can be especially harmful for adults with heart or lung
problems, and kids with asthma. But he says even healthy people should take the warnings
seriously.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.