Region's Air Still a Problem, Study Finds

To Further Reduce Pollution, Residents Urged to Drive Less, Conserve Power

The Washington-Baltimore region still has one of the worst air pollution problems in the country, ranking among the top 10 metropolitan areas for smog and soot, according to a report from the American Lung Association.

The association's "State of the Air" report, to be released today, says air in this region remains contaminated by pollution that burns lung tissue and seeds it with harmful microscopic flecks. The Washington-Baltimore area was one of eight regions ranked among the worst 25 in three measures of pollution.

In the Washington area, officials say, the air is actually getting cleaner, resulting in fewer Code Orange and Code Red days than a decade ago. But experts say residents still aren't doing enough to reduce air pollution from the region's two largest sources of contamination: power plants and automobiles.

The region "has serious pollution problems, any way you look at it," said Janice Nolen, a spokeswoman for the lung association. "We've improved air quality, but we have a long way to go."

The Washington-Baltimore region has repeatedly appeared on the lung association's list of areas with bad air. The region's problems are not entirely homegrown: Some pollutants waft out of smokestacks in the Ohio River Valley and then drift here on westerly winds.

But the region's power plants and autos are still a main source for two kinds of harmful pollution: ground-level ozone and soot.

Ground-level ozone, or smog, is an irritant that forms when sunlight heats up a mixture of chemicals found in automobile exhaust and power plant smoke.

"Think of getting a bad sunburn on the surface of your lung," said Norman Edelman, chief medical officer at the lung association, in a conference call with reporters. "This process wreaks havoc on people who have preexisting lung disease."

Soot is made up of particles just microns wide. The lung association says those particles, also emitted by burning fossil fuels, can lodge in the lungs and even pass into the bloodstream.

Both kinds of pollution seem to be getting better here. Records kept by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments show Washington area soot levels have dropped since 2000. The number of days with unhealthy ozone levels fell from 48 in 1998 to 15 last year.

Local officials attributed the improvements, in part, to new filters on power plant smokestacks and the increased use of gas-electric hybrid cars by local governments. The study seemed to show that the Washington area was doing better than the Baltimore area: The city of Baltimore had the highest levels of soot in the region, and Harford County, north of the city, had the highest ozone levels.

But officials said Washington area residents should pay attention to Code Orange and Code Red warnings and avoid exercising outside on days with unhealthy air. Already this month, the area has had two Code Orange days, when the air was considered unfit for people with existing health problems.

To improve the situation, officials said Washington area residents must learn to drive less and conserve electricity.

"We need to do more," said Joan Rohlfs, an official who works on air quality at COG. "We have to keep working on this."