Stephen Riccardi is the Western PA Field Associate for the PennEnvironment and has asked to speak at the the AWCC membership meeting on Tuesday, January 13. From PennEnvironment:

PennEnvironment (www.pennenvironment.org) is a statewide, citizen-based environmental organization that is working on a campaign to clean up our air quality here in Allegheny County and is engaging the area’s community organizations  to help us win this fight for cleaner, healthier air.  Air pollution is a longtime problem for Western PA.  The American Lung Association has given our air an F rating and ranked us as the 6th worst metro area in the country. This is putting our health at serious risk. For the 24,000 children and 100,000 adults in Allegheny County suffering from asthma, air pollution makes it risky to even go outside some days. Even for those without respiratory problems, Allegheny County is in the top 2% of US counties for cancer risk from pollution.  It may come as little surprise that much of the pollution in this area is emitted by dirty industrial facilities. One plant, the Shenango Coke Works, recently violated clean air standards 330 out of 432 days. But the agency responsible for regulating the facilities, the Allegheny County Health Department, is not doing enough to protect our health from these big polluters.

Come hear about the work PennEnvironment has been doing to engage with the Allegheny County Health Department to lookout for our most vulnerable citizens and our health.