News Releases - 1998

Illinois EPA Reports Air Quality Improvements

Springfield, Ill. -- Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Mary A. Gade announced today that air quality in Illinois was healthy on 98.6 percent of the days in 1997, according to the Agency's latest summary of air quality statistics, the 1997 Annual Air Quality Report, issued this week.

According to the report, there were 6 days of unhealthy air quality statewide in 1997, compared with 6 in 1996 and 8 in 1995. Five of those occurrences (two in the Chicago area, two in the Metro East St. Louis area, and one in Jersey County) were due to ozone, a respiratory irritant found in smog. The other occurrence was due to particulate matter (airborne dust) , a respiratory irritant, in the Metro East St. Louis area.

The Illinois EPA maintains more than 200 monitors statewide that track levels of six pollutants with federal health-based standards (called criteria pollutants) as well as other pollutants and compounds.

Over the past decade, the trends are also favorable. Air monitoring data collected from 1988 through 1997 shows declining levels of all criteria pollutants:

• ozone levels are down 23 percent;
• particulate matter concentrations are down 33 percent,
• carbon monoxide levels are down 48 percent,
• sulfur dioxide concentrations are down 36 percent,
• nitrogen dioxide levels are down 11 percent and
• lead concentrations are down 55 percent.

Two Illinois areas, however, do not meet the minimum health-based standards for ozone -- the Chicago metropolitan area and the Metro East St. Louis area. More reductions in pollution-causing emissions are necessary before those areas improve in air quality.

"We are encouraged by the achievements we have made in improving air quality, but major challenges still exist, especially with ground-level ozone," Gade said. AThe Agency will continue to look at new ways to reduce this air pollutant and to educate Illinois citizens about what they can do to help in the solution.

More than half of the emissions that cause smog come from cars and other gasoline-powered engines, and common household products," Gade added. "That's why it's important that everyone makes an effort to help maintain good air quality and to help improve problem areas."

Gade says that everyone can help improve air quality by taking simple actions:

• Try to limit driving by carpooling, taking public transportation or combining several short trips into one.
• Keep your car well-tuned.
• Use water-based paints and varnishes instead of oil-based.
• Limit the use of household products that release vapors or cause fumes.
• Conserve energy in your home to help reduce needs from power plants.