Illinois EPA Reports Air Quality Improvements

Springfield, Ill. -- Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Thomas V. Skinner announced today that air quality in Illinois was healthy on 97.8 percent of the days in 1998, according to the Agency’s latest summary of air quality statistics, the 1998 Annual Air Quality Report, posted this week on the Illinois EPA’s Web site (www.epa.state.il.us).

According to the report, there were eight days in Illinois during 1998 when air quality reached the unhealthy category (two in the Metro-East St. Louis area, two in the Chicago area, three in Jersey County and one in LaSalle County) compared with six in 1997 and eight in 1996. On four of those unhealthy days, air pollution levels exceeded the federal health-based standards: three due to ground-level ozone, a respiratory irritant found in smog (one exceedance day recorded in the Metro-East, one in Chicago and one in Jersey County). The other occurrence was due to particulate matter (airborne dust), a respiratory irritant, recorded in LaSalle County.

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 1989 through 1998 shows declining levels of all criteria pollutants:

• ozone levels are down 17 percent,
• particulate matter concentrations are down 30 percent,
• carbon monoxide levels are down 32 percent,
• sulfur dioxide concentrations are down 20 percent,
• nitrogen dioxide levels are down 15 percent, and
• lead concentrations are down 50 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," said Skinner. "More efforts to reduce pollution-causing emissions, such as the new vehicle emissions tests that began this year in those two urban areas, are necessary before we can see an improvement in air quality."

More than half of the emissions that cause smog come from cars and other gasoline-powered engines, and common household products, Skinner added.

Skinner 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.