County’s bad grade for air quality put into context

Published 10:08 pm Thursday, April 30, 2009

SEATTLE — While the American Lung Association has slapped an “F” on Snohomish County for a particular type of air pollution, it’s not as bad as it might sound, government officials say.

Particulate pollution — considered the worst form of dirty air — is more prevalent than it should be but has been slowly improving the past few years, officials say.

Particulate pollution comes primarily from wood smoke and diesel exhaust.

“We’ve been working hard with the jurisdictions in Snohomish County to continue to clean up the air with wood stove change-out programs and diesel retrofit programs,” said Paul Roberts, chairman of the board of directors of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and an Everett city councilman. The Seattle-based agency has jurisdiction over air quality issues in King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties.

The American Lung Association’s report, released Wednesday, is a nationwide inventory of air quality that includes the Puget Sound area.

“Healthy air is a priority for our organization and must remain a priority for our state,” said Dr. Al Brady, board chairman for the American Lung Association of the Northwest. “We cannot relent on our work to keep our air clean, because air pollution is a major threat to lung health.”

While Snohomish County graded low in particulate matter, it received no grade for ozone, which comes primarily from automobiles. Neither the Clean Air Agency nor the state has monitors set up here to measure that substance.

The Clean Air Agency has three air quality monitors set up in Snohomish County — in Marysville, Lynnwood and Darrington, which measure only particulate pollution, not ozone, said Kathy Himes, a specialist in toxic pollutants for the Clean Air Agency. The Lung Association apparently used data collected from those monitors.

Particulate matter is considered the most dangerous type of air pollution, according to the Clean Air Agency. It puts people at higher risk for developing or aggravating bronchitis, asthma, emphysema, heart disease and even lung cancer. Older adults, children and people with respiratory or heart disease are especially vulnerable.

In the American Lung Association’s previous three reports, in 2005, 2006 and 2007, Snohomish County received a D in particulate pollution. The downgrade appears to be based at least in part on tighter standards for particulates put into effect in December 2006.

The federal government lowered the threshold for acceptable levels from 65 micrograms of particles per cubic meter to 35, Himes said. The goal is 25, she said.

“The bar is being raised,” Himes said.

The Lung Association used 35 micrograms per cubic meter as a measuring stick in its latest report. Also, the report is designed to give greater weight to bad days to provide greater protection for the public, according to information released by the organization.

The report is based on data collected from 2005 to 2007. The Clean Air Agency has been running diesel retrofit programs in Snohomish County since 2003. It has offered incentives for replacing older, dirtier-burning wood stoves in Darrington since 2005, in Marysville since 2007 and in Everett since last year.

Unlike the Lung Association, the Clean Air Agency does not use letter grades. According to the agency’s yardstick, in 2007, Snohomish County had 288 good days, 70 moderate days, six days that were unhealthful for sensitive populations and one day unhealthful for everyone. The figures were averaged between the three monitors.

Improvements in air quality don’t always show up in the data collected in the monitors, because it’s based on volume rather than severity of pollutants, Himes said. Still, the Clean Air Agency knows that the stove and bus retrofits are taking bad pollutants out of the air, she said.

“The whole purpose here is to … have better quality air,” Roberts said. “And we’re working on that, and all the jurisdictions are.”

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.