Onorato assembles Task Force

‘ ‘ ‘ Blue skies have graced Pitt’s campus for most of the first two weeks of this fall… ‘ ‘ ‘ Blue skies have graced Pitt’s campus for most of the first two weeks of this fall semester. Students don’t see smog and soot everywhere, and ever since the Cathedral of Learning has been polished up, most students probably forget that Pittsburgh used to be dirty. ‘ ‘ ‘ But appearances can be deceiving, and Pittsburgh’s still polluted. ‘ ‘ ‘ Allegheny County began the process of attacking and conquering the pollution problems that face its citizens by assembling a task force to address the issue. The office of Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato announced the task force Aug. 28, a few months after Pittsburgh replaced Los Angeles as the most polluted U.S. city in a study by the American Lung Association. ‘ ‘ ‘ The Environmental Air Quality Task Force is composed of people from all areas of the community, including professionals in environmental studies. One such member is Pitt professor George Leikauf, who has focused his research on the health effects of air pollution. ‘ ‘ ‘ The changes decreed by the task force will not be immediate. The committee has three years to put its plan together under the regulations of the Clean Air Act. ‘ ‘ ‘ Pittsburgh has seen some action taken already in the process of decreasing the amount of pollutants released. One notable change was the installation of rubber stoppers on gas pumps to absorb the organic pollutants released when pumping gas into a vehicle. ‘ ‘ ‘ Air quality in the United States was the leading reason for the push for environmental changes in the 1970s, said Janice Nolen, assistant vice president for national policy and advocacy for the American Lung Association. Air quality is still one of the top concerns of the Environmental Protection Agency. ‘ ‘ ‘ The agency, along with the American Lung Association, monitors areas across the country that are prone to high levels of pollution and then assists local governments with putting together programs, plans and policies to combat pollution problems. ‘ ‘ ‘ The EPA will decide by the end of this year where the pollution must be cleaned up, and then it will use the monitors already in place to track the clean up of those targeted areas over the next few years. ‘ ‘ ‘ The County Executive’s office could not be reached for comment.