The clear skies hanging over Pittsburgh in recent days are, a new poll said, not so clear… The clear skies hanging over Pittsburgh in recent days are, a new poll said, not so clear after all.

Pittsburgh has secured its spot as the No. 1 city in the “Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Short-Term Particle Pollution, ” a poll administered by the American Lung Association.

The declaration of Pittsburgh as the country’s premier in air pollution comes less than one year after Places Rated Almanac named it “America’s Most Livable City.”

This title can be attributed to surrounding areas of Pittsburgh, not particularly to the city itself, said Allegheny County Health Department spokesman Guillermo Cole.

“The fact of the matter is that the ranking only applies accurately to the Liberty-Clairton area, and Pittsburgh, the rest of the county and the surrounding counties have much better air,” said Cole in a recent interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

According to Cole, the assessment of area of the American Lung Association has been misguided, and attention should be turned toward U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works plant, which deposits soot in the Monongahela River Valley. ?

To ensure Pittsburgh or its surrounding areas are not on any future lists and to improve quality, the U.S. Steel plans a $1 billion upgrade. The upgrade will include for the first new battery of coke ovens. This could be issued as early as the end of June.

“Our projection is that the Liberty-Clairton area will come into attainment for airborne particles by 2015,” said Cole, “while the rest of the region, where particulate levels are much lower, will come into attainment by 2010. We have a plan in place, and the new coke batteries and pollution controls will improve the air dramatically.”

Much to the chagrin of the Allegheny Health Department, Kevin Stewart, director of environmental health for the American Lung Association of Pennsylvania, said there still is much more work to be done in the area to decrease air pollution.

“I respect the Allegheny County Health Department, and the lung association supports what the health department and U.S. Steel are doing to clean up the place,” said Stewart.

“But the importance of the report is to get the word out to the general public about these serious pollution issues.”

According to a joint report issued by The Group Against Smog and Pollution and Clean Water Action, the region’s problem is more devastating than expected.

The report estimates that more than 10 million Pennsylvanians – five out of every six statewide – live in smog-ridden areas.

The effects of particles can cause serious health risks and can even be fatal. If particles are in the air, they are usually breathed into the lungs.

Each year, airborne particles are the culprit of 20,000 American deaths.

The climate might change because of saturation of air particles.

The particles form droplets in clouds, which affect how much sunlight is able to pass through and the amount of moisture that is returned to the surface.

Although soot levels are a growing concern, the report says ground-level ozone continued to decline from peak levels in 2002.