Asthma exacerbations rose following a catastrophic Christmas Eve fire two years ago that destroyed pollution controls at the Clairton Coke Works—the largest such facility in the nation, a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health analysis concludes. Creating coke results in several air pollutants, which are minimized through the plant’s pollution controls. Byrwa-Hill and the Pitt Public Health team used the Pitt Asthma Institute Research (AIR) registry to quickly collect information from 39 asthma patients living within 10 miles of the coke works and 44 patients living beyond that radius in the six weeks after the fire. During the pollution control breach, participants who lived closest to the plant had an 80% increased risk of worsened asthma symptoms compared with those furthest from the plant. , chair of Pitt Public Health’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health.

Source: Daily Nation April 28, 2021 12:45 UTC