Toxic Ten: The Most Toxic Industrial Air Polluters in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

We worked with PennEnvironment to identify Allegheny County’s Toxic Ten – the 10 active facilities emitting the most toxic air pollution in the county. These 10 industrial facilities emitted more than 955,000 pounds of toxic pollutants in 2016 – contributing more than 70 percent of the air pollution from all industrial sources in the county. To find out more about each facility and identify which ones are closest to you, go to ToxicTen.org.

Toxic threats

Elizabeth Berg

Policy Associate

The Pittsburgh region has some of the worst air quality in the nation. A University of Pittsburgh study ranked Allegheny County in the 2 percent of U.S. counties with the highest cancer risk from air pollution. Roughly 32,000 children and hundreds of thousands of adults in Allegheny County have asthma, and the poor air quality exacerbates their respiratory issues.

We worked with PennEnvironment to identify Allegheny County’s Toxic Ten – the 10 active facilities emitting the most toxic air pollution in the county. These 10 industrial facilities emitted more than 955,000 pounds of toxic pollutants in 2016 – contributing more than 70 percent of the air pollution from all industrial sources in the county. These toxic emissions included substances linked to cancer, birth defects, reproductive problems, heart disease and other ailments.

To find out more about each facility and identify which ones are closest to you, go to ToxicTen.org.

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Authors

Elizabeth Berg

Policy Associate