Pittsburgh’s air pollution estimated to claim 3,000+ lives per year − and EPA rollbacks aren’t helping

A new study linking Pittsburgh’s air pollution to thousands of deaths each year has been published just as the EPA moves to weaken pollution standards.

By: Philip Landrigan, Boston College and Ella Whitman, University of Vermont, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: March 19, 2026

Words: 1,194

Last Updated: 1 day, 18 hours ago

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By Philip Landrigan, Boston College and Ella Whitman, University of Vermont

In October 1948, a thick haze rolled into Donora, Pennsylvania, a steel town in the Monongahela Valley, south of Pittsburgh. For five days, toxic fumes from a zinc smelter – a plant that turns zinc ore into pure zinc metal – poured out of the factory’s stacks, became trapped in the valley and thus blanketed Donora. The air was filled with sulfur oxides, …

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