The quality of the air New Yorkers inhale is getting worse – and SUVs, car-happy commuters, keep-on-trucking pickups and a whole lot of diesel-fueled buses are to blame, a new study claims.
With a recording of 69 days of unhealthy air between 2000 and 2002, New York City ranked 17th worst out of 50 metropolitan areas studied by the Surface Transportation Policy Project.
The worst was Riverside/San Bernardino, Calif., with 445 unhealthy days during the period.
Most of the city’s pollution – 53.9 percent – can be attributed to cars and heavy-duty vehicles, the study claims. But it also reports ozone pollution has gotten 19 percent worse in the past decade.
“Air quality overall has improved since the Clean Air Act was passed in Congress in 1970,” said Peggy Shepard, executive director of the West Harlem Environmental Action group, which released the study yesterday.
“But . . . ozone pollution levels have worsened in New York City.”
In human terms, Shepard said, unhealthy air means increased asthma, cancer and heart disease. Those most affected, she noted, are children, the elderly and people of color.