Stark Air Quality Gets Mixed Grade from Lung Association

FILE – This Jan. 23, 2013, file photo, shows a poor air quality sign is posted over a highway, in Salt Lake City. A powerful state board is moving to require emissions controls on smoky char broilers at hamburger joints. Other measures set to take effect in northern Utah this year will force changes in everyday products, from oven cleaners to aerosol deodorants and hair spray. It’s all part of a comprehensive plan to curb smog that hangs over the greater Salt Lake region. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

CANTON, Ohio (News Talk 1480 WHBC) – Mixed results for Stark County when it comes to air quality.

That’s as graded by the American Lung Association.

Though the county got a “B” for particle pollution, the grade was “D” for ozone pollution.

Ozone often increases on warmer days, when residents are encouraged to mow the lawn or gas up the car at night.

The lung association report covers the years 2020 to 2022, when there were a total of seven days when ozone monitors in the county registered above the EPA standard.

Head of the Air Pollution Control Division of Canton City Public Health Terri Dzienis says areas like Cleveland and Cincinnati see many more ozone days.

And historically, the number of “ozone days” back in the late 1990s was more like 45 a year.

This is Air Quality Awareness Week.