Letter to the editor: Everyone deserves to breathe clean air

The editorial “The pollution of our waterways belies their beauty” (Aug. 18, TribLive) brought important attention to the unseen pollution below the surface of Pittsburgh’s rivers. But unseen pollution in the air is doing even more damage.

I recently stood before the Allegheny County Health Board to say everyone in Pittsburgh deserves clean air and to urge it to increase fees for air polluters to pay for the department’s air program to improve air quality.

On the way to that meeting, my own nose (and the SmellPGH app) showed why we need to reduce air pollution. Worse, plenty of toxic air pollutants have no detectable smell but increase asthma and heart attack rates alongside increasing carbon emissions that make climate change worse.

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Energy Plan would help: Specifically, the PA Climate Emissions Reduction Program (Senate Bill 1191) would cap the amount of carbon large power plants can emit, make polluters pay for their pollution and use that money to build clean energy.

Clean energy means fewer toxic pollutants in the air and less carbon emissions heating our planet.

I urge everyone to contact your representatives in the Pennsylvania Legislature and ask them to pass Senate Bill 1191 to help Pennsylvania tackle climate change and clean up the air we all breathe.

Susan Kaye Quinn

Hampton