American Lung Association gives New Jersey an ‘F’ in for air quality

New Jersey is failing when it comes to the quality of its air.

News 12 Staff

Apr 25, 2019, 2:32 AM

Updated 2,072 days ago

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New Jersey is failing when it comes to the quality of its air.
The American Lung Association released its State of the Air Report and New Jersey received an F-grade. The group says that the main reason for the bad air is cars, trucks and buses, which are creating smog and ozone pollution that can have serious health risks.
Environmental groups suggest that if habits aren’t changed more people will suffer from the health effects of asthma and respiratory illnesses.
“It happens more and more frequently. Our climate gets warmer and climate change is happening. We are having more ozone days,” says New Jersey Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel.
The ALA says that another big producer of pollutants in New Jersey is power plants. The Sierra Club was recently able to shut down the PSEG coal plant on Duck Island along the Delaware River in Trenton. Another coal plant in Jersey City was also closed.
Environmentalists say that New Jersey residents need to embrace electric-powered vehicles, which create little-to-no air pollution. Tittel says that the need for electric vehicles includes buses.
“New Jersey Transit is buying another 500 gasoline-powered buses when they should be moving toward electric buses like LA, Seattle and New York,” Tittel says.
The Sierra Club says that drivers may be more inclined to switch to electric vehicles if they are given incentives from state officials.
The American Lung Association ranked New York and New Jersey 10th-worst in the nation in terms of air quality. California was ranked as the worst.