#hydrogensulfide

Blog Against Smog

Jan 20, 2021

Residents to Allegheny County Health Department: Better Protect Us With Strong Coke Oven Regs

Editor’s Note: The public comment period for Allegheny County’s coke oven regulations closed as of 4 p.m. Jan. 21. Residents talked about having to shut their windows on nice days to keep out noxious odors emanating from the Clairton Coke Works. They spoke about asthma attacks, about suffering itchy eyes and throats, about dust that cakes their windows and kills their outdoor plants. Some talked about fears that persistent poor air quality would ultimately force them to uproo

Dec 28, 2020

Allegheny County Tallied Two More Air Quality Exceedances Last Week

Allegheny County experienced two more air quality exceedances last week when the midnight-to-midnight 24-hour average concentration of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) exceeded Pennsylvania’s air quality standard of 0.005 ppm. Those exceedances occurred at Allegheny County Health Department’s (ACHD’s) North Braddock air quality monitor on both Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, with 24-hour concentrations of 0.007 ppm and 0.008 ppm, respectively. For those keeping track: The latest H2S exceedances b

May 7, 2020

Watchdog Report: Another Hydrogen Sulfide Exceedance – 13th of the Year – Noted Thursday

If you live in the Liberty-Clairton area and were greeted by a foul odor when you opened your windows or walked outside, the culprit was likely hydrogen-sulfide (H2S) – a type of air pollution that smells like rotten eggs. According to initial Allegheny County Health Department data, the average H2S concentration was 0.015 ppm from midnight to 10 a.m. Thursday at the Liberty monitor – a level so high that it’s mathematically impossible for today’s 24-hr average NOT to exceed

Apr 30, 2020

GASP Continues Air Quality Advocacy, But We Need Your Help to Keep Up the Fight

Dear Fellow Breathers, While so much in our world and our daily lives have changed over the last few weeks, your friends here at the Group Against Smog and Pollution want you to know that one thing remains the same: Our commitment to ensuring people in western Pennsylvania can breathe easy. Our diligent staff continues to work (from home, right now, like so many others) on pressing air quality issues that impact the health and welfare of our local communities and the resident

Mar 9, 2020

UPDATED: Liberty-Clairton Area Again Tops List for Worst Air Quality, Another H2S Exceedance Noted

In fact the air quality was poor enough that the 24-hour average Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) level at the Liberty monitor exceeded the state limit Sunday—finishing the day at 0.008 ppm according to initial data from the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD). The limit is 0.005 ppm. That means that the H2S standard has been exceeded 10 times so far in 2020. Unless conditions improve this afternoon, there will likely be another exceedance of the H2S standard today. For those kee

Mar 2, 2020

Liberty-Clairton Again Tops U.S. List of Places with Worst Air Quality; H2S Standard Again Exceeded

Folks in the Liberty-Clairton area on Monday again endured some of the worst air quality in the nation, according to AirNow.gov, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website that tracks the Air Quality Index (AQI) throughout the United States. According to initial data from the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD), the 24-hour average concentration of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) at the Liberty monitor ended Monday at 0.007 ppm, exceeding the state’s limit of 0.005 ppm. Whil

Feb 24, 2020

UPDATED: Unhealthy Air Quality in Liberty-Clairton Underscores Need for Stricter Regs, Proactive Com

UPDATE: Allegheny County Health Department’s Air Quality Program Monday evening issued this air quality update through the county’s Allegheny Alert system: Preliminary data recorded on Sunday at the Liberty monitor showed a 24-hour PM2.5 average of 36, which is above the EPA 24-hour standard of 35. This data is not verified and will go through EPA’s filter analysis to determine the final average. If there was a PM2.5 exceedance, it will be addressed via ACHD’s State Implement

Dec 27, 2019

Thursday Marked 6 Days of PM2.5, 7 Days of H2S Exceedances at ACHD's Air Quality Monitor in Liberty

In addition to spiked levels of fine particulate matter, sulfur dioxide (SO2) was also elevated, hitting 71 ppb Thursday night, just shy of a NAAQS exceedance. That’s not all: Thursday marked seven days in a row that the Liberty monitor exceeded the 0.005 ppm 24-hour hydrogen sulfide (H2S) standard. For those who may not have been following the story: A strong weather inversion this week helped trap air pollutants closer to the ground, helping to spur the spike at the Liberty

Nov 22, 2019

Transparency Watch: More Data, Stricter Regulations Needed to Reduce Benzene Exposure in Mon Valley

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced its decision to list benzene as a hazardous air pollutant under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act on June 8, 1977, based on reports “strongly suggest(ing) an increased incidence of leukemia in humans exposed to benzene.” Despite more than 40 years of regulations and research highlighting the danger of exposure to benzene, EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory data show U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke facility was still able to emit over 30

Nov 8, 2019

Environmental Groups Implore County Council to Better Fund Air Quality Program

The Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) and other local environmental groups this week called on Allegheny County Council to do what it can to better fund the health department’s Air Quality Program. “Our fear is that critical services the Air Quality Program provide – particularly those regarding expertise and enforcement on a local and community level – are not being funded adequately,” GASP staff attorney Ned Mulcahy said in public comments before Council Wednesday. Th

Aug 27, 2019

Join GASP in Telling ACHD: Enough with the Rotten Egg Odor—It’s Time to Meet the H2S Standard!

Girl covers nose with hand showing that something stinks isolated on gray background Sad but true: Waking up in the middle of the night to the odor of rotten eggs isn’t that uncommon in Allegheny County—especially downwind of the Mon Valley. For those who aren’t aware: That tell-tale rotten egg smell is characteristic of malodorous hydrogen sulfide (more commonly referred to as H2S) and is perceptible by most people event at very low concentrations. The H2S odor is so unpleas

Group Against Smog & Pollution

Blog Against Smog

Navigate

Contact Us

Get Involved