Pittsburgh's pollution - Whats your take on it? (Oakmont, Verona: allergy, cars)

[rocafeller05]

Well after looking at the air test survey I think its legit & there are several monitoring sites. Maybe its a bigger problem than what people want to believe.

http://www.achd.net/air/pubs/pdf/4q07aqreport.pdf

[PeterRabbit]

There's no doubt we have a big problem. I pointed out Clairton as *one* of the sites where they measured air quality because it has to be the worst spot and due to it's location in relationship to the city, I felt it's kind of unfair. Even so, we've always held the number two spot behind LA or have stayed in the top ten in those types of studies.

When I was in the army they had coal furnaces and my coughing got so bad they put me in the hospital and said I have chronic bronchitis. I live here and I smoke and don't have any breathing or coughing problems. Different people can be affected differently so I don't know how this area might affect your wife. I'd expect nothing different. It used to be so bad the street lights were on all day.

[rocafeller05]

Are you serious when you say the street lights would be on during the day time? Thats crazy!

[Pitt Chick]

Yup - it was really bad HALF A CENTURY ago, not now!

Here's a link that will show you what Pittsbugh USED TO be.

Coal: The Other Fossil Fuel | Energy Bulletin

[fleetiebelle]

Are you serious when you say the street lights would be on during the day time? Thats crazy!

There are also stories from back in days of yore of business men changing white shirts during the day because they got dirty, and women taking several pairs of gloves into town for the same reason.

[trotter_rej]

Originally Posted by fleetiebelle

There are also stories from back in days of yore of business men changing white shirts during the day because they got dirty, and women taking several pairs of gloves into town for the same reason.

During a Frick Mansion tour they displayed a set of men's shirt collars from the period that were removeable via buttons so that the men wouldn't have to change their whole shirt, just the collar.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by rocafeller05

Are you serious when you say the street lights would be on during the day time? Thats crazy!

Oh, yes. I have seen pictures. My mom (b. 1921) used to talk about washing the wall with Ajax cleanser, stuff like that b/c the soot blew in under the door. At the time, we lived a few blocks from a steel mill. That is one of the reasons people wanted to move out to the burbs.

[PeterRabbit]

If you would have moved out to Oakmont you'd have had Edgewater Steel right in town. The soot clung to the windows and was all over cars... everything.

[Katarina Witt]

We moved from downtown Beaver Falls, which at the time had about 4 steel mills in an area of about 10,000 people, to Patterson Hts, "up the hill". Some considered it an act of traitorism.

[onwardandupward]

Originally Posted by PeterRabbit

If you would have moved out to Oakmont you'd have had Edgewater Steel right in town. The soot clung to the windows and was all over cars... everything.

This is incorrect. Edgewater Steel was a rolling and fabricating mill, NOT a steel producing mill. The mill made locomotive wheels and other specialty steel products. It never produced soot that clung to windows and cars in the Oakmont and Verona area. The mills in the Allegheny Valley were/are primarily specialty mills, unlike those of the Mon Valley, which produced the coke and basic steel - THOSE were the mills spewing soot everywhere.