The air across Iowa is so polluted that the state is perilously close to violating new federal limits aimed at protecting human health. Yet Iowans have no way of knowing what chemicals they are breathing because of a limited – and often inaccurate – system of monitoring pollution statewide, a Des Moines Register investigation found.
Catharine Fitzsimmons, Iowa’s top air-quality official, defended Iowa’s existing air-monitoring system. Yet she said the state is under orders from the federal government to better monitor fine-particle and ozone pollution, among Iowa’s most pressing air-quality problems.
“Both of those pollutants affect respiratory systems, particularly in the young, the elderly and those with compromised lung function,” Fitzsimmons said. “They trigger heart attacks and other health problems.”
Read the rest of the Des Moines Register article here.
