Minnesota Gets High Marks in Annual American Lung Association 'State of The Air' Report Card
Posted on: Thursday, 27 April 2006, 15:00 CDT
SAINT PAUL, Minn., April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The annual American Lung Association State of the Air Report gave Minnesota in general -- and the Twin Cities and Duluth in particular -- high marks for its clean outdoor air. While weather and geography are major factors in the grading, the local American Lung Association office points out that Minnesota leads the nation in per-capita use of cleaner burning fuels like E85 and biodiesel, and that vehicle exhaust is the single largest source of outdoor air pollution in the state.
"Now that the price of gasoline is rising again, and concerns about global oil shortages grow, more Minnesota drivers are choosing alternative fuels like E85," said Bob Moffitt, communications director for the American Lung Association of Minnesota. "Sales of E85 fuel are up 320 percent over the same period last year, and more than one million gallons of E85 were sold in March alone. This is important, because using E85 instead of gasoline reduces ozone- forming pollution by 20 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 30 percent."
Increased availability and use of biodiesel will significantly reduce particulate pollution, Moffitt added. Currently all diesel sold in Minnesota includes two percent biodiesel.
In a measurement of particulate pollution, Hennepin and Mille Lacs counties improved from a "B" to an "A." Ramsey County moved from a "C" to an "A." All other counties graded this year were scored the same as last year's report: Dakota (A), Olmsted (A), St. Louis (B), Scott (A), and Sterns (A).
In a measurement of high ozone days, Washington County improved from a "C" to a "B." The ozone grades for the other Minnesota counties surveyed -- Anoka (B), Dakota (B), Carlton (A), Lake (A), Mille Lacs (B) St. Louis (A) and Scott (A) remained unchanged from the 2005 report.
The report also cited the Twin Cities metro area and Duluth as two of the cleanest cities for long-term ozone and particle pollution in the 2006 report.
The entire report is available online at the American Lung Association of Minnesota website: http://www.alamn.org/ . For more on E85 and biodiesel, visit http://www.cleanairchoice.org/ .
American Lung Association of Minnesota
CONTACT: Robert Moffitt for the American Lung Association of Minnesota,+1-651-269-7561 (24-hr. cell)
Web site: http://www.alamn.org/http://www.cleanairchoice.org/
Source: PRNewswire
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