Three-quarters of a century ago, the Pittsburgh areaâs air quality was such that the city was derisively referred to as âHell with the Lid Off.â For decades afterward, steel mills were rampant and so was pollution.
Most of those mills disappeared by the late 1980s and the regionâs skies have improved since. They may not be pristine, but according to findings from a recent analysis, they are much better.
Pittsburgh Works Together, a nonpartisan alliance of labor, industry and civic leaders, released its findings on Thursday in a report titled âClearing the Air.â The year-old group examined data, including small particulate matter and ozone, and concluded that air quality has improved across the Pittsburgh region over the past decade and âis typical for a big-city metropolitan area.â