Green Daily

The Pirates may be leading MLB's charge to go reduce its environmental impact, but it looks like the the steelers are holding them back. Not the NFL Steelers mind you, I'm talking about the city's trademark steel industry.

For the first time on record, a non-California city has taken the top honors in 1 of the 3 categories rated by the American Lung Association. People of Pittsburgh, your air barely edged out LA's to take the prize for worst short-term particle pollution in the country.

Don't worry yourselves too much, LA still won 2 out of the 3 categories -- so the equilibrium of the universe is still in tact. LA is starting to see improvements in its air quality, however, since the city began to take action to remove particulate pollution. Pittsburgh has also taken measures to control its particle pollution, but they won't effect the rating, since the study used data collected from 2004 through 2006.

To put it in technical terms, short-term particle pollution is the tiny soot-like junk that can enter your lungs. It can vary greatly from day to day, depending on weather and factory output. This isn't the type of pollution associated with asthma, but it is thought to raise the risk of stroke and heart attacks when it's at high levels.