Tailpipe exhaust from vehicles is one of the main sources of smog.
Lancaster County, which had shucked its bad-smog infamy a few years ago, is back on the unhealthy list.
Last week, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced tougher ground-level ozone limits nationwide. The new health standards weren't dramatically lower, or as low as environmental groups and EPA's own independent advisers had recommended.
But the new limits will put Lancaster County's air back into non-compliance, according to the EPA. Twenty-three other counties in Pennsylvania will be in the same boat, according to the agency.
Ground-level ozone, commonly called smog, is caused by pollutants chiefly emitted from vehicles, coal or oil power plants and such household activities as lawn mowing and painting.
The pollutants react with sunlight to create a haze known as smog. Especially in the summertime, smog burns the lungs, which can cause health problems among the young and elderly with respiratory problems. Smog is particularly bad for asthma sufferers.
Lancaster County's smog problems are exacerbated by polluted air blown here by prevailing winds from the Midwest, where many power plants are clustered.
In the early 2000s, Lancaster County often found itself on environmental groups' lists of worst smog areas in the United States. In 2004, for example, the American Lung Association named Lancaster's ozone pollution 23rd-worst in the country.
But a number of cleaner-air initiatives on the federal and state level have made inroads and in 2006 the state was successful in getting Lancaster and 24 other counties taken off the non-attainment list.
State officials remain hopeful anti-pollution steps still taking effect will keep Lancaster's air in compliance, even with the tougher threshold.
"Many counties not in attainment are not real far off. We hope they would meet the new standard." says Ron Ruman, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Under Gov. Ed Rendell's controversial Clean Vehicles Program, cars and light trucks sold in Pennsylvania beginning with 2008 models have to have cleaner-burning engines.
"That will have a major impact as the years go by," Ruman says. A state rule limiting how long buses and tractor-trailers can idle is pending.
Federal rules on cleaner diesel engines are just entering their second year and federally mandated controls on power plant emissions are affecting air blowing here from the West.
DEP hopes all these factors will help counties with marginal air quality such as Lancaster make the tougher grade.
But Ruman points out that the flip side of the coin is that Lancaster County continues to grow, meaning more vehicles on the road, more industry and more lawn mowers in use.
Pennsylvania has a year to measure the air in Lancaster and other counties for submission to EPA. After that, the state will have until 2013 to adopt a mitigation plan for any counties in violation of the new ozone standard.
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