By JEFF STITT
On Christmas Eve 2018, there was a fire at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, the largest coke plant in the world.
A study released Wednesday by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, UPMC and the Pitt School of Health Sciences shows asthma “exacerbations” and the use of inhalers rose following that fire, which destroyed pollution controls at the coke plant.
The study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, was possible because of a collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Asthma and Environmental Lung Health Institute at UPMC and the Allegheny County Health Department, with funding from The Heinz Endowments, according to UPMC.
“In addition to verifying that people living within a 10-mile radius of the coke works had higher rates of asthma exacerbations and use of albuterol rescue medication than those living outside the radius, we learned that nearly half of the people with asthma closest to the fire were unaware of the pollution problem and, therefore, unable to take steps to avoid exposure,” wrote lead author Brandy Byrwa-Hill, M.S.
She is a Ph.D. student in Pitt Public Health’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health.
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