Air monitors placed on the nearby Manuel Perez Jr. Elementary School registered .24 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air. The federal limit is .03 more ›

Lead. In the tiniest amounts, studies show it damages brain development in children. That's why we have taken it out of our gasoline and paint. And it is why the news from Pilsen particularly bad. Monitoring data shows dangerous levels of lead in the air around Perez elementary school at or above federal limits with spikes more than 10 times higher. The Trib’s crack environmental reporter Michael Hawthorne exposed the numbers that “alarm even veteran investigators” in a front-page story which could have significant political impact both locally and nationally. Officials are unsure of exactly where the lead is coming from, but a quick look around the neighborhood points to two likely cluprits. The school is just blocks from the H. Kramer and Co. smelter and the Fisk Generating Station (one of two ancient coal plants in Chicago owned by Midwest Generation, LLC); both have been cited by the US EPA for significant Clean Air Act violations in recent years. more ›

OK, we admit it. Our bellies, rather than our lungs, are the reason for the continued interest in the filth-spewing diesel engines on Metra’s trains. We don't take light commuter rail regularly, but our daily walk through the Ogilvie train shed on the way to yummy lunch at the French Market is hold-your-breath-foul from the diesel haze of idling trains. Earlier this year, the Trib confirmed what anyone who walks past Metra’s downtown tracks had probably already guessed---those choking fumes ain’t healthy! more ›

The EPA has put Chicago and it's surrounding metro area on notice: clean up your air in five years or else.

The agency on Monday released a list of counties and urban areas that violate the revised standard. Six northeastern Illinois counties are on the list—Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will. Also cited are two fast-growing townships in Grundy County and one in Kendall, because pollution there is believed to contribute to the wider problem.

According to an EPA study, Cook County had the worst dangerous air pollution of any county in 2005 and the highest risk score, says a Tribune Watchdog Report, is a Lincoln Park steel mill. But it's not just in the city; according to the study, Will and DuPage Counties have six of the area's worst 50 factories and Lake County, Indiana has nine. more ›