Air quality impacts health

#MiddleburyCT #AirQuality #Asthma

Middlebury resident Ray Pietrorazio presents information about cumulative air pollution on May 14, 2026. Pulmonologist Dr. David G. Hill, who joined him, discussed air pollution impacts on health. (Bill Callahan photo)

By MARJORIE NEEDHAM

Speaking at a May 14 public meeting in Middlebury, Raymond Pietrorazio and pulmonologist Dr. David G. Hill discussed air pollution and its impacts on health. Those impacts are not limited to Middlebury. Closest to home, Southbury students attend the Region 15 schools, Pomperaug High School and Long Meadow Elementary School, which Pietrorazio has focused on in his research on air quality. Beyond that, Dr. Hill pointed out air doesn’t recognize the boundaries humans create. Because of this, air quality isn’t just a local issue; it is also a state issue and a national issue. (Daily local air quality can be monitored on the AirNow app on cell phones.)

This newspaper published a May 2026 article by Pietrorazio and Terry McAuliffe, “Total air pollution matters,” that may be read at www.bee-news.com/2026/05/06/total-air-pollution-matters. It focused on sources of air pollution in or near Middlebury and noted that, due to a regulatory gap, each source is regulated by one agency or another, but no agency regulates the total air pollution produced by those sources.

It also reported that, when Pietrorazio, who has been working for years to bring air quality issues to the attention of authorities, presented his information to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, DEEP officials agreed there is a regulatory gap. They said it will take legislative action to close that gap. Pietrorazio ended the May 14 presentation of his research by saying, “My wife and I raised our family here. My motivation is love for this town and its residents. I’m concerned for the health and well-being of current and future residents of the town.”

Dr. Hill, the current chairman of the National Lung Association, said of Pietrorazio’s conclusion a regulatory gap exists, “Ray is right. No one is responsible for cumulative air pollution at a specific locality.”

He said winds blow from the west to the east in the U.S., so pollution from power plants and industrial plants in the Midwest gets caught up in the jet stream and lands in Connecticut, with Fairfield County having some of the worst air pollution in the U.S. east of the Mississippi. (Editor’s note: All Connecticut counties except Windham are graded “F” for air quality by the American Lung Association. Windham is graded “C.”)

Smoke from wildfires west of us also is carried here. Hill said, “We will see effects of those wildfires, and they’ll be writing papers about it 30 years from now, talking about lung disease and lung cancer. Lung cancer is one of these things we haven’t talked about here, but the rates of lung cancer in people who’ve never smoked are rising substantially, and air pollution is definitely a driving force.” He said the rate of lung cancer in women who never smoked is about 20 to 25%. In men who never smoked, it’s about 15 to 20% and rising. He said, “When you burn stuff and breathe it in, that causes lung cancer.”

Hill said air pollution affects our children, the elderly (those 65 and older), anyone with lung disease, pregnant, or who has heart disease, diabetes, or cancer. It also affects anyone who professionally has to work outdoors, like construction workers, highway workers, or landscapers who work outside and can’t take a day off due to poor air quality. All these people are more affected by cumulative air pollution that no one has responsibility for due to the regulatory gap. Hill said there has to be regulatory will so someone has responsibility. Do regulations cost money? Yes. Do they cost jobs? Maybe. That’s a complicated economic study.

He said when you put pollution controls on a power plant, they actually have to run really complicated technical equipment with computers and hire people to run that equipment, so it costs profits, but it may create jobs. It’s just not jobs the companies want to create.

Hill said, “I don’t have all the answers here, but I think what I’ve heard from Ray, I don’t want my kids or my grandkids not being able to play outside. We’re getting there, and you have to figure out how you can have reasonable development in a safe fashion while protecting the air and reducing pollution.” He said burning fossil fuels is the thing that’s driving all of it, whether it’s power plants or automobiles or anything else. “We have treated the atmosphere like it is an infinite space, and it isn’t,” Hill said.

Hill explained that human lungs develop up to age 25, when they are at maximum function, and then function begins decreasing. He said if developing lungs are damaged before a child is 25, their maximum function will be lower than it would have been. “From 25 on, lung function goes down in everyone, so if you don’t hit your peak because you’ve been out exposed to air pollution or you smoke or vape or smoke whatever, you never hit that peak, and you start at a lower level of decline, so it’s not just an acute risk, it’s a long term,” he said.

Hill said steps can be taken to lower air pollution and to lessen its impact. “If you’re trying to protect your kids, perhaps building a distribution center between two schools is not the best way to do that,” he said. If you insist a distribution center has to be built near a school, then you should relocate the school. Attendee Bill Callahan noted school children go outside for recess, for gym, and for after school sports, so what they inhale matters.

Hill said consumers who want quick delivery of their purchases are driving the building of distribution centers. “It’s nice to get stuff delivered overnight, but we don’t want to do that and be negligent of our children,” he said. He noted sources of air pollution need to be sited where few people live. He also said school buses should be electrified and noted state and federal dollars are available to help with that.

Pietrorazio said applicants who appear before local boards and commissions might be required to model what pollution their project would generate. “We have the technology to do that,” he said.

Asked if there seemed to be any state legislative interest in addressing the issue. Hill said it takes many years of work to build the coalitions necessary to pass legislation. It’s certainly something that should be worked on, but the likelihood that this is going to be a fix for Middlebury for this acute situation is honestly probably low. He said he hoped a few people would leave the room saying this isn’t just a Middlebury problem. It’s a Middlebury problem, but it’s a Connecticut problem, and it’s a United States problem, and there are solutions with how we do development and with what we’re doing that creates pollution. He said it was worth building momentum for change, even if it takes five years, because, during that time, there are other ways to fight back on things that are being done the wrong way.

Hill said people need to be concerned about air pollution and vocal about it. There are multiple ways we can decrease air pollution. We can site facilities in places where few people live and go to school. We can decide we can wait three days to get an Amazon delivery and we’re okay with the distribution center being farther away from home. We can choose electric automobiles and buses, regardless of what the current administration or the fossil fuel companies say. And we can push for legislative action in Connecticut to close the regulatory gap.