The quality of air has been pretty decent lately in Philadelphia and I mean the past week but usually its not good quality But assuming nothing major has occurred we do have some things that make our air worse then average. It should be noted that being as bad as others should not be a reason to stay in air that is dangerous orcausing major increases in health problems. One can say the proof does or doesn't show the air causes the increase in asthma or respiratory disease or cancers depending on the wishes of the person interrpretting them! Presume the exact studies you and everyone ask for has limitations. The incentive to prove air is not good takes incentives and business often don't have any to publicize or factor those things as it might affect the markets in the area ( thus news departments ignoring the dangers here but pump asthma and copd meds instad) As with oil and global warming, your best interests are usually not safeguarded.
Market the only reason you try to rationalize the quality of air as ok sometimes, here is because you live here. You ask for studies? If I post them they are often removed so how are you going to fault me for not posting them? If I gave you studies, would you change your mind? I am betting not. You have rationalized your existence here, which is fine .
The problem with all our oil refineries and coal out west is that because our media refuses to acknowledge the dangers the people react as if I am unfairly portraying the area has harmful when its not.
The worse part of all this is Philly can get better air. Ironically enough if global warming keeps getting worse it might and I say that gingerly increase ocean air our way. If our oceans keep getting more polluted that might not be good. If we cut loose our oil refineries we would have much better air. If we mandated for cleaner coal we would have much healthier air. But ignoring why experts say hundreds of thousands in our area are in immediate dangers because of pollution ( leave me your email and I will send you the link) just shows that instead of trying to get elected officals to care we default to being poisoned and I really believe that . Ultimately the best way to prove damage is to compare health stress tests and respiratory tests between two populations based on age and same lifestyle. Thats the factor that would prove what I was saying was true. This was told to me by a envionmental expert .