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The State of Wisconsin's Air

A view from Three Bridges Park in Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley. Dona Wininsky says valley clean up including We Energies transitioning its power plant from coal to natural gas resulted in cleaner air, but more improvements are necessary.

The American Lung Associationrecently issued its annual State of the Air report. Parts of Wisconsin fared very well - others, not so much.

For nearly two decades the group has taken air quality data from the EPA and departments of natural resources from each state. Individual cities and counties are graded based on the latest EPA standards.

It turns out that warm weather played a big role in our air quality over the last few years.

"Of course, we can’t control the weather, which is why it’s so important to control the other pollutants that go into making up ozone - the nitrogen oxides and the VOCs (volatile organic compounds)," Dona Wininsky says.

She is the director of tobacco control and public policy for the American Lung Association’s Wisconsin chapter.

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Susan is WUWM's environmental reporter.<br/>