The following Team 4 report by investigator Jim Parsons first aired Feb. 18, 2005, on Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m.

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Health officials are warning about a pollutant called PM2.5.

The Pittsburgh area is second in the nation in having the highest amount of this tiny killer. It causes premature death from heart and lung disease.

A Team 4 analysis finds that where PM2.5 is being released, people are dying from heart and lung disease at a higher-than-average rate.

Pollution is not a new issue for the Steel City, where streetlights once shone at noon because the smoke blotted out the sun. What is new is the type of air pollution that now shrouds the area.

It's not dark and ominous. In fact, it takes monitoring devices to see. These instruments have been installed all over western Pennsylvania, quietly measuring a deadly substance that's 30 times smaller than a human hair.

Eric Schaeffer, Environmental Integrity Project: "Fine particle pollution is the most deadly form of air pollution that we know."

Jayme Graham, Allegheny County Health Department: "We know it does cause premature death."

Fine pollution particles -- mostly from industry, but also from forest fires and the cars and trucks we drive -- are so small that our bodies can't repel them.

Dr. Devra Davis, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute's Center for Environmental Oncology: "These particles, if they're 10 microns, the nose stops them through the nosehair. Those nosehairs work. If they're smaller than 10, they get into the trachea. If they're smaller than 2.5, they get into the lower lung. The ultrafine particles, even smaller than that, can get into the bloodstream."

That's why the Environmental Protection Agency has now concluded that each year, PM2.5 causes tens of thousands of people to die prematurely from heart disease and chronic lower respiratory disease.

The EPA says the two worst areas in the nation for PM2.5 are Southern California and Pittsburgh.

Schaeffer: "Residents in the Pittsburgh area should be very concerned."

Schaeffer is the former director of the EPA's Office of Regulatory Enforcement under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Schaeffer: "Within breathing distance of Pittsburgh, you have three of the five biggest sources of sulfur dioxide pollution in the country -- Hatfield's Ferry, Keystone and Homer City, three coal-fired power plants."

When sulfur dioxide mixes with ammonia in the atmosphere, it can turn into PM2.5.

These far-off power plants are one part of Allegheny County's fine particle pollution problem. Another is more local. It's the hundreds of companies, schools, hospitals and other institutions that still burn coal.

An EPA map shows all of the sources for PM2.5 in Allegheny County. Each black dot is a PM emitter. We're not scientists, but we wondered what would happen if we compared this map with one that shows where people are dying at the highest rates from heart and lung disease.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the top communities for heart and lung disease deaths combined over a three-year period were Elizabeth, Verona, Oakmont, Brackenridge, Bridgeville, Cheswick, East Pittsburgh, McKeesport and McKees Rocks. Each of those nine communities is close to a major industrial source of PM2.5.

Click here to see the map comparison.

More Information PM 2.5 Maps Pa. Counties Vital Stats Dr. Devra Davis

Schaeffer: "I don't think your data is surprising, and I think it's consistent with research that the EPA has done. There's a connection between particulate matter pollution and heart disease and premature death."

Davis, a senior adviser to the World Health Organization, characterizes Team 4's analysis as unscientific, but she doesn't dismiss it.

Davis: "There's ample evidence already in scientific literature to show there's a problem. I wouldn't bother with a debate on these numbers because they're not scientifically credible, but they're no surprise."

They're no surprise to the mother of these boys, either. They both suffer from asthma and they're growing up in the shadow of the industrial valley in Clairton, an area that has one of the highest annual concentrations of PM2.5 in the United States.

Lisa Marcucci, environmentalist and mother: "I believe the asthma was triggered by the pollution down on state Route 837."

Local industries that burn coal don't dispute that PM2.5 is harmful, but they argue the problem isn't primarily a local one.

Kathryn Klaber, Allegheny Conference on Community Development and Affiliates: "As much as 80 percent of the PM2.5 that's measured in monitors here in southwestern Pennsylvania comes from sources outside of our state, so the best way to address this is a fair solution to the similar-sized power plants across the whole eastern U.S., before we start looking at much smaller contributors that are local."

Local health officials agree that the solution has to be a combination of local, regional and national efforts.

Graham: "There's three levels. All three of them are going to have to act, all three of them are going to have to decrease emissions for us to ensure the health and air quality in Allegheny County."

For Davis, who grew up Donora, a place infamous for deadly air pollution, the stakes are as high now as they've ever been.

Davis: "We really have only one planet, and we've got to understand that the policies we develop here locally have a profund effect on the globe."

Because of new federal health standards on PM2.5, officials are now working on a five-year plan to reduce the problem, but they say it will take longer to develop a solution in the Clairton-Liberty area.