During winter, when air is warmer in the atmosphere than at the surface, temperature inversions occur.

An inversion happens when the warmer air acts like a lid above the cooler air underneath, preventing pollutants from rising and dispersing, trapping them at breathing level.

Inversions are strongest in the winter months when pollution from vehicle exhaust, industrial sites and wood burning can fester near the ground, leading to poor air quality.

He's my state senator....unfortunately.

Yeah, well it's bullshit.

Who do you think approved it? My guess would be Gov. Wolf.

Wow. You know your stuff.

Help a girl out here....the drive-in theater is where the Walmart is now, right?

Yeah, except that 50 years ago, the planet wasn't heating up to the degree it is. Pollution + heat + humidity are having a detrimental effect on people's health.

Further, these numbers are in the WINTER. They're MUCH higher in the summer.

The air quality where I live -- in the EXURBS -- has been making me sick for years. I only recently made the correlation between the high levels of pollution from the highway and me feeling like shit.

I'm in Pittsburgh's exurbs and I'm seeing more monitors, like in Penn Township, on that map.

Protect PT gave me a Purple Air monitor and installed it my home.

Interestingly, they told me they offered to buy and install these monitors at local public schools, but many schools refused them. If it turns out there's an air quality issue at the school, the school district has to address it, and it's cheaper to ignore it.

https://www.protectpt.org/

These are ugly particle pollution numbers for the Pittsburgh area, especially at noon on Monday after a rainy weekend. This pollution, which is mostly from vehicle exhaust, lingers in the valleys that many of these busy roads run through.

As Turnpike tolls continue to go up, more and more vehicles utilize non-toll roads like US 22, US 30, US 376 (Parkway east and west), US 65 and other non-toll roads that aren't equipped for this level of traffic.

I don't know how to break it to you, but an increasing number of Americans funding your pension and Social Security will have NEITHER available for them when they retire.

They don't give a fuck if yours is cut.

I fully expect to spend my retirement years living in a homeless shelter. If I'm lucky.

The number of Americans who struggle to obtain food and housing is on the rise, and the fastest growing demographic of homeless is senior citizens, many of whom get only Social Security.

You'll be lucky to get a portion of your pension and other retirement benefits.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/11/10/1135125625/homelessness-elderly-housing-inflation

>How would they go about addressing the current liability?

They would CUT pensions and healthcare.

Promises aren't contracts. Nothing is 'locked in'.

The former state senate majority leader, Bob Mellow, recieves $20,000 a MONTH for his state pension. That's just ridiculous.

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/politics/state/Bob-Mellow-pension-prison-SERS.html

What's with the downvotes? You WANT Democrats to throw younger workers under the bus?

Eh. I'm not expecting much from the Democratic Caucus in the Legislature.

LOTS of them voted for the so-called pension reform bill (Act 5 of 2017) which sticks younger state workers in a hybrid pension/401k retirement program, but does nothing to address the state's massive public pension liability.

Democrats who screw over young people -- which seems to be how America operates these days -- are garbage.

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/06/pension_bill_represents_in_som.html

Medicaid in Pennsylvania DOES cover mental health treatment.

I'm on Medicaid, but have not used the program's MH services myself.

Westmoreland County resident here (just outside of Pittsburgh)

Before Pennsylvania opted into the Medicaid expansion, there were (and may still be) mental health resources available on the county level.

My Rx and doctor visits were covered; I participated in Westmoreland Casemanagement and Supports, a nonprofit. I think they contracted with the county to provide MH services to low-income individuals.

They may have something like that in Allentown.

Good. They need a fire lit under their asses.

Welcome to Pittsburgh, where we're living 20 years behind the times.

Are you stupid? Why do you think migrants from Central and South America are coming to the US in DROVES?

"In the 1990s, health officials noticed that chronic kidney disease was on the rise in Central America. An epidemic seemed to be raging among farmworkers who toiled in sugarcane fields on the Pacific Coast in El Salvador and Costa Rica — one of the hottest areas in the region. To date, more than 20,000 people have died in the epidemic, and thousands of others have had to go on kidney dialysis to survive."

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/2/15/18213988/chronic-kidney-disease-climate-change

Holy smokes, dude...why so angry?

Climate change is the No. 1 issue we face in the world.

Your rage speaks volumes about western Pennsylvania's provincialism.

>Millions dead from lack of heat,

What? People are fleeing countries where it's too hot.