Chatham-Kent residents can take a deep breath knowing our air is cleaner than it was a decade ago.
Tony Munoz, who specializes in air quality for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, says like many cities in Ontario, the quality of our air is only going up.
"Air quality in Ontario overall is improving and Chatham is [following] the same trend. We're seeing improved air quality across the area from 2006 to 2015," he says.
Munoz says the ministry's initiatives to reduce emissions have contributed to the improvement in air quality.
"We've been working hard to reduce emissions from common air pollutants that form smog. We saw drops in particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds. These are all what we call common smog pollutants and they've all been going down," he explains.
Some of the ministry's initiatives to improve air quality include eliminating coal-fired power plants and establishing Drive Clean emissions testing.
According to the latest air quality report, there were no reports of smog days locally in 2015, a significant improvement from the 46 reports of smog days in 2005.