Ill. air quality held steady in 2007

SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency says the state's air quality held steady in 2007.

In a report released this week, the state EPA says air quality ranked "good" or "moderate" 93 percent of the time throughout the state in 2007. That's compared to 97 percent of the time in 2006 and 90 percent in 2005.

The report says there was one day in 2007 that air quality in the St. Louis region was considered unhealthy due to ozone. There were no so-called "unhealthy" days in 2006.

There were also 24 days when air quality in some part of the state was considered unhealthy for sensitive groups. That compares with eight of those days in 2006.

Air quality was monitored at more than 80 sites from more than 200 instruments.