Knoxville and the communities that surround the Great Smoky Mountains have been dealing with dreadfully poor air quality for generations.
In recent years, however, the news has actually been encouraging.
A combination of tighter restrictions on air polluters and the migration away from coal as a fuel source by utilities like the TVA means the air is actually cleaner and healthier here than it has been in decades.
But is it enough? Is it too early to rest on our laurels? What else needs to be done? On this month's installment of Dialogue, host Brandon Hollingsworth poses those questions and many more to a distinguished panel of air quality experts that includes Janice Nolan of the American Lung Association, Lyndsay Pace of Moms Clean Air Force and Jim Parks of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's National Transportation Research Center.