"Measures Across the United States Target Port Pollution"

"Joe Johnson isn't a scientist, but he knows that the giant, smoke-spewing ships that dock at the Port of Baltimore can't be good for his health -- or that of his 9-year-old son.

'Those things just look evil,' says Johnson, a handyman who lives in a row house just east of the port. 'When the wind blows the wrong way, there's no telling what kind of (pollutants) we're breathing.'

Indeed, approximately 87 million Americans who live near major seaports are breathing some of the nation's dirtiest -- and most dangerous -- air, the Environmental Protection Agency says. But help is on the way, thanks to initiatives across the USA to cut pollution coming from ships, vehicles and other sources within the ports themselves."

Garrett Hubbard reports for USA TODAY March 25, 2010.