ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Allentown’s recent ranking as the asthma capital of the U.S. should push local officials to reject data center proposals in the Lehigh Valley, residents urged this week.
Allentown returned to its spot atop the worst places to live for people with asthma this year after slipping from that perch in 2025.
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America ranked the Queen City has having the highest rate of asthma-related emergency room visits among cities it analyzed for an annual report.
This is the third time in the last four years that Allentown holds the title; the city also took top spot in 2021.
Residents here and in South Whitehall Township said this week that more local data centers could saddle the region with the trophy for years to come.
Julie Thomases and several others highlighted Allentown’s recent asthma ranking before a joint meeting of South Whitehall Township officials Wednesday at Parkland High School.
She cited a study that projects data centers will cause significant increases in asthma cases and premature deaths from the condition through its use of fossil-fuel-based electricity and generators that emit air pollution.
“Adding more pollution would worsen the cumulative burden upon residents’ health,” Thomases said.
A study that analyzed air pollution in Loudon County, Virginia – often called the data center capital of the world – linked an increase in fine particulate matter to emissions from those facilities.
Residents throughout the densely populated area were exposed to those emissions, which are known to contribute to cardiovascular and respiratory outcomes, according to EmPower Analytics Group, which conducted the study.
Health-related damages from a single data center’s allowable emissions could reach up to $99 million per year, its analysis found.
South Whitehall Township resident Alice Lenthe listed a series of environmental concerns about Edged Data Centers’ plans to build a 1.5 million-square-foot data center campus across the street from Parkland High School.
Lenthe said she worries about emissions from thousands of backup generators if they’re needed during a power outage – and “where those hazardous emissions will travel” after leaving the data center site.
“When, not if that happens in the future, the backup generators will be running continuously, and neighboring students and residents will be exposed to dramatically higher particulate and hazardous air-pollutant emissions,” she said.
Those officials raised concerns about the data center’s buffering from neighboring properties, along with its noise output and cooling system, but they did not directly address air-quality concerns.
The South Whitehall Township Planning Commission is scheduled to again consider the Project Atlas proposal Sept. 23.
Allentown's planning commission this week tabled its review of a proposed 224,000-square-foot data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. It's expected to see the project again at its October meeting.