This year’s American Lung Association “State of the Air” report has once again found that the number of people living in U.S. counties with failing grades for unhealthy levels of air pollution is on the rise. An alarming 131.2 million people live with unhealthy levels of smog or soot pollution, which is an 11.7 million increase compared to last year.
Now in its 25th edition, the “State of the Air” report is our country’s air quality report card. It measures fine particle (or soot) and ozone (or smog) pollution—two of the most dangerous forms of air pollution—and assigns grades to cities and counties based on their pollution levels.
This year’s uptick in the number of individuals living with unhealthy air can be partly attributed to EPA’s stronger soot pollution standards. In February, Moms celebrated when EPA finalized new protections for soot pollution, a hard-fought victory more than a decade in the making. The new protections followed the science and strengthened the standard from 12 to 9 micrograms per cubic meter, meaning a lower amount of pollution is now deemed unhealthy. By taking into account these new more protective national air quality safeguards, the 2024 “State of the Air” report reveals a more accurate picture of the extent of unhealthy air across the country.
In a virtual briefing this week, Laura Kate Bender, American Lung Association Assistant Vice President, Nationwide Healthy Air, emphasized the dangers of breathing soot and smog:
“We care about lung health, and air pollution is a major threat to lung health… Ozone pollution and particulate matter air pollution cause a host of health harms … immediate shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing, and asthma attacks from short-term exposure. And over the long term, they can damage the lungs, including particulate matter causing lung cancer.”
Here are the top findings from this year’s report:
1. Climate change is increasing air pollution.
Short-term spikes in pollution can be attributed to intensifying wildfires, extreme heat, and drought conditions, especially in the western U.S. Natalia Reyes Becerra, American Lung Association Nationwide Advocacy Manager, explained the role wildfires play in pollution:
“Wildfires are not only increasing the number of days and places with unhealthy spikes in particle pollution. They are also increasing the severity of pollution, resulting in the sharp increase seen in the last several reports of the number of days designated as either Purple or Maroon on the Air Quality Index. These very unhealthy and hazardous days are a serious health threat to everyone living in those areas and unlike anything we have ever seen in the history of ‘State of the Air.’”
2. Disparities and environmental injustice persist.
The burden of living with unhealthy air is not shared equally. Fifty-two percent of residents in counties with at least one failing grade for air quality are people of color, even though they make up only 41.6% of the U.S. population overall.
Even worse, people of color are 2.3 times more likely than their white counterparts to live in counties with failing grades in all three categories: high smog days, 24-hour soot pollution, and annual soot pollution. Among the 27.5 million people of color who live in counties with three failing grades, 16.8 million are Hispanic or Latino.
3. Western states are faring poorly—especially with daily spikes in soot pollution.
All 25 of the worst cities for short-term soot pollution are in the western U.S. Compared with only four counties in three eastern states, 108 counties in 16 western states received failing grades for daily spikes in soot pollution.
This year’s “State of the Air” report also contains some good news: the Clean Air Act is working. During this week’s briefing, Bender pointed to a downward trend in pollution.
“Most of those trend charts are still overall downward, and what that means is the air quality generally has improved since we started putting out ‘State of the Air’ 25ish years ago,” she said. “However, a lot of those trend charts that I mentioned have a big uptick from particulate matter, and that’s because we continue to see climate change in the form of wildfires begin to outpace the progress that we’ve been making as a nation under the Clean Air Act.”
We can all help tackle the most pressing air quality issues by asking EPA to strengthen ozone pollution protections—the primary call to action from this year’s report. Sign our petition urging EPA to set strong ozone pollution standards.
Learn more about Moms’ work on smog and soot pollution.