
One out of every three people in the US lives in places marked by unhealthy levels of air pollution. Though the Clean Air Act has helped reduce pollution in some locales, climate change is making it more difficult to clean up the air, as wildfires worsen the deadly particle pollution known as soot, and hotter, sunnier days worsen ozone pollution, also known as smog.
These are among the key findings released today by the American Lung Association in its annual State of the Air 2023 report, findings that continue to raise alarms about the impact breathing polluted air has on children, pregnant women, and communities of color.
To arrive at its results, the American Lung Association analyzed pollution data for 922 counties across the US. The group awarded grades A–F to reflect the counties’ air quality, with A for excellent and F for failing. Nearly 36% of the US population—119.6 million people—still live in places with failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. While researchers found 17.6 million fewer people breathing unhealthy air compared to last year’s report, the number of people living in counties with failing grades for daily spikes in deadly particle pollution was 63.7 million, the most ever reported under the current national standard.
The report’s findings also shed light on the injustices people of color face when it comes to the air we all breathe. Though people of color make up 41% of the overall population of the US, they make up 54% of the nearly 120 million people living in counties with at least one failing grade. In the counties with the worst air quality, 72% of the 18 million residents affected are people of color, compared to the 28% who are white.
“Communities of color still bear a disproportionate burden from air pollution,” said Deborah P. Brown, ALA’s chief mission officer. “Everyone deserves clean air.”
Climate change is making the job of cleaning up the air more difficult, researchers also found. On the one hand, findings in “State of the Air” reflected the success the Clean Air Act has had in reducing emissions from transportation, power plants, and manufacturing. On the other hand, the report’s analysis bolsters evidence that a changing climate is making it harder to protect human health. The three years covered by “State of the Air 2023″ (2019, 2020, 2021) ranked among the seven hottest years on record globally. High ozone days and spikes in particle pollution related to heat, drought, and wildfires are putting millions of people at risk and making it that much more difficult for states and cities to keep the air clean, especially in the West, where forest fires are starting earlier and burning hotter and longer. In this year’s report, 111 counties in 19 states got Fs for daily particle pollution. All but 8 counties are in the West.
ALA’s report specifically evaluates two forms of air pollution: particle pollution and ozone pollution. Particle pollution is the mixture of tiny solid and liquid particles emitted by wildfires, coal-fired power plants, diesel engines, and wood-burning stoves and is also called “soot.” Ozone pollution is the odorless, colorless, but toxic gas that forms on hot, sunny days and is often referred to as “smog.”
The ALA’s researchers estimate that particles the size of PM 2.5, about the width of a human hair, are responsible for nearly 48,000 premature deaths in the US every year. Short-term exposure to particle spikes, like those that occur after a wildfire, can increase mortality in infants as well as the severity of asthma attacks and hospitalization for asthma with respiratory illness. Among pregnant people, fetuses, and children, long-term particle pollution exposure is linked to greater risk of preterm birth and low birth weight, higher fetal and infant mortality, impaired neurological development and cognition, reduced lung development and impaired lung function in children, and more likelihood of children developing asthma.
“The good news is cleaning up particle pollution makes a difference,” the report declares. “Research has shown a consistent relationship between decreasing PM2.5 concentrations and improving respiratory health in children and adults.”
Ozone gas is a powerful lung irritant. When inhaled, it reacts with the delicate lining of the airways, causing inflammation and other damage that can impact multiple body systems. When ozone levels are high, many people suffer chest tightness, coughing, and shortness of breath. Even healthy young adults may experience decreased lung function. Living with ozone pollution long-term may cause lasting damage, including new cases of asthma in children, increased risk of metabolic disorders, reduced fertility, and greater likelihood of preterm birth, stillbirth, and low birth weight.
Children are both more susceptible to air pollution and more likely to be exposed than adults because development of a child’s lungs and breathing ability start in utero and continue into early adulthood. The developing brain and heart may also be affected. The defenses that help adults fight off infections are immature in children. In addition, kids generally have more respiratory infections than adults, which also seems to increase their susceptibility to air pollution.
Pregnancy is always a vulnerable time for both the mother and the developing fetus. Air pollution can make it worse, increasing the risk of preeclampsia in the mother as well as intrauterine inflammation and damage to the placenta that can disrupt the growth and development of the fetus. Exposure to both ozone and particle pollution during pregnancy is strongly associated with premature birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth. These risks are amplified in pregnancies where the mother is already at higher risk, as are people of color and those with chronic conditions, especially asthma.
Both Moms Clean Air Force and the ALA are calling on President Biden to move urgently to clean up air pollution nationwide. Strengthening pollution limits on ozone and particle pollution and enacting new measures to clean up power plants and vehicles are a start. So are the measures in the Inflation Reduction Act aimed at fighting climate change.
When it comes to clean air, “Climate change is undercutting the progress we would have otherwise made,” says our Senior Policy Analyst, Elizabeth Bechard. “As this report shows, if we want to protect our health and the health of our kids, stopping climate change and reducing air pollution go hand in hand.”
Learn more about Moms’ work on smog and soot pollution.
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