This is Air Quality Awareness Week, and today is World Asthma Day. With summer around the corner, information about air quality and our health could not be more important. Many of us are bracing for another season of extreme heat—perhaps the highest temps yet. Extreme heat is dangerous enough on its own, but it also exacerbates health-harming ground-level ozone pollution, commonly called smog.
Ozone pollution is dangerous. And EPA regulates this pollution through the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, which are supposed to be updated every 5 years. In fact, they have not been updated since 2015. Progress on updating federal ozone protections can’t come fast enough for the families and communities living with the impacts of this pollution every day.
Ozone pollution harms airways. It is highly irritating to the lungs, and can trigger asthma attacks, increase risk of lung infections, and interfere with normal lung development in children. It’s even linked with premature death.
Ozone forms when certain chemicals in the air react with heat and sunlight, so on hot, sunny days, ozone levels are even worse. Power plants, vehicle exhaust, and chemical solvents can all be sources of smog-forming chemicals, including nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Ozone pollution disproportionately harms Black, Latino, Indigenous, and other families of color. Because of systemic racism, these families are more likely to live in places that experience urban heat islands and in housing located near pollution sources, like heavily trafficked roads, factories, or ports.
Ample research—and the lived experience of millions—tells us that our current ozone standards aren’t strong enough to protect children and families.
After months of delay, EPA is finally making some much-needed progress on new ozone protections. Next week, the agency will hold a policy workshop on ozone—this is an early step in the process of updating these vital protections.
Let’s thank EPA for taking this long-awaited step toward updating our air quality standards for ozone. But more importantly, let’s let them know we want to see continued momentum toward strengthened ozone protections.
Tell EPA ozone matters to you and your family—and that parents won’t stop fighting for our children’s right to breathe clean air.