Ozone pollution is harmful to breathe. It can appear as a yellow haze in the sky above polluted areas. Ozone pollution is formed in the atmosphere when certain chemicals combine with heat and sunlight. Power plants, fracking, cars and trucks, and diesel engines can all be sources of smog-forming chemicals. Ozone can travel hundreds of miles from the pollution source, and it can be made worse by weather and geography.

Ozone pollution is highly irritating to the lungs. It triggers asthma attacks and increases the risk of lung infections. Ozone can interfere with normal lung development. It causes coughing, shortness of breath, and chest pain. Breathing elevated levels of smog is like getting sunburn on the lungs.

While ozone pollution is a threat to everyone, the impacts are not felt equally. Communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities face the greatest risk because they are hit first and worst. This unjust system is not a coincidence. Systemic racism has created practices that force Black, Latino, and Indigenous families to live in places that are more susceptible to ozone and sources of ozone. Black communities with greater exposure to air pollution have higher than average childhood asthma rates. Ozone pollution is especially harmful for these children.

EPA regulates ground-level ozone, or smog, directly under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, or NAAQS (rhymes with “snacks”). These standards are supposed to be updated every five years. Moms was there in 2015 and again in 2020, asking EPA for the most stringent standards. The Trump administration failed to strengthen ozone pollution protections in 2020 and will likely do so again in 2025.

In addition to pushing EPA to set strong national ozone standards, we worked in 2022 and 2023 on EPA’s Cross State Air Pollution Rule, also known as the Good Neighbor Plan, which aims to reduce harmful air pollution from power plants and other industrial facilities that drifts across state borders and harms residents of downwind states. This important rule, which will help clean up smog, or ground-level ozone, by requiring that major polluters install and use pollution control devices, was finalized in March 2023. But in June 2024 the Supreme Court issued a ruling to pause its implementation—this is maddening and Moms are urging our governors to keep fighting for clean air in our states.

Join us in your state to work to keep the air cleaner and fight climate change. Moms in Colorado are particularly active on state ozone pollution policy.