Nearly 90.7 million people in the US live in counties with failing grades for year-round particle pollution, finds report
People of colour are more than twice as likely to live in counties with failing air quality, despite comprising 41.6% of the US’s total population. Photo for representation: iStock The American Lung Association (ALA) released its annual State of the Air report April 24, 2024, revealing a concerning setback in air quality across the United States. Despite decades of efforts to combat pollution, a staggering 131.2 million Americans reside in areas with failing grades for air quality.
The number translates to roughly 39 per cent of the population who are still exposed to unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. This number represents a significant increase of 11.7 million people compared to the 2023 report.
The increase in the number of people at risk is due to a combination of factors. Extreme heat, drought, and wildfires contribute to a steady rise in particle pollution, particularly in the western US. Additionally, the 2024 report uses the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new, more stringent national air quality standard for year-round levels of fine particle pollution, highlighting that “many more people are breathing unhealthy air than was recognised under the previous weaker standard.”
The report examined two of the most prevalent and hazardous air pollutants — fine particles and ozone. ALA calculated values that reflect the air pollution problem and assigned grades for daily and long-term particle pollution, as well as daily ozone levels.
However, the burden of living with unhealthy air is not shared equally. People of colour are more than twice as likely to live in counties with failing air quality, despite comprising 41.6 per cent of the nation’s total population, the report found.
About 68.9 million people of colour live in counties that received at least one failing grade for ozone and/or particle pollution, while over 27.5 million people of colour live in counties that received failing grades on all three measures, including around 16.8 million Hispanics.
State of the Air 2024 is the 25th edition of this annual report. Previously, the findings reflected the successes of the Clean Air Act, as emissions from transportation, power plants, and manufacturing were reduced.
However, recent reports suggest that a changing climate is making it harder to protect human health. “High ozone days and spikes in particle pollution related to extreme heat, drought, and wildfires are putting millions of people at risk and adding challenges to the work that states and cities are doing across the nation to clean up air pollution,” the report noted.
All 25 worst cities for short-term particle pollution are located in the Western US, where wildfires remain a significant contributor to increased particle pollution. The 2024 report found that the metropolitan areas ranking worst for each of the three pollutant measures — ozone, short-term particle pollution (24-hour PM2.5), and year-round particle pollution (annual PM2.5) — remained unchanged from the 2023 report.
Bakersfield, California, once again topped the list for the worst short-term particle pollution and has held the title for the worst year-round particle pollution for five years in a row. Los Angeles remains the city with the highest ozone pollution, as it has in 24 out of 25 years of the report's history — though city residents are exposed to an average of 55 fewer days of unhealthy ozone levels than in 2000.
Paul G Billings, National Senior Vice President, Public Policy, at American Lung Association, in a statement said, “When we started doing State of the Air in 2000, I never imagined that in the 25th edition we would be reporting that more than 100 million people are still breathing unhealthy air. It’s unacceptable.”
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