Over one-third of Americans, or about 130 million people, are living in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution and are regularly breathing in unhealthy air, according to the American Lung Association's new State of the Air report.
That's 11.7 million more people breathing unhealthy air compared to last year's report.
"When we started this report, our team never imagined that 25 years in the future, more than 130 million people would still be breathing unhealthy air," Harold Wimmer, President and CEO of the American Lung Association, said in a statement. "Every day that there are unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution means that someone – a child, grandparent, uncle or mother – struggles to breathe."
The report grades exposure to unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone air pollution (also known as smog) and short-term spikes and annual average of particle pollution (also known as soot) over a three-year period. Both ozone and particle pollution can cause premature death and other serious health effects such as asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, preterm births and impaired cognitive functioning later in life. Particle pollution can also cause lung cancer.
This year's report includes air quality data from 2020-2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"While many people speculated that the changes in behaviors during the pandemic, such as working from home, would result in improved air quality, this report shows that poor air quality continued to impact millions of people during those years," the American Lung Association noted.
According to the data, spikes in deadly particle pollution are the most severe they've been in the history of the report. The data shows people in the U.S. experienced the most days with "very unhealthy" and "hazardous" air quality due to particle pollution in 25 years.
The report found that nearly 4 in 10 people live in an area that received a failing grade for at least one measure of air pollution, while 43.9 million people live in areas with failing grades for all three measures. The burden of living with unhealthy air is not shared equally, however. The report found that a person of color in the U.S. is more than twice as likely as a white individual to live in a community with a failing grade on all three air pollution measures.
The report has two grades for particle pollution: one for "short-term" particle pollution, or daily spikes, and one for the annual average "year-round" level that represents the concentration of particles in each location.
Roughly 65 million people lived in counties that experienced unhealthy spikes in particle pollution -- the highest number reported in 14 years, according to the report. These particles come from wildfires, wood-burning stoves, coal-fired power plants, diesel engines and other sources.
"Short term particle pollution spikes are a clear example of the impacts that climate change is having on health," the American Lung Association noted. "Changing weather patterns are driving more frequent and severe wildfires, which are delivering dangerous levels of particle pollution to more communities."
Top 10 Cities Most Polluted by Short-Term Particle Pollution
1. Bakersfield, CA
2. Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA
3. Fairbanks, AK
4. Eugene-Springfield, OR
5. Visalia, CA
6. Reno-Carson City-Fernley, NV
7. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA
8. Redding-Red Bluff, CA
9. Sacramento-Roseville, CA
10. Chico, CA
More than 90.7 million people live in one of the 119 counties where year-round particle pollution levels are worse than the new national air quality limit, the report shows. This is the largest number in the report's history, and an increase of 71.9 million compared to last year's report.
Top 10 Cities Most Polluted by Year-Round Particle Pollution
1. Bakersfield, CA
2. Visalia, CA
3. Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA
4. Eugene-Springfield, OR
5. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA
6. Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA
7. Sacramento-Roseville, CA
8. Medford-Grants Pass, OR
9. Phoenix-Mesa, AZ
10. Fairbanks, AK
On a positive note, the report shows ozone pollution has generally improved across the nation. About 2.4 million fewer people lived in areas with unhealthy ozone pollution compared to last year's report, but more than 100 million people (nearly 30%) still live with unhealthy ozone pollution.
Top 10 Cities Most Polluted by Ozone Pollution
1. Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA
2. Visalia, CA
3. Bakersfield, CA
4. Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA
5. Phoenix-Mesa, AZ
6. Denver-Aurora, CO
7. Sacramento-Roseville, CA
8. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA
9. Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem, UT
10. Houston-The Woodlands, TX
The report also highlights the nation's cleanest cities, which experienced no high ozone or particle pollution days and have some of the lowest year-round particle pollution levels.
Top 20 Cleanest Cities
1. Urban Honolulu, HI
2. Casper, WY
3. Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, HI
4. Wilmington, NC
5. Bangor, ME
6. Cheyenne, WY
7. Duluth, MN-WI
8. Colorado Springs, CO
9. Anchorage, AK
10. St. George, UT
11. Elmira-Corning, NY
12. Asheville-Marion-Brevard, NC
13. Grand Junction, CO
14. Lubbock-Plainview-Levelland, TX
15. Saginaw-Midland-Bay City, MI
16. Amarillo-Pampa-Borger, TX
17. Lynchburg, VA
18. Salisbury-Cambridge, MD-DE
19. Rochester-Austin, MN
20. Greenville-Kinston-Washington, NC