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More than 4 in 10 people (135 million) in the U.S. live with polluted air, placing their health and lives at risk, an annual report from the American Lung Association, released just ahead of Earth Day, shows.
People of color were 61% more likely to live in a county with unhealthy air than white people, and three times more likely to live in a county that failed all three air quality grades, says the 2021 report, which analyzes data from 2017-2019.
“This report shines a spotlight on the urgent need to curb climate change, clean up air pollution and advance environmental justice,” said American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer. “The nation has a real opportunity to address all three at once – and to do that, we must center on health and health equity as we move away from combustion and fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.”
This year’s “State of the Air” finds that climate change continues to make air pollution worse, with many western communities again experiencing record-breaking spikes in particle pollution largely due to smoke from wildfires. Changing climate patterns fuel wildfires, and also drive warmer temperatures that lead to more ground-level ozone pollution. This degraded air quality threatens everyone, especially children, older adults and people living with a lung disease.
Much of the world is watching to see if the U.S. resumes a leadership role in combating manmade climate change and its related pollution as President Joe Biden convenes at Earth Week conference.
Overall, as the world economy claws back from COVID-19 and due to the expected 4% surge in Chinese coal demand, global carbon emissions will rebound in 2021, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday.
Carbon dioxide emissions tied to the energy sector are set to rise by 1.5 billion metric tons in 2021, the biggest gain since 2010, the IEA said.
Newer research also shows that air pollution exposure can result in worse health outcomes from COVID-19. As the nation continues to respond to the pandemic and its disproportionate burden on hard-hit communities of color.
Health costs tied to pollution are expected to rise without action to keep climate change in check. A 2020 study found that reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 30% would yield $21 billion to $68 billion in annual health benefits from cleaner air.
Read: Cutting these emissions by 30% could yield up to $68 billion in health benefits each year
Ground-level ozone pollution, often called smog, is a powerful respiratory irritant whose effects have been likened to a sunburn of the lung. Inhaling ozone can cause shortness of breath and trigger coughing and asthma attacks, and may shorten life. New research also links ozone exposure to an increased risk of metabolic disorders, including diabetes. Warmer temperatures driven by climate change make ozone more likely to form and harder to clean up.
More than 123.2 million people lived in a county earning a failing grade for ozone pollution, including many vulnerable people who are at an increased risk of harm from ozone, such as 28.1 million children and 18.2 million people age 65 or older.
The American Lung Association offers an interactive site where users can plug in zip codes for specific air conditions.
California cities, long known for smog and other environmental conditions. do top this table.
Top 10 Cities Most Polluted by Ozone:
- Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
- Bakersfield, California
- Visalia, California
- Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California
- Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona
- Sacramento-Roseville, California
- San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, California
- Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem, UT
- Denver-Aurora, Colorado
- San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, California
The report also recognizes the nation’s cleanest cities. To make the list, a city must experience no high ozone or particle pollution days and rank among the 25 cities with the lowest year-round particle pollution levels.
Cleanest U.S. Cities (listed in alphabetical order)
- Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, Vermont
- Charlottesville, Virginia
- Elmira-Corning, New York
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- Wilmington, North Carolina
Late last year, a 9-year-old London girl who died after an asthma attack is thought to be the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death.
The landmark coroner’s ruling, updated from an earlier finding, was based on air-quality measurements from a busy road near Ella Kissi-Debrah’s Lewisham home, in southeast London.
Her medical cause of death was listed as acute respiratory failure, severe asthma and air pollution exposure.