More than 44m Americans are living in areas with toxic levels of pollution ... trends now
Toxic air pollution levels in the US are at the worst levels in the last 25 years, raising health concerns for more than one-third of Americans.
The American Lung Association (ALA) revealed in a new report that 39 percent of Americans are living in regions with unhealthy air pollution levels.
To discern the heightened pollution levels, the ALA looked at the daily and annual averages of particle and ozone pollution, released from plants and refineries.
California was found to have six of the top 10 cities ranked as having the worst air quality - and more than 33.2 million people live in those location.
The report cited climate change as a culprit, sparking wildfires and droughts, but also pointed to combustion sources like cars and manufacturing facilities.
The American Lung Association ranked the top cities that suffer from the worst air quality in the US - affecting roughly 131 million Americans
Last year, the US saw the highest levels of air pollution in 25 years. The report said the cause is likely due to climate change, making temperatures rise and wildfires spread. Pictured: Smog covered the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in 2020 due to ongoing wildfires
The Clean Air Act allows the EPA to impose restrictions on how much emissions can be produced in the US. Pictured: Climate change activists protested outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. in 2022
Air pollution causes tens of thousands of deaths every year and short-term exposure can cause respiratory issues like asthma, but long-term exposure could lead to an increased risk of heart attack, stroke or lung cancer.
'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,' said Paul Billings, ALA's senior vice president of public policy.
The ALA's report showed the issue is becoming more severe despite efforts to ramp up efforts to clean air pollution, with more than 131 million people living in hot spots with unhealthy particle pollution in 2023 - 11.7 million more people than the previous year.
Particulate pollution is made up of tiny particles that individually are too small to be visible, but when pollution levels are higher, the air can appear to be thick and hazy - also known as smog.
People living in low-income areas are most at risk from particle pollution because of their close proximity to pollution sources, like industrial sites or mines.
The ALA used a grading system to define particle pollution and ranked 112 counties across 19 US states with an 'F' for their daily particle pollution, impacting 65 million people.
'There is no safe level to particle pollution,' Dr. Kari Nadeau, the John Rock professor of climate and population studies at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told USA TODAY.
'We were not meant to breathe this in as humans.'
The amount of air pollution people are exposed to has skyrocketed over the last decade as wildfires region the West Coast
Bakersfield, California was reported as the worst metro area for air pollution, followed by the Visalia and Fresno, California areas.
Roughly 2.6 million Californians currently suffer from adult asthma, a major jump from East Coast states like Massachusetts where 660,000
