Overview
- The American Lung Association’s 27th annual State of the Air report, released Wednesday, finds about 152.3 million people — roughly 44% of the U.S. — live with unhealthy levels of ozone or fine particle pollution.
- About 33 to 33.5 million children, or 46% of those under 18, live in counties that failed at least one major air quality measure, which doctors warn can stunt lung growth and trigger new asthma cases.
- Using EPA monitoring from 2022 to 2024, the report ranks Los Angeles worst for ozone, Bakersfield worst for year‑round fine particles for the seventh straight year, and Fairbanks worst for short‑term particle spikes.
- Bangor, Maine, is the only city to make all three clean‑air lists this year, while people of color are more than twice as likely as White people to live in communities that fail all three pollution measures.
- Researchers tie worsening exposure to extreme heat and wildfire smoke, and the Lung Association warns that recent EPA rollbacks — including February’s repeal of the greenhouse‑gas endangerment finding — and growth in fossil‑powered data centers could erode past gains.