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National and Regional Analysis
National Analysis
Air quality in the nation improved as a whole during 2001-2003 with fewer unhealthful days and fewer counties getting failing grades than in previous American Lung Association State of the Air reports. This progress occurred despite having more counties that were monitored for ozone and particle pollution. For ozone, the picture is brighter than in previous years: the number of days with unhealthful levels of ozone pollution was the lowest since 1996-1998, the period covered by the first American Lung Association State of the Air report in 2000. Days of unhealthful levels of particle pollution also dropped from last year’s report.
EPA attributes these improvements to several factors. Weather certainly played a part in ozone levels in several regions. Although 2002, like 1998, featured a hot, dry summer that escalated ozone levels in the eastern states, 2003 saw record and near-record rainfall and much cooler temperatures in those same states. EPA cites lower emissions from cars, trucks, electric power plants and solvents as also contributing to the reduced ozone levels. 1
For the decline in particle pollution, EPA cites the Acid Rain Program for reductions in the eastern states and, in the west, programs targeting direct emissions of particles. Congress created the Acid Rain Program in the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act to reduce the harm over 20 years to the environment and to visibility from acids formed in the air from sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emitted by electric utilities.2 EPA credits programs in the western states that paved unpaved roads, switched to natural gas from fuels like coal and wood, and improved agricultural soil management practices as tools in controlling directly emitted particles.3
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Why are there differences between the American Lung Association’s and EPA’s lists of counties with ozone and particle pollution problems?
In 2004, EPA announced two important lists of counties with unhealthful levels of ozone and particle pollution when it made the formal designations of "nonattainment" areas. EPA’s official announcements start the work of the state and local governments to clean up the sources of ozone and particle pollution. EPA’s designations are critical to cleaning up pollution across the nation. They are based on standards adopted in 1997. However, those designations are not made annually and don’t easily convey to the public how areas compare in air quality or how areas vary in air quality over time. In addition, current science indicates that air pollution may be harmful at levels below those standards. The American Lung Association uses the Air Quality Index (AQI), which EPA set up to communicate air quality information to the public, in its calculations. The Lung Association’s formula is based on the public health criteria of how many days a county enters the unhealthful ranges, according to the AQI. This allows the Lung Association to provide information in a format easily understood by the public--school grades--and readily tracked over time. However, to provide as cautious an estimate as possible, the Lung Association only grades counties that have air quality monitors. By contrast, EPA’s designations are designed to include counties that contribute to the problem of pollution in an area whether or not they have a monitor to show what levels actually exist in that county. |
Despite these improvements, much clearly remains to be done to combat ongoing air quality problems. EPA took initial, critical steps in 2004 by formally telling the states which counties had unhealthful levels of ozone and particle pollution in response to legal action brought by the American Lung Association. In April 2004, EPA officially designated parts or all of 474 counties as "nonattainment" for the national ozone standards, which means they either have ozone levels higher than the standards allow or they contribute to pollution in a nearby county. In December, EPA followed up by designating all or part of 224 counties as nonattainment for the national particle pollution (PM 2.5) standards.
The following analyses describe changes in ozone and particle pollution levels monitored between 2001-2003, compared to 2000-2002, the period covered by the last report, American Lung Association State of the Air 2004. This analysis covers the most current quality assured data available nationwide at press time. While some states have data from 2004 that have been quality assured, all states are not required to complete the data for 2004 until July 1, 2005.
Regional Analysis continued... |
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