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Introduction
Outdoor air pollution takes a tremendous toll on our nation’s health. Millions of people, of all ages and backgrounds, live in places where pollution in the air makes it difficult, even dangerous to breathe. The American Lung Association is committed to ensuring clean air across the nation to reduce this threat. Each year, the American Lung Association assesses the quality of the air in counties solely to help these millions of people understand what the air is like in their home county and in terms familiar to most of us.
The American Lung Association State of the Air 2005 examines the two most pervasive air pollutants: ozone and PM2.5 or particle pollution.1 While these are not the only outdoor air pollutants, they are the two most dangerous because of their toxicity and their prevalence.
This report deliberately limits the grading to counties that have air quality monitors, but air pollution does not respect political boundaries. Blown by the winds or formed mid-air in complex chemical reactions, air pollution is not limited to the areas where the states and local governments have placed monitors. Taken together, the monitors provide a picture of the air pollution in a larger region, a picture that shapes the efforts to clean up the pollution. This report solely grades the individual counties, but describes the broader situation in each region of the country in the chapter entitled "National and Regional Analysis."
Particle Pollution
Of the two, particle pollution is the more deadly. Particle pollution remains a widespread problem, especially in large parts of the eastern United States and California. This report looks at the presence of particle pollution in several ways. Tables form the core of the report, with each state’s short-term and year-round particle grades for each county that has a particle monitor. These data come from a network of monitors in over 700 counties established in 1998 and 1999 following EPA’s adoption of a new health standard to address particle pollution in 1997.
Particle pollution is evaluated by two measures: the short-term exposure, which are occasional spikes in particle pollution from relatively infrequent events (although these spikes may last hours to days); and the year-round or chronic exposure from particles produced routinely in the environment.
| This report can help you understand what the air is like in your home county. |
| Este informe le puede ayudar a comprender cómo es el aire en el condado donde vive. |
The analyses found a general decline in particle pollution from the 2004 report by the American Lung Association, thanks in part to programs put in place to clean up acid rain by reducing pollution from coal-fired power plants. 2
Ozone Pollution
Ozone continues to be the most pervasive air pollutant and remains a present danger despite decreases in levels of this pollutant across the nation since 1980. During the 1990s, ozone concentrations remained remarkably and uncomfortably unchanged.3 EPA’s own records show this stagnation. However, EPA’s data are now showing a trend toward lower ozone readings, a trend also reflected by the analysis in this report. This slight decline also comes in the face of a particularly hot summer in 2002 when many cities reported "Code Red" days, with air pollution levels reaching unhealthful levels for all populations. The cooler, wetter summer in 2003 also contributed to this decline.4 EPA speculates that these declines may be coming from controls put in place to clean up coal-fired power plants in the Eastern United States.5 If so, this trend will likely persist in future reports, reflecting the impact of additional control measures that were finally installed on plants as of May 2004.
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Millions Are At Risk
Millions of people live in counties where monitors show unhealthful levels of air pollution, in the form of either ozone or short-term or year-round levels of particle pollution.
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152 million Americans-52 percent of the U.S. population-live in 390 counties where they are exposed to unhealthful levels of air pollution in the form of either ozone or short-term levels or year-round levels of particle pollution.
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52 million Americans-nearly 17 percent of the population-live in 47 counties with unhealthful levels of all three: ozone and particle pollution in both short-term and year-round levels.
Ozone
Even with the downturn in ozone levels, this report finds that nearly half of the people living in the United States--49 percent--live in 353 counties with unhealthful levels of ozone pollution. Included are nearly 143 million Americans, an estimate that understates the problem considerably since it only includes counties where ozone monitors exist and have accumulated three years of data. Of those 143 million, many are especially at risk, including:
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8.4 million adults with asthma
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3.1 million children with asthma
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4.2 million people with chronic bronchitis
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1.5 million people with emphysema
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36.7 million children age 18 and under and
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16.3 million adults age 65 and over.
Introduction continued... |
