Polluted air is a reality for half of Americans, new report finds
Nearly half the country is exposed to unhealthy air that poses serious health risks, according to a new report from the American Lung Association, which warns that climate change is threatening decades of remarkable progress in cleaning up the air.
The report titled 'State of the Air' released on Wednesday found that about 156 million people – the worst it has been in a decade – now live in counties plagued by high levels of ozone and fine particulate matter, pollutants that can cause serious illnesses, including asthma attacks and strokes.
The 2025 study, based on EPA data through 2023 (the most recent full year available), showed an increase of 25 million people living in areas with failing air quality grades compared with the previous study.
The report independently confirms USA TODAY's analysis in January, which found that a growing number of Americans are now living in places with unhealthy air, a reversal of the decades-long trend of improvement in air quality driven by the Clean Air Act and advances in cleaner technology.
More: Tens of millions more Americans are breathing polluted air. What places have it the worst?
'The number of people living in places with unhealthy air just seems to keep getting bigger,' said Katherine Pruitt, the lead author and national senior director for policy at the American Lung Association.
The report, published annually by the American Lung Association, links worsening levels of pollution to climate change.
'There's definitely a worsening trend that's largely driven by climate change. Every year seems to be a little bit hotter globally resulting in more extreme weather events, more droughts, more extreme heat and more wildfires,' Pruitt said.
Extreme heat contributes to fire weather but also contributes to ozone formation – another major pollutant in the air, she added.
USA TODAY previously reported that wildfire smoke has become the largest contributor of particulate matter in the air. As of 2017, wildfire smoke had overtaken fuel combustion from electricity generation and industry as the leading source of dangerous small particles that make people sick.
At the start of this century, over 200 million people lived in a county that had at least one week of bad air, according to the USA TODAY analysis. The number steadily dropped for over a decade as Clean Air Act protections kicked in.
Then, the trend stalled.
'In many places we started to see ozone and particle pollution trends reverse, start to get worse again,' Pruitt said.
More: Track latest wildfires, red flag warnings across the US
In recent years, air quality problems have been concentrated in western states. But with Canadian wildfires blowing smoke in 2023, some of that shifted to the east, the report and the USA TODAY analysis found.
While data for 2024 is not yet available, Pruitt said the numbers could be worse by the next report. Last year, droughts affected at least 49 states while fires raged from coast to coast.
The health burden of air pollution unevenly falls on people of color, the study said, noting Hispanics are nearly three times as likely as white people to live in areas with unhealthy air.
Experts caution that actions underway during President Donald Trump's second administration could further affect the situation. The Environmental Protection Agency announced 31 actions on March 12, with its administrator, Lee Zeldin, declaring it 'the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen.'
The actions included revisiting former President Joe Biden's national air quality standards for particulate pollution and reconsideration of rules around greenhouse gas emissions reporting and standards on emissions from power plants, which emit large quantities of gases that cause climate change.
'You will not find a single pro-clean air, pro-public health item listed on his agenda of priorities,' said John Walke, a senior advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a former attorney in the EPA's Office of General Counsel. 'They are all rollbacks."
Since President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act in 1970, the landmark legislation has had overwhelming bipartisan support. In 1990, it was revised and strengthened under President George H.W. Bush.
Pruitt said at the moment, the regulations are still in place and they are still protecting people.
'Each one of those regulations was put in place based on science and the law. They help keep kids out of the hospital, keep our air cleaner,' said Pruitt.
"Rolling back any of them will have consequences for all of us,' she added.
Read more: Tens of millions more Americans are breathing polluted air. What places have it the worst?
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why half of the country is breathing polluted air
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