United States: The latest report asserted that approximately 40% of people living in the USA suffer from the ill effects of air pollution as the air quality level exceeds the population’s safety threshold in most areas.
More about the report
The report of the American Lung Association’s “State of the Air,” which was released on Wednesday, said that the rising population of people residing in areas with high levels of pollution could even harm their health. The jump in population within a span of one year was noticed to be from 119 to 131 million from 2023 till the present.
Harold Wimmer, who is President, and CEO of the American Lung Association (ALA), said, “We have seen truly great success in cleaning up air pollution across the nation in the last quarter-century, largely due to the Clean Air Act. Undoubtedly, we never would have thought that 25 years from now, over 130 million people would still be exposed to air pollution that is hazardous to breathe.”
He added, “Climate change is causing more dangerous air pollution. Every day that there are unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution means that someone — a child, grandparent, uncle or mother — struggles to breathe,” he said. “We must do more to ensure everyone has clean air.”
Reasons cited for rising pollution by experts
Katherine Pruitt, the report author and a senior director of the lung association’s Nationwide Clean Air Policy said that due to extreme heat, drought and wildfires, there is rise in fatal air pollution, mostly in the Western parts of the country.
Pruitt added, “The air pollution produced by wildfire smoke is getting worse every year,” and “Climate change is contributing to that situation, and those wildfires are a very serious threat to our health,” CNN reported.
According to Pruitt, after the passage of the 1970s Clean Air Act, the total emissions in the US dropped 78 percent; however, “there still are way too many people breathing unhealthy air.”
Air pollution is a growing problem in the West
As the experts note, recently, there has been a transition in the rising air pollution menace in the West.
Pruitt added, “Our cars are cleaner. Our fuels are cleaner. Most of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants have fortunately been shut down, and industry is cleaner. So that’s cleaned up a lot of the traditional sources of pollution in the East, in the more industrial parts of the Upper Midwest and the Northeast,” as the US News reported.
But “the amount of oil and gas extraction that happens in the West has increased, which produces a lot of emissions,” she said. “And they are suffering, first, from the impacts of climate change and wildfire. So a lot of that geographic shift you’re seeing, particularly with particle pollution, is related to wildfire smoke.”‘
Most populated cities of the US – Report
As per the latest report, the top ten cities are identified where, over the span of one year, the most particle pollution has been noticed. These are:
• Bakersfield, California.
• Visalia, California.
• Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California.
• Eugene-Springfield, Oregon.
• San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, California.
• Los Angeles-Long Beach, California.
• Sacramento-Roseville, California.
• Medford-Grants Pass, Oregon.
• Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona.
• Fairbanks, Alaska.