American Lung Association: US air quality improving

Climate change poses many threats to human health, including worsened air quality and extreme weather events.

But ozone levels in the city were also the lowest they have been in the history of the “State of the Air” report.

New Hanover County received an A in all three categories.

Ozone – created through chemical reactions from pollutants emitted by vehicles, power plants, gasoline vapors and other sources – is a larger problem for the Northeast than the more insidious particle pollution, which has been linked to a higher risk of cancer death. This law has driven improvements in air quality for 47 years, improvements that the “State of the Air” 2017 continues to document.

More than half of USA residents live in counties with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution and MI is no better, the State of the Air report concluded.

The group credits tougher clean air standards for the overall improvement in air quality in the region that includes Washington and Baltimore.

Many cities experienced their highest number of daily particle pollution spikes since monitoring began in 2000-2002.

He called it “simply unacceptable” that people in some cities still live with unhealthy air pollution, and called on leaders to do more to reduce it. “This is simply unacceptable”.

Luzerne County residents are breathing clean air.

The American Lung Association wasn’t able to get exact data for all the counties in our region because a lot of them don’t meet the population requirements for the Environmental Protection Agency to set up monitors.

Data collected between 2013 and 2015 ranks the Buffalo metro region at 61st in nation for most ozone pollution, and 102nd for year-round particle pollution. Hampshire County, for example, moved from a failing grade to a “C” in the American Lung Association’s State of the Air report.

The annual ranking of high particle pollution represents the concentration of particles in a cubic meter of air. After California, nine of the 25 most ozone-polluted cities are in the Southwest, where wildfires and drought are now also regular occurrences.

Federal standards are only part of the reason North Carolina’s air has improved in recent years. The Lehigh Valley’s national ranks are based on its inclusion in a huge metropolitan area: 35 counties spread across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and CT. And by most ozone-polluted cities, California owns seven of the worst-off cities. “While we continue to struggle with ozone pollution, we are glad to see Connecticut’s particle pollution have been drastically reduced due to regional and local legislative action”.

The American Lung Association’s 2017 clean air report released late Tuesday, April 18, 2017 says Denver has the nation’s 11th-worst ozone levels.

Cape Coral-Fort Myers-Naples, Fla.