New report warns of 'distressing reversal' of air pollution levels

ALBANY — For Keith Brown, clean air is everything.

“It’s the foundation,” said Brown, the public health director for Schenectady County. “We all breathe air.”

But millions across the country, including many in New York, have been breathing unhealthy levels of air pollution in recent years, according to a new report released this past week by the American Lung Association.

The organization’s annual “State of the Air” report found that 152 million U.S. residents, or 44% of the country’s population, live in a county that received a failing mark for at least one measure of air quality. Nearly 33 million live in an area that received failing grades across all metrics, the report found.

The report assigns a letter grade to hundreds of counties throughout the country using data collected from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency between 2022 and 2024 based on two main contributors to poor air quality: particle pollution and ground-level ozone smog created when chemical pollutants react to sunlight.

For much of the country, the report points to a “distressing reversal” in ozone pollution following years of decline, with nearly 130 million Americans exposed to ozone levels that put their health at risk — the most in the past six years.

The driving force behind shift: A changing climate.

“Extreme heat, drought, and wildfires are contributing to unhealthy levels of air pollution across much of the U.S., exposing a growing proportion of the population to ozone that puts their health at risk,” the report reads.

The report calls on states to do more to reduce emissions and improve air quality amid ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to end regulatory caps aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions that the Republican president and his supporters have argued violate the law and have stymied the economy and increased prices for Americans.

But environmentalists and scientists argue the caps are needed to blunt the effects of climate change and improve air quality, with the association arguing the federal government’s actions “threaten to increase ozone and particle pollution for hundreds of millions of people.”

“Contrary to its mission, EPA has recently acted to weaken, delay or revoke key health protections that will leave children in the U.S. more exposed and more vulnerable to the consequences of many different pollutants, including ozone and particle pollution,” the report reads.

A spokesperson for the EPA accused the American Lung Association of “fearmongering” with its latest report and said the agency “is committed to ensuring clean air, land and water for all Americans.”

“This Administration has repeatedly proven that we can BOTH protect human health and the environment and grow the economy,” the spokesperson said. “And we will continue to do so in order to deliver clean air for every American to breathe.”

The report found that more than 1.1 million children throughout the Empire State are breathing unhealthy levels of air pollution, though differences in air quality vary depending on location.

Counties throughout the Hudson Valley — including Putnam, Rockland and Westchester — received failing grades for ozone pollution, with the counties averaging more than three days per year with high smog pollution.

Suffolk County on Long Island averaged eight days of ozone pollution a year, the most in the state, according to the report, while Tompkins and Hamilton counties each recorded zero days of ozone pollution.

Air pollution levels can vary on a number of factors, including topography, building heights and an area’s population.

The Albany-Schenectady metro area received passing marks in the latest report, but slipped in the national rankings compared to last year’s findings.

The area was 69th-worst in the nation for short-term particle pollution, averaging 2.8 days a year of unhealthy air, according to the latest report. That’s down from last year’s ranking of 73rd worst. The region was ranked 171st-worst for year-round particle pollution, a drop from last year’s 180th ranking, but still enough to receive a passing grade.

When it comes to ozone pollution, the region was ranked 143rd, averaging 0.7 days of unhealthy ozone levels per year, which remained unchanged from last year even though the area dropped in the national rankings from its previous 149th-worst-in-the-nation spot.

“Clean air is essential to the health and wellbeing of families across New York,” Michael Seilback, the assistant vice president of nationwide advocacy and state public policy for the American Lung Association. “Children deserve to breathe air that won’t make them sick.”

Poor air quality has major health implications that can trigger asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes and premature births. Young children and older adults are particularly susceptible.

But changes in air quality can make it difficult to get ahead of any potential medical issues, according to Brown, who noted air quality shifts depending on weather and can be impacted by factors from outside the immediate region.

He pointed to smoke from wild fires burning in Canada that blanketed the region in 2023.

“So for us, that’s the challenge in public health, is what we can really do about it besides helping to mitigate the impact, educate people on it and trying to put things in place where people minimize their exposure to poor air quality,” he said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Health said the agency works in conjunction with the Department of Environmental Conservation to issue timely air quality health advisories and has been working to address asthma rates in children that can be exacerbated by poor air quality.

In recent years, the rate of childhood emergency department visits for children ages 0-17 have fallen across New York, though trends vary based on region. Air pollution plays a factor, but so do a wide range of social, economic and cultural factors, according to the Department of Health.

“The Department supports evidence-based interventions across health care, school, home and community settings to address asthma, and provides guidelines-based training and resources to health care providers and individuals with asthma and their caregivers,” a spokesperson said.

In New York, environmental advocates say the latest report should serve as a call to action for policymakers amid a debate to push forward with implementing goals laid out in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, a 2019 state law that set aggressive targets for eliminating greenhouse gases in the coming decades.

The law calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 85% of 1990 levels by 2050, and moving the state’s electric grid to renewable resources no later than 2040, which critics argue are unrealistic and driving up the cost of living for New Yorkers.

Gov. Kathy Hochul recently floated the idea of slowing the rollout of the law amid affordability concerns in a proposal that has been met with pushback from some Democrats who control both chambers of state government.

“I think policymakers should take a really hard look at this report because it shows the depth of the air pollution crisis in New York state,” said Katherine Nadeau, deputy executive director for Environmental Advocates NY. “The fact that we’ve got more than a million kids in New York who are breathing unhealthy air needs to be a strong call to action, and that call to action can be answered with a strong climate law.”

The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation said New York has some of the most stringent emission standards in the country and the state has slashed some air pollutants and particle pollutions significantly in the past 25 years.

“New York State is a proven leader in protecting and improving air quality, with some of the strongest regulations in the nation helping protect the health and well-being of our communities,” the statement reads. “DEC’s experts worked closely with permitted facilities and vehicle manufacturers, among many other partners, to achieve these air pollution reductions.” 

Efforts to improve air quality can be traced back to 1970, when federal lawmakers approved the Clean Air Act, which set strict air quality standards and gave the EPA authority to regulate certain emissions.

In the decades since enactment, emissions of common air pollutants like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide have fallen by more than 70%. Rates of fine particulate matter created during the industrial process and linked to a wide-range of adverse health impacts, have also dropped substantially since the 1980s, according to the EPA, which notes that the country’s economy continues to grow.

But a growing body of research has found a changing climate threatens to upend efforts to improve air quality.

Shao Lin, chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the University at Albany, said that extreme weather events and poor air quality are linked. When the temperature and humidity levels are higher, particulate matter levels also increase, she said.

“The effect is stronger,” she said.

And things are expected to worsen in the years ahead.

The Fifth National Climate Assessment, released in 2023 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, warns that “climate change is projected to worsen air quality in many U.S. regions thereby harming human health and increasing premature death.”

“In general, climate change is expected to worsen air quality, although the actions that policymakers and communities take today could counteract this outcome,” the report reads.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced what it described as “the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history” that included the elimination of the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding, a 2009 EPA policy that concluded carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases are a threat to public health. The finding also provided the legal basis for further regulating vehicle emissions under the Clean Air Act.

The repeal is currently facing several legal challenges.

But scientists warn that recent actions by the Trump administration will have far-reaching ramifications.

Elias Dueker, director for the Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities at Bard College in the Hudson Valley, said there is a direct link between climate change and air quality.

But he fears the issue has become politicized to the point that even the smallest steps to curb emissions could be difficult to move forward.

“I would say that our understanding of the sources of air pollution has increased, but our political action to deal with it has decreased,” he said.

Dueker believes that more information is needed around air quality in order to move the needle, noting that ozone levels and particulate matter can differ based on neighborhoods due to things like building heights and air flow.

“Air quality is something that we need to have data that is accessible to community members on the time scale that is actually useful for them in terms of protecting their health and that’s what we’re really falling down on,” he said.