U.S. embassies end air pollution monitoring that spurred China and others to action

HONG KONG — U.S. embassies and consulates have stopped monitoring air quality abroad, ending a program that had provided essential public health data for more than a decade.

The State Department said its collection of air pollution data at more than 60 U.S. embassies and consulates around the world had been suspended as of Tuesday due to “budget constraints.”

“The current budget climate requires us to make difficult cuts,” a spokesperson said. “Unfortunately, we cannot continue to publish this data.”

The announcement follows the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers offering environment-related services last week.

The air quality data had been published on AirNow, a website run by the Environmental Protection Agency, and ZephAir, a mobile app managed by the State Department.

The website was offline as of Wednesday, while data is no longer available on the app for numerous cities including China’s Beijing, India’s Mumbai and Thailand’s Bangkok, all of which were among the world’s most polluted cities Wednesday according to IQAir, a Swiss air quality-monitoring company.

Outdoor air pollution caused an estimated 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2019, according to the World Health Organization, most of them in low- and middle-income countries where residents lack access to reliable air quality data.

A 2022 study found that air quality monitoring by U.S. embassies “significantly” lowered pollutant levels in host cities and raised local awareness of environmental issues.