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2005-2007

Executive Summary | 2005-2007 | Tables | Methodology | Acknowledgements | Download Report

This year marks the tenth annual American Lung Association State of the Air report and provides an excellent opportunity to look back over the changes in the past ten years. This 2009 report looks at ozone and particle pollution year-round (annual average) and over short-term levels (24-hour) of particle pollution (PM2.5) found in monitoring sites across the United States in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Ozone
The first State of the Air report, issued in 2000, covered the period 1996, 1997, and 1998 and only evaluated the levels of ozone smog, using the standard for ozone that the EPA had just established as a basis for evaluating air quality across the nation. A decade of research has demonstrated that the levels of ozone considered safe then no longer meet the critical test of protecting public health. To provide better protection, in March 2008 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency adopted a new, tighter standard for ozone pollution. Measured against the new standard, the air quality in many additional places failed to meet the test. Other communities with long histories of ozone problems face an even more serious challenge. Evaluating the most recent data against the new standard, the American Lung Association found that approximately 175.4 million Americans live in counties where ozone monitors recorded too many days with unhealthy ozone levels, far more than the 92.5 million identified in the State of the Air 2008 report. Progress in reducing ozone shows up even when using the new standard to look backward. The American Lung Association analysis shows that ozone levels have improved in some of the cities facing the greatest burden, such as Los Angeles and Houston. However, so does the impact of warmer summers and continuing pollution challenges: Sixteen of the cities in this year’s 25 most polluted cities experienced a worsening problem with ozone since last year’s report, including Charlotte, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Cincinnati. Looking back over the past ten years, the ozone levels have improved in most cities, including in #1 ranked Los Angeles where ozone levels have improved consistently in each report. Most cities have improved primarily in the past five reports (covering 2001-2007), and many actually had ozone levels worsen significantly during the period covered by the first five reports (1996-2002). However, some cities have seen their ozone levels trend higher over the past decade, including Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, and Las Vegas, NV.

Year-round particle pollution
Particle pollution improved in 9 of the cities in the list of the 25 most polluted by year-round levels, including five cities which recorded their best levels since the report began covering particle pollution in 2004: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Atlanta, York, PA and Lancaster, PA. However, the annual average level of particles worsened in 12 cities, including Bakersfield, CA, which took over the most polluted ranking from Los Angeles, and Houston, TX which this year moved into the list of the 25 cities most-polluted by particle pollution for the first time. Compared to the findings first included in the State of the Air 2004 report, much of the nation has less year-round particle pollution. However, many cities have seen little change or even faced higher levels in the past three reports. Among those showing significant, continued improvement in the past5 years are Los Angeles (which improved its ranking to 4th place this year), Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis. Stagnating problems show up particularly in eastern cities where coal-fired power plants contribute to the problem: Birmingham, AL; Charleston WV; Huntingdon, WV; Louisville, KY; Macon, GA; Indianapolis, IN; Rome, GA; and Hagerstown, MD.
Cheyenne, WY has the lowest annual level of particle pollution in the United States. Cheyenne has ranked #1 on this list of cleanest cities for the past 5 reports.

Short-term particle pollution
Eleven cities experienced fewer days of unhealthy levels of particle pollution in the State of the Air 2009 report, including Pittsburgh, the city ranked number one on the list of cities most polluted by short-term exposure to particles. All eleven showed continued improvement since the 2007 report, which first incorporated the tighter standards for short-term levels of particle pollution. Unfortunately, 13 cities had more days—or more severe days—of particle pollution in the 2009 report than in last year’s report. Eleven of those cities had consistently increased the number of days or the severity of the levels of particle pollution in the past three reports. Twenty-four cities had straight “As”—awarded because they had no days with unhealthy levels of particle pollution during 2005-2007. They range across the nation from Portland-Lewiston-South Portland, ME to San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA; from Alexandria, LA to Sioux Falls, SD. Some short-term particle pollution occurs naturally Not all particle pollution is made by human activity. Two examples of the natural sources that present serious problems each year are smoke from wildfires, which create fine particles and gases, and “vog,” the sulfur dioxide and other emissions from volcanic eruptions that create acid gases and aerosols which occur primarily in Hawaii. For official record keeping and evaluation, the U.S. Environmental Pollution Agency generally does not include days where natural sources of particle pollution predominate. Natural sources can be just as dangerous as human-made sources. Because wildfire smoke and vog are caused by natural sources, they do not usually appear in the monitor records used in the State of the Air reports. However, the American Lung Association offices provide community warnings when such problems occur and information to assist residents to protect themselves.

Cleanest cities
Fargo-Wahpeton, ND-MN emerged as the only city to appear on all three lists of cleanest cities. Seventeen cities appeared on two of the three lists of cleanest cities: Billings, MT; Bismarck, ND; Cheyenne, WY; Colorado Springs, CO; Farmington, NM; Ft. Collins, CO; Honolulu, HI; Lincoln, NE; Midland-Odessa, TX; Port St. Lucie, FL; Pueblo, CO; Redding, CA; Salinas, CA; San Luis Obispo, CA; Santa Fe-Espanola, NM; Sioux Falls, ND; and Tucson, AZ.

What needs to be done to get healthy air
Many major challenges require the Obama Administration and Congress to take steps to protect the health of the public. Here are a few key steps that the American Lung Association calls for to improve the air we all breathe.

  • Clean up dirty power plants. Coal-fired power plants are among the largest contributors to particulate pollution, ozone, mercury, and global warming. The EPA should immediately take action to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and air toxics including mercury below the levels allowed under the Clean Air Interstate Rule and expand clean-up requirements for power plants nationwide. An analysis released in 2004 attributed 24,000 premature deaths each year to power plant pollution, as well as tens of thousands of asthma attacks, hospital admissions and emergency room visits.1 Greater reductions in power plant pollution levels are essential to enable states and local governments to reduce air pollution to safe levels. The American Lung Association has taken legal action repeatedly to fight against efforts to allow power plants to continue to pollute. We and our partners will continue to take steps to ensure that coal-fired power plants are cleaned up.

  • Clean up the existing fleet of dirty diesel. Rules the EPA put in effect over the past several years mean that new diesel vehicles and equipment must be much cleaner. Still, the vast majority of the diesel fleet will likely be in use for thousands more miles, spewing dangerous diesel exhaust into communities and neighborhoods. The good news is that affordable technology exists to virtually eliminate this problem. Congress should fully fund programs to retrofit diesel trucks, buses, heavy equipment (such as tractors and bulldozers) and other existing sources of dirty diesel exhaust. States should use these funds to retrofit diesel engines. Funding and requirements for these retrofits should be part of federal transportation funding. The economic recovery legislation invests $300 million at the EPA for the voluntary diesel retrofit program. Further, the EPA should require that long-haul trucks upgrade their emissions controls whenever their engines are rebuilt, similar to new requirements that just went into effect for locomotive and marine diesel engines.

  • Clean up ocean-going vessels. Ocean-going vessels, like cruise ships, container ships and tankers deliver staggering amounts of smog-forming oxides of nitrogen, particle 1 Abt Associates. Power Plant Emissions: Particulate Matter-Related Health Damages and the Benefits of Alternative Emission Reduction Scenarios for the Clean Air Task Force. June 2004. Available at www.catf.us. pollution, sulfur dioxide and heat-trapping carbon dioxide. By 2030 these vessels will produce approximately 45 percent of the national inventory of mobile source particle pollution emissions, harming health, worsening global warming and creating acid rain. New evidence shows that pollution from these vessels reaches parts of the country far inland from the 40 port cities that have recognized air pollution problems. The International Maritime Organization must grant the EPA the right to place an Emissions Control Area in American waters to maximize the clean air protections under international agreements, carrying out faster and deeper cuts in particulate- and smog-forming pollutants.

  • Strengthen the 2008 ozone standards. The EPA issued new national air quality standards for ozone in March 2008, after legal action by the American Lung Association forced them to complete a formal review. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration chose to disregard the unanimous recommendations of the EPA’s official science advisors and adopted standards that fail to meet the requirements of the Clean Air Act, including a decision by the President himself to overturn recommendations from key EPA staff for stronger protections for forests, vegetation and natural systems. These standards are still in the early stage of implementation and have been challenged in court by the American Lung Association, states, public health and environmental groups. The EPA should voluntarily remand its March rule and issue a new rule that meets the recommendations of the expert panel and the nation’s leading public health organizations. A voluntary remand can be designed to maintain clean air progress while transitioning to more protective standards.

  • Strengthen the national standards for particle pollution. Fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) is responsible for tens of thousands of premature deaths each year in the U.S., as well as a cascade of other adverse health effects ranging from increased hospitalization and emergency room visits to decreased lung function in children. Scientific studies show that long-term exposures to fine particles can shorten life by months to years. In 2006, the EPA failed to strengthen the annual standard for fine particles, despite the near unanimous recommendation by the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. The Lung Association challenged this decision in court and, on February 25, 2009, won the case as the U.S. Court of Appeals told the EPA to review the science again. The EPA can save thousands of lives each year by dramatically lowering the annual average standard. Proposed revisions to the PM standards are due in late 2010.

  • Require all appropriate counties to clean up particle pollution. A key step to reducing the burden of air pollution around the nation is the EPA officially determining where air pollution poses a threat to public health. The EPA issues a formal rule listing the counties that fail to meet or “attain” the national air quality standards. The counties that violate the standards (“nonattainment”) must take steps to reduce emissions and meet the standards by a certain date. Historically, that process has fallen short in failing to include areas with unhealthy pollution levels. In December 2008, the EPA failed to take any action to designate counties that had violated the annual standard for fine particulates (PM2.5), a pollutant found to increase the risk of premature death. The EPA’s most egregious omission was Houston, where the EPA’s own calculations show that the year-round levels of PM2.5 are growing and clearly violate the standard, but the EPA also failed to recognize at least four other cities. This omission means that Houston and the other cities will not have to reduce their particle pollution to restore healthy air. The EPA also failed to designate many other counties that should have been included in the list of those not meeting the short-term (24-hour PM2.5) standard. The EPA currently has the final rule held for review by the Obama Administration. The EPA should revise the final rule to include plans to address the annual standard and designate all appropriate counties for the short-term standard.