State of the Air 2015
More than four in 10 Americans - nearly 138.5 million people - live in counties where ozone or particle pollution levels make the air unhealthy to breathe, according to the American Lung Association's "State of the Air 2015" report released. The 16th annual national report card shows that improvement in the nation's air quality was mixed, with many cities experiencing strong improvements, while others suffered increased episodes of unhealthy air, and a few even marked their worst number of unhealthy days. Overall, the best progress came in the continued reduction of year-round particle pollution in the eastern half of the nation, thanks to cleaner power plants and cleaner diesel fleets. Covering air pollution data collected in 2011 to 2013, this year's report also provides evidence that a changing climate will make it harder to protect human health from the dangers of air pollution. The impact of climate change is particularly apparent in the western United States, where heat and drought create situations ripe for episodes of high particle pollution, a pollutant recently found to cause lung cancer.
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