The air quality in the United States is falling fast and is leaving more than 150 million people breathing unhealthy and very polluted air, according to the State of the Air 2020 report by the American Lung Association.
Paul Billings, the national senior vice president of public policy for the American Lung Association said that they are moving in the wrong direction, with almost 9 million more people breathing dirty air than in 2019's report.
50th anniversary of Clean Air Act
The year 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the Clean Air Act, which charged the US Environmental Protection Agency with regulating all sources of air emissions. The goal of the act was to reduce air pollution and acid rain, slow climate change, increase the air quality and visibility and to protect the ozone layers.
According to the EPA, the act is responsible for a 50% decline in emissions of key air pollutants since 1990. However, under the Trump administration, a number of those protections have been rolled back or have gone unregulated. The lack of enforcement and the worsening climate change has lead to the recent reversal of air quality gains, the report said.
Billings stated that if there is no environmental cop on the beat, the polluters will skirt the rules of the law, will cheat and will increase emissions. That will cause pollution to continue increasing in the future. Even environmental advocacy groups are critical of the current administration.
According to Sarah Vogel, the vice president for health at the Environmental Defense Fund, toxic air kills 5 million people every year around the world and, as the report states, the US has a long way to go to better protect communities. She added that the Trump administration is still trying to weaken the existing safeguards and is allowing more dangerous pollution in the air.
Bill Magavern, policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air, stated that at a time when our lung health is more endangered than ever before, the leaders of the country should be taking firm measures to clean up our air. Instead, the Trump administration has weakened clean air standards and ignored scientific evidence for stronger particulate matter safeguards.
Types of pollution
The "State of the Air" report analyzed data from 2016, 2017 and 2018, three of the five hottest years in recorded history in the world. Those warmer temperatures contributed to the rise of ozone levels in many areas in America, and it affected more than 137 million people. Breathing in smog, or ozone, can cause shortness of breath, asthma attacks and it can trigger coughing. If this level of air is consumed for years, it can contribute to the development of lung cancer.
The heat from increasing climate change also contributed to wildfires in the western states, and it also spiked particulate pollution levels to dangerous levels. Particulate matter is a mixture of liquid and solid matter found in the air. Dirt, dust and smoke particles are larger but there are also very small particles that can be inhaled and that can't be seen with the naked eye.
