The State of the Air 2001
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Click Here for the American Lung Association's State of the Air 2001 Report.
Also see EPA's latest National Air Quality & Emissions Trends Report: 1998 (the latest) that tells us how much better criteria emissions are getting in all categories including Ozone!
Introduction
Americans closed the 1990s with a great sense of expectation. We have seen
advances all around us -- medical discoveries, technological innovations -- so it’s
only natural for us to expect progress in efforts to clean up the air that we
breathe. But the American Lung Association has found, through a careful
analysis of environmental data, that we are not yet winning the fight for clean air.
In fact, the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2001 finds some very
disturbing trends in air quality.
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Last year, the American Lung Association initiated its State of the Air annual
assessment to provide citizens with easy-to-understand air pollution summaries
of the quality of the air in their communities that are based on concrete data and
sound science. Air quality in counties are assigned a grade ranging from "A"
through "F" based on how often their air pollution levels exceed the "unhealthful"
categories of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index for
ground-level ozone (smog) pollution. The Air Quality Index is, in turn, based on
the national air quality standards. The air quality standard for ozone used as the
basis for this report, 80 parts per billion averaged over an eight-hour period, was
adopted by the EPA in 1997 based on the most recent health effects information.
The grades in this report are assigned based on the quality of the air in areas,
and do not reflect an assessment of efforts to implement controls that improve air
quality.
Executive Summary
State of the Air 2000 confirmed that air pollution remains a major threat to
Americans, contributing substantially to the nation’s ill health burden. State of
the Air 2001 finds that since last year’s report, many more people are breathing
in unhealthy air:
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The number of Americans living in areas that received an "F" in this
report increased by more than 9 million compared with last year’s
report - from 132 million to more than 141 million. This figure
represents approximately 75 percent of the nation’s population who
live in counties where there are ozone monitors.
More than 30 million children under age 14 -- whose lungs are
particularly vulnerable to the effects of ozone-filled air -- are living in
counties that received an "F" in air quality. That’s 1.6 million more
children who live in areas with "failing" air quality than last year.
More than 17 million Americans over age 65 -- another group at
particular risk of suffering health problems from dirty air -- live in
areas that received an "F". That’s over one million more elderly at
risk than last year.
3.6 million adults with asthma, and 1.9 million children with
asthma, live in counties that received an "F" rating.
The number of U.S. counties that received an "F" in air quality
jumped 15 percent from last year -- from 333 to 382 counties. That
means that more than half of the counties (58%) where there are
ozone monitors received a failing grade.
The total number of high ozone days in the "F" range jumped 25.3
percent in monitored counties.
State of the Air 2001 found that according to the Environmental
Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index, there were a total of 12,805
"Orange" (unhealthy for sensitive groups) days in counties being
monitored for ozone in 1997 to 1999 -- a jump of 25% from the
State of the Air 2000 report. The number of "Red" (unhealthy) days
rose 11% during the same period. "Purple" (very unhealthy) days
decreased slightly, from 219 in the 2000 report to 209 in this year’s
report.
Click Here for the American Lung Association's State of the Air 2001 Report.
Also see EPA's latest National Air Quality & Emissions Trends Report: 1998 (the latest) that tells us how much better criteria emissions are getting in all categories including Ozone!
<-- Return To Right-To-Know or Left-To-Wonder?
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