National Report on Air Quality

[Guest guest]

Here is the 2007 national air report card from American Lung

Association, says ozone is less bad than last report but particulate

matter is up, which it says is has worse impact on health:

http://lungaction.org/reports/sota07exec_summ.html

Executive Summary

The years 2003, 2004 and 2005 showed the first truly split picture

for the nation's air quality since the American Lung Association

started these annual report cards. The nation's two most widespread

and dangerous pollutants tracked in decidedly different directions:

ozone went down from the peaks reported in 2002, but particle

pollution—the more dangerous—went up. This finding stems from a

close look at air pollution data that states themselves collected on

a county-by-county basis, using the most up-to-date quality-assured

data available for nationwide comparison presented in the American

Lung Association State of the Air: 2007.

Ozone, often called smog, improved significantly in many parts of

the U.S., especially in the eastern half. Grades of F—common among

many states in the past—improved to passing grades, even among some

of the counties that had historically been among the most ozone-

polluted in the years 2003-2005. These improvements showed up in the

list of cities that face the most ozone pollution. For example, the

Los Angeles metropolitan area returned to the top of the most

polluted list for ozone, but reduced the number of days that its

residents suffered from the nation's worst ozone levels.

Nonetheless, despite these improvements, millions of Americans still

face dangerous levels of ozone pollution.

The most ominous trend is the increase in particle pollution, or

soot, in the eastern U.S. Many areas east of the Mississippi River

already had unhealthy levels of this most deadly of the widespread

air pollutants. They frequently had more days and higher year-round

levels of particles, here measured by PM2.5. In contrast were the

western states, led by California. Although many areas in the

western U.S. suffer from some of the highest levels of particle

pollution, but levels of particle pollution there dropped

significantly during the years 2003-2005.

Both ozone and particle pollution remain a persistent threat across

large parts of the United States. Favorable weather combined with

controls placed on coal-fired power plants between 1998 and 2004 to

improve ozone levels in large parts of the eastern United States.

However, those same power plants are likely the source of much of

the increase in particle pollution in the eastern United States,

driven by increased electricity production during the period.

Looking at the nation as a whole, the American Lung Association

State of the Air: 2007 finds:

http://lungaction.org/reports/sota07exec_summ.html