Delaware Counties Earn Passing Grades for Ozone Smog—New Castle at Best Ever with “C” Grade, Sussex Again Posts “A” Grade; Kent & Sussex Counties Among Cleanest in U.S. for Daily Particle Pollution

The 2024 “State of the Air” report, released today by the American Lung Association, finds that Delaware’s air quality showed mixed results of best performances and continuing problems for some of the most harmful and widespread types of air pollution: fine particle pollution and ozone smog. Nationally, the report found that nearly four in ten people in the U.S. live in counties that had unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution.

The 16-county Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area, which includes Delaware’s New Castle and Kent Counties, improved to its best-ever results for ozone smog for the third consecutive year, but continued to post failing grades, with the area ranking most polluted in the Mid-Atlantic and 35th worst in the nation for the measure. Additionally, while Kent County again remained unchanged at its “B” grade for ozone pollution, New Castle County improved to a “C,” its second passing grade after last year’s “D,” which nevertheless means there are still too many days with poor air quality. Meanwhile, in the five-county Salisbury-Cambridge, MD-DE metro area, Sussex County earned its second “A” grade by recording zero days with unhealthy levels of ozone.

Regarding fine particle pollution, New Castle County, having earned an “A” in the 2022 report by posting zero days with unhealthy levels of fine particle pollution, remained unchanged from last year’s “B” grade, which demonstrates that past progress is not assured to continue. However, Kent and Sussex Counties did continue to earn ‘A’ grades for their 13th straight year. Data for the year-round measures of particle pollution continued to be incomplete statewide for the second straight reporting year.

 “In the 25 years that the American Lung Association has been doing our ‘State of the Air’ report, we have seen incredible improvement in the nation’s air quality. Unfortunately, more than 131 million people still live in places with unhealthy levels of air pollution, and Delaware still has work to do,” said Deb Brown, Chief Mission Office. “Climate change is making air pollution more likely to form and more difficult to clean up. There are actions we can and must take to improve air quality, the state has made great progress on adopting healthy air policies including most recently Advanced Clean Cars II and we encourage Delaware to continue to support policies that would improve air quality. We are also calling on EPA to set long-overdue stronger national limits on ozone pollution.”

The Lung Association’s 25th annual “State of the Air” report grades exposure to unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone air pollution, annual particle pollution and short-term spikes in particle pollution over a three-year period. This year’s report includes air quality data from 2020-2022 and is updated to reflect the new annual particle pollution standard that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized in February. 

Ground-level Ozone Pollution in Delaware’s metro areas:

The “State of the Air” report looked at levels of ozone “smog,” the air pollutant affecting the largest number of people in the United States. Based on Philadelphia County’s annual weighted average of 5.5 days (an “F” grade) with unhealthy levels of ozone smog, “State of the Air” ranked the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area as the 35th most polluted city in the nation, an improvement over its placement at 28th worst in last year’s report. The Salisbury-Cambridge, DE-MD metro area also improved (Dorchester County, MD earning a “B” grade for an average of 0.3 high-ozone days, fewer than the 1.3 days in last year’s report), likewise ranking better in this year’s report—116th worst compared with last year’s 65th placement. Both metro areas again improved to their best-ever results for ozone smog.

Particle Pollution in Delaware’s metro areas:  

The report also tracked short-term spikes in particle pollution, which can be extremely dangerous and even deadly. The grade for the worst county in the Philadelphia metro area (Philadelphia County) improved to a “C,” with the number of unhealthy days (1.5) decreasing from the 2.3 days (a “D” grade) in last year’s report. The metro area’s rank for daily spikes of fine particle pollution improved from 55th worst to 73rd worst. Also, the Salisbury-Cambridge metro area remained listed among the nation’s cleanest for the 13th consecutive year owing to the longevity of Sussex County’s performance.

For the year-round measure of fine particle pollution, in the 2024 “State of the Air” report, all Delaware counties were again recorded as having incomplete data. However, the report did find that the year-round particle pollution level of the worst county (Philadelphia, PA) in the Philadelphia metro area was that area’s best ever and was again lower than the area’s worst in the previous year’s report. Nevertheless, the area received a failing grade for a pollution level above the federal standard that was recently updated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. That area ranked 65th most polluted in the country, better than its ranking of 46th worst last year. Further, the Salisbury-Cambridge metro area, primarily because less-polluted Dorchester County, MD, is now the only remaining reporting county, continued to be listed among the nation’s cleanest, though it did worsen from tied for 190th worst to tied for 187th worst (now ranking tied for 16th best in the country, having ranked tied for 9th best in last year’s report).

The “State of the Air” report found that nationally, more than 131 million people live in an area that received a failing grade for at least one measure of air pollution, and 43.9 million people live in areas with failing grades for all three measures. In the three years covered by this report, individuals in the U.S. experienced the highest number of days when particle pollution reached “very unhealthy” and “hazardous” levels in the history of reporting the “State of the Air.” Communities of color are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air and are also more likely to be living with one or more chronic conditions that make them more vulnerable to air pollution, including asthma, diabetes and heart disease. The report found that a person of color in the U.S. is more than twice as likely as a white individual to live in a community with a failing grade on all three pollution measures. 

Both ozone and particle pollution can cause premature death and other serious health effects such as asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, preterm births and impaired cognitive functioning later in life. Particle pollution can also cause lung cancer.  

EPA recently finalized new air pollution rules that will help clean up particle pollution and address climate change. Now, the Lung Association is urging EPA to set long overdue stronger national limits on ozone pollution. Stronger limits would help people protect themselves and drive cleanup of polluting sources across the country. See the full report results and sign the petition at Lung.org/SOTA. 

Get involved and help the mission of American Lung Association. The LUNG FORCE Walk Philadelphia is coming up on May 11, 2024. Learn more at LUNGFORCE.org/philadelphia.