All Delaware Grades Remain Passing Even as Philadelphia-Reading-Camden Metro Area (Covering Kent and New Castle Counties) Earns Straight F’s, Worse for Year-round Particles, now 17th Worst in U.S.

Today, the American Lung Association released its 27th annual “State of the Air” report, which finds that nearly half of the children in the U.S. are breathing unhealthy levels of air pollution graded F even as over 200,000 kids in Delaware are exposed to air pollution that reaches unhealthy levels on multiple days. However, Delaware Counties continue to earn only passing grades for both ozone smog and particle pollution. New Castle County posted the only worsening result for any measure in the state (for ozone smog) but still retained its D grade.

The report finds that the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area, which includes both Kent and New Castle Counties, continued to earn straight Fs for ozone smog and fine particle pollution, ranking 43rd worst in the nation for ozone and 27th worst for the daily measure of particles. The metro area again worsened and failed for the year-round measure of particles, dropping its rank from 26th to 17th worst in the country. Sussex County does not fall within a metro area.

Other observations for Delaware include:

• New Castle County was worst in the state for all three measures of air quality, earning
  • a D for its worsened weighted yearly average of 2.7 days with unhealthy levels of ozone, 
  • a D for an improved average of 2.8 unhealthy days for the daily (short-term) measure of fine particle pollution, and
  • a passing mark for its improved year-round measure of particles.
• All Delaware counties earned D grades for their daily measure of particles.
• No Delaware county was listed among the cleanest in the country for any measure. The state’s best letter grade was a B in Sussex County for its 0.7-day average for ozone smog.

The Lung Association’s “State of the Air” report grades counties’ air quality in terms of unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone air pollution (also known as smog), and year-round and short-term spikes in particle pollution (also known as soot) over a three-year period (2022-2024). The report also ranks counties and metropolitan areas in cleanest and most polluted lists for each pollutant. Ozone and particle pollution can cause premature death and other serious health effects such as asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes, preterm births and impaired cognitive functioning later in life. Particle pollution can also cause lung cancer.

Infants, children, and teens as a group are more susceptible to the health impacts of air pollution. Their lungs are still developing; they breathe more air for their body size than adults, and they are frequently exposed to outdoor air. Air pollution exposure in childhood can cause long-term harm, including reduced lung growth, new asthma cases, and increased risk of respiratory diseases.

“Clean air is essential to the health and wellbeing of families across Delaware. Children deserve to breathe air that won’t make them sick,” said Aleks Casper director of advocacy for the American Lung Association. “Unfortunately, too many people across the state, , are living with unhealthy levels of ozone and particle pollution. This air pollution is causing kids to have asthma attacks, contributing to chronic health conditions, and making people who work outdoors sick.” 

Casper added: “To compound the issue further, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rollbacks of critical healthy air rules are impacting our residents[. We urge Delaware policymakers to continue take action to improve our air quality, including  and we are calling on everyone to tell EPA that our kids’ health counts.”

Nationally, the report found that 33.5 million children in the U.S., or 46% of people under 18 years old, live in an area that received a failing grade for at least one measure of air pollution. In total, 44% of people of all ages in the U.S. (152 million people in total) live in a county that received a failing grade for at least one measure of air pollution. 32.9 million people live in counties with failing grades for all three measures.

Key Findings for Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area: 
Ground-level Ozone Pollution:  
Ozone “smog” affects the largest number of people in the U.S. Smog forms when gases from tailpipes, smokestacks, factories and other pollution sources react with sunlight. It is a powerful respiratory irritant with effects that have been likened to a sunburn of the lungs.   
 

• The Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area ranked 43rd worst in the nation for ozone pollution. 
  • The ranking was based on the area’s worst counties’ average number of unhealthy days—6.2 days per year, an F grade, in Gloucester County, NJ and Philadelphia County, PA.
  • The ranking was the same as the area's ranking in last year's report of 43rd worst, but the new average was slightly better than last year’s average of 6.3 days per year, an F grade.   

Particle Pollution:  
Fine particle pollution can be extremely dangerous and even deadly. These particles come from wildfires, wood-burning stoves, coal-fired power plants, diesel engines and other sources. The report has two grades for particle pollution: one for “short-term” particle pollution, or daily spikes, and one for the annual average “year-round” level that represents the concentration of particles in each location. 
 

• The Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area ranked 27th worst in the nation for short-term particle pollution. 
  • The ranking was based on the area’s worst county’s average number of unhealthy days—5.3 days per year, an F grade, in Philadelphia County. 
  • This was worse than the area's ranking in last year's report of 30th worst, even though the new result improved from last year’s value of 5.8 days per year, an F grade.   
• For the year-round average level of particle pollution, the area’s worst county, Philadelphia, received a failing grade for pollution levels above the federal standard.  
  • The Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area ranked 17th worst in the nation. 
  • This was worse than the area's ranking in last year's report of 26th worst in the nation.

The Lung Association is calling on everyone to urge EPA to value the health of America’s kids. Historically, EPA has played an essential role in protecting people’s health from air pollution. The current EPA has retreated from its public health foundation by rolling back clean air protections. This EPA has also taken the recent step of eliminating health-related information from its economic analyses, meaning that the costs of pollution to kids, families and communities will not be counted as policies are undone. EPA must not devalue kids’ health.

See the full report results and take action at Lung.org/sota.