New Report: Over One Million Kids in Pennsylvania Are Breathing Unhealthy Air; Lancaster Ranks 19th Worst in U.S. for Daily Particle Pollution Measure, Posts Best-ever but Still Failing Mark for Year-

Today, the American Lung Association released its 27th annual "State of the Air" report, which finds that nearly half of children in the United States are breathing unhealthy levels of air pollution, including 1,176,798 kids in Pennsylvania. The report showed that the single-county Lancaster, PA metro area continued to earn failing grades for both daily and year-round measures of fine particle pollution, though each showed a slight improvement from the results in last year’s report. 

As other areas of country had larger improvements for daily particles, Lancaster’s rank dropped to 19th worst metro area in the nation from last year’s 22nd worst even though the local measure improved. For the year-round particle measure, Lancaster’s rank remained unchanged at 45th worst. Meanwhile, ozone smog slightly worsened, placing Lancaster at 125th worst, but the county still retained its C grade.

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 Pennsylvania. Children deserve to breathe air that won’t make them sick,” said Elizabeth Hensil, director of advocacy for the American Lung Association. “Unfortunately, too many people in the Lancaster metro area are living with unhealthy levels of particle pollution. This air pollution is causing kids to have asthma attacks, contributing to chronic health conditions, and making people who work outdoors sick.” 

Hensil 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 Pennsylvania policymakers to take action to improve our air quality, including 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 Lancaster, PA 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 Lancaster, PA metro area ranked 125th worst in the nation for ozone pollution. 
  • The ranking was based on the area’s worst county’s average number of unhealthy days—1.3 days per year, a C grade, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. 
  • This was worse than the area's ranking in last year's report of 130th worst, with 1 day per year, a C 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 Lancaster, PA metro area ranked 19th 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—8.2 days per year, an F grade, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. 
  • Even though air quality slightly improved, the area’s ranking was worse than in last year's report of 22nd worst, with 8.5 days per year, an F grade.  
• For the year-round average level of particle pollution, the area’s worst county, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, received a failing grade for pollution levels above the federal standard.
  • The Lancaster, PA metro area ranked 45th worst in the nation. 
  • This was the same as the area's ranking in last year's report. 

In addition to the Lancaster, PA metro area, other notable findings across the Commonwealth include: 

• The Harrisburg-York-Lebanon, PA metro area earned straight F grades for all three measures of air quality. Compared to last year’s report, its year round average of particle pollution improved in all five counties monitored for this pollutant, but the metro area still earned a failing grade (Dauphin County being its worst county), ranking it as 38th worst in the nation for this measure. Ozone pollution worsened (again with Dauphin County being worst in the metro area), dropping from a D grade and 79th worst in the country last year to an F grade and 76th worst this year. Daily particle pollution also worsened (with Adams County being worst in the metro area, replacing last year’s Dauphin County), maintaining an F grade and worsening in national ranking, moving from 44th to 34th worst in the nation.
• The Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area continues to be graded straight F's for ozone smog and fine particle pollution; The year-round average of particles worsened enough to place the area at 17th worst in country for that measure, having been ranked at 26th in last year’s report. The daily measures of fine particle pollution and ozone smog both improved slightly, but the rank for the former worsened from 30th to 27th worst while the rank for ozone smog remained unchanged at 43rd worst.
• The Pittsburgh-Weirton-Steubenville, PA-OH-WV metro area received straight failing grades for air quality, with ozone worsening from a D to an F, falling from 90th to 63rd worst nationally; while year‑round fine particle pollution improved to its best‑ever level, shifting from 12th to 16th worst, and still earning a failing grade. Daily particle pollution also remained an F, despite some improvement, worsening in rank from 16th to 11th worst, continuing to expose residents to unhealthy air.
• The State College–DuBois, PA metro area showed mixed results with Centre County driving the rankings and grades across all measures. For ground-level ozone smog, the metro area ranked 143rd worst in the nation, based on 0.7 unhealthy days per year and a B grade in Centre County, a slight decline from last year’s ranking of 149th worst with the same number of unhealthy days. For short-term particle pollution, the area ranked 69th worst nationally, with 2.8 unhealthy days per year and a D grade in Centre County, an improvement from last year’s 63rd worst ranking, also a D Grade. For year-round particle pollution, the metro area earned a passing grade, ranking 152nd worst in the nation, also an improvement compared to last year’s 147th ranking.
• In the Altoona–Huntingdon, PA metro area, air quality showed improvement, with the region moving from an F to a D for short‑term (daily) fine particle pollution, ranking 63rd worst in the nation this year compared to 58th last year, and achieving its best‑ever, passing result for year‑round particle pollution, improving to 144th worst nationally from 124th last year. Ozone smog improved slightly, ranking 169th worst compared to 149th last year, while retaining a B grade both years.

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.