Over 570,000 Kids in Maryland Are Breathing Unhealthy Air; Both Particle Pollution Grades in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington Metro Area Now Passing, but Area Fails for Ozone Smog as Baltimore County Wo

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—including over 570,457 children in Maryland—even as communities across the state rarely worsened for both ozone smog and particle pollution.

The report finds that the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA metro area, including 16 Maryland counties, improved for all three measures of air pollution compared with last year’s report, but still earned an F for ozone smog recorded in Baltimore County, ranking the metro area at 49th worst in the nation. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area, including Cecil County, again worsened and failed for the year-round measure of fine particle pollution, dropping its rank from 26th to 17th worst in the country. No data was recorded in the three-county Salisbury-Ocean Pines, MD metro area.

Parts of the state showed declines, improvements or continued strong performance for certain pollution measures, highlighting air quality contrasts across Maryland communities. In particular:

• In the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA metro area, home to about 93% of the state’s population, Baltimore County, worst in all of Maryland for the number of days with unhealthy levels of ozone smog, also was worst in that large metro area, with a weighted average of 5.8 unhealthy days per year and earning an F grade.
• Harford County was worst in the state for the daily (short-term) measure of particle pollution, earning a D grade for a weighted yearly average of 2.2 days with unhealthy air. 
• All Maryland counties graded for fine particle pollution earned passing marks for both the daily and year-round measures. 
• Only one Maryland county was listed among the cleanest in the country for any measure—Garrett County, continuing for its ninth consecutive year with an A grade 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 Maryland. 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, particularly in several of our metro areas, 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 Maryland policymakers to continue to take action to improve our air quality, ] 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 Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-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 Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA metro area ranked 49th worst in the nation for ozone pollution. 
• The ranking was based on the area’s worst county’s average number of unhealthy days—5.8 days per year, an F grade, in Baltimore County, Maryland. 
• This was better than the area's ranking in last year's report of 36th worst, with 7.5 days per year, an F grade, also in Baltimore County.   

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 Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA metro area ranked 60th worst in the nation for short-term particle pollution. 
  • The ranking was based on the area’s worst counties’ average number of unhealthy days—3.2 days per year, a D grade, in Frederick County, Virginia and the District of Columbia. 
  • This was better than the area's ranking in last year's report of 53rd worst, with 3.7 days per year, an F grade.   
• For the year-round average level of particle pollution, the area’s worst county, Berkeley County, West Virginia, received a passing grade for pollution levels below the federal standard.  
  • The Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA metro area ranked 66th worst in the nation. 
  • This was the same as the area's ranking in last year's report of 66th worst in the nation.  

Key Findings for Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area: 
Ground-level Ozone Pollution:  

• 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:   

• 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.