Lung Association’s "State of the Air" 2026 Notes Particle Pollution Challenges in North Dakota; Bismarck and Minot Rank Among Most Polluted in Nation for Unhealthy Soot Days

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 92,114 kids in North Dakota. The report also finds that air quality in the Bismarck, ND metro area worsened slightly, and residents are being exposed to more unhealthy ozone and particle pollution. The metro area was named 9th worst in the nation for short-term particle pollution and received a “F” grade. The Minot area was ranked 11th worst in the nation on the same list. The Fargo metropolitan area showed improvement in this year’s report but continued to receive a failing 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. Both 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 North Dakota. Children deserve to breathe air that won’t make them sick,” said Jon Hunter, senior director of Healthy Air Solutions for the American Lung Association. “Unfortunately, too many people in the Bismarck, ND metro area 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.” 

Hunter 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 North Dakota policymakers to take action to improve our air quality. These failing grades reflect waves of smoke from catastrophic wildfires to our west, made worse by climate change, driving droughts and heatwaves. The best way we can work to fight against this smoke is by reducing greenhouse gases everywhere we can. 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 Bismarck, ND metro area:

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 Bismarck, ND metro area ranked 9th 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—10 days per year, an F grade, in Burleigh County, North Dakota.
  • This was worse than the area's ranking in last year's report of 14th worst, with 11.7 days per year, an F grade.  
• For the year-round average level of particle pollution, the area’s lowest ranking county, Burleigh County, North Dakota, received a passing grade for pollution levels below the federal standard. 
  • The Bismarck, ND metro area ranked 75th worst in the nation.
  • This was worse than the area's ranking in last year's report of 83rd worst in the nation. 

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 Bismarck, ND metro area ranked 84th worst in the nation for ozone pollution.
  • The ranking was based on the area’s worst county’s average number of unhealthy days—2.7 days per year, a D grade, in Burleigh County, North Dakota.
  • This was worse than the area's ranking in last year's report of 92nd worst, with 2.3 days per year, a D grade.  

In addition to Bismarck, other notable findings in North Dakota include:

• Fargo-Wahpeton, ND-MN area improved their ozone pollution ranking to 143rd worst in the nation (up from 130th) to receive a “B” grade. The region also improved their ranking for short-term particle pollution, 39th worst in nation (up from 18th worst last year), but still received an “F” grade in this category.
• Minot, ND metro area ranked 11th worst in the nation for short-term particle pollution. The ranking was based on Ward County’s average number of unhealthy days, 9.3 days per year, an F grade. This was worse than the area's ranking in last year's report of 19th worst, with 10.5 days per year, an F grade. Note that while days per year increased, the ranking improved due to other significant shifts throughout the country.
• Several other counties with air monitoring locations in the western part of the state also continued to receive failing grades for short-term particle pollution.  

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.