New Report: Over a Million Kids in Pennsylvania are Breathing Unhealthy Levels of Air Pollution; Pittsburgh Metro Area Earns Straight F’s for Air Quality as Ozone Worsens and Particle Pollution Shows

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 1,176,798 kids in Pennsylvania. In the Pittsburgh-Weirton-Steubenville, PA-OH-WV metro area, the report shows air quality failed across all three measures. Ozone pollution dropped from a D last year to an F this year, ranking 63rd worst in the nation compared to 90th last year. Short-term particle pollution improved, but was still poor enough for the metro area’s rank to worsen from 16th to 11th worst nationally, with F grade for both years. The year-round measure of particle pollution also improved, reaching its best-ever value, with the area’s rank moving from 12th to 16th worst in the nation but still earning 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 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 Pittsburgh 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.” 

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  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 Pittsburgh-Weirton-Steubenville, PA-OH-WV 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 Pittsburgh-Weirton-Steubenville, PA-OH-WV metro area ranked 63rd worst in the nation for ozone pollution.
  • The ranking was based on the area’s worst county’s average number of unhealthy days—4.5 days per year, an F grade, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
  • This was worse than the area's ranking in last year's report of 90th worst, with 2.5 days per year, a D 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 Pittsburgh-Weirton-Steubenville, PA-OH-WV metro area ranked 11th 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—9.3 days per year, an F grade, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
  • This was worse than the area's ranking in last year's report of 16th worst, but better than last year’s value of 10.8 days per year, an F grade.  
• For the year-round average level of particle pollution, the area’s worst county, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, received a failing grade for pollution levels above the federal standard. 
  • The Pittsburgh-Weirton-Steubenville, PA-OH-WV metro area ranked 16th worst in the nation for its best-ever annual average.
  • This was better than the area's ranking in last year's report of 12th worst in the nation. 

In addition to the Metro area name, other notable findings across State include: 

• 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 Erie-Meadville, PA metro area shows a best‑ever, passing result for year‑round fine particle pollution with the metro ranked 171st worst nationally. Ozone smog held a C grade, ranking 135th worst (slightly better than 130th last year), and short‑term (daily) particle pollution also held a C, ranking 101st worst (slightly worse than 104th last year).
• The Johnstown-Somerset, PA metro area posted passing grades for all measures and showed improvement for both measures of particle pollution. It ranked 110th worst in the nation for the daily measure, better than the 104th place in last year’s report, though keeping its C grade. The rank for the long-term average level of fine particles also was 110th, an improvement from 83rd worst in last year’s report. Meanwhile, the yearly weighted average number of days high in ozone smog remained unchanged at 0.3, earning a B grade, though the area’s rank improved slightly, from 165th worst to 169th.
• The Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area continues to be graded sraight 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 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.