New ‘State of the Air’ Report: Charleston Ranks Among Nation’s Cleanest for Ozone as Other West Virginia Metro Areas See Mixed Air Quality Results

Today, the American Lung Association released its 27th annual “State of the Air” report, showing mixed results in West Virginia: the Charleston-Huntington-Ashland metro area again ranks among the nation’s cleanest for ozone smog and sees improvement in year-round particle pollution, while short-term particle pollution remains elevated due to wildfire smoke; other regions across the state posted a combination of improvements and declines.

Across the state, Morgantown earned B grades for ozone smog and short-term particle pollution and a passing grade for year-round particle pollution, while the Wheeling metro area posted C grades for ozone and short-term particle pollution with a passing year-round measure. Within the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington metro area, Berkeley County, West Virginia recorded a passing level for year-round particle pollution, and in the Pittsburgh-Weirton-Steubenville metro area that includes West Virginia counties, particle pollution rankings remained among the nation’s worst.

Nationally, the report finds 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.

Ozone and particle pollution are widespread and can impact anyone’s health, but infants, children and teens are more susceptible to health impacts. 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, increased risk of respiratory diseases and impaired cognitive functioning later in life. More broadly, both pollutants can cause premature death and other serious health effects such as asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes, and preterm births. Particle pollution can also cause lung cancer. 

“Clean air is essential to the health and wellbeing of families across West Virginia. 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 Charleston-Huntington-Ashland, WV-OH-KY 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 West Virginia policymakers to take action to improve our air quality, including and we are calling on everyone to tell EPA that our kids’ health counts.”

Key Findings Charleston-Huntington-Ashland, WV-OH-KY 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 Charleston-Huntington-Ashland, WV-OH-KY metro area ranked among the nation's cleanest cities for ozone pollution.
  • The ranking was based on the area’s worst county’s average number of unhealthy days—0 days per year, an A grade, in Boyd, Carter and Greenup Counties, Kentucky, Cabell and Kanawha Counties, West Virginia and Lawrence County, Ohio.
  • This was comparable to the area's ranking in last year's report among the nation's cleanest cities, with 0 days per year, an A 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 Charleston-Huntington-Ashland, WV-OH-KY metro area ranked 82nd 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—2.3 days per year, a D grade, in Scioto County, Ohio.
  • This was the same as the area's ranking in last year's report of 82nd worst, with 2.3 days per year, a D grade.  
• For the year-round average level of particle pollution, the area’s worst county, Scioto County, Ohio, received a passing grade for pollution levels below the federal standard. 
  • The Charleston-Huntington-Ashland, WV-OH-KY metro area ranked 114th worst in the nation.
  • This was the same as the area's ranking in last year's report of 114th worst in the nation. 

Key Findings Across the State:
Morgantown, WV Metro Area

• Ozone smog: Ranked 169th worst in the nation, earning a B grade; measure unchanged from last year but rank improved from 165th worst.
• Ranked 173rd worst in the nation, for short-term particle pollution, based on the area’s worst county average number of unhealthy days (0.5), earning a B grade, in Monongalia County, WV. Though the measure was unchanged from last year, the area’s rank was slightly better than last year’s 172nd worst.
• Year-round particle pollution: ranked 157th worst in the nation, earning a passing grade, an improvement compared to last year’s ranking.

Wheeling, WV–OH Metro Area

• Ozone smog: Ranked 135th worst in the nation, earning a C grade, the ranking was based on the area’s worst county’s average number of unhealthy days—1 day per year, a C grade, in Ohio County, WV. The metro area’s ranking improved from 130th worst last year, also a C grade.
• Short-term particle pollution: Ranked 110th worst in the nation, based on the area’s worst county’s average number of unhealthy days—1.5 days per year, a C grade, in Marshall County, West Virginia—better than last year’s 104th worst, also a C grade.
• Year-round particle pollution: Ranked 88th worst in the nation, based on the area’s worst county, Marshall, WV, earning a passing grade. This marks an improvement over last year at 77th worst.

Washington–Baltimore–Arlington, DC–MD–VA–WV–PA Metro Area (includes 3 West Virginia counties)

• Short-term particle pollution: Ranked 60th worst in the nation, based on the area’s worst county averaging 3.2 unhealthy days per year, earning a D grade in Frederick County, VA, and the District of Columbia. This represents an improvement from last year’s 53rd worst ranking, with 3.7 unhealthy days per year and an F grade.
• Year-round particle pollution: The area’s worst county, Berkeley County, WV, improved to a passing grade for pollution levels below the federal standard. However, the metro area’s rank remained unchanged from last year at 66th worst.

Pittsburgh–Weirton–Steubenville, PA–OH–WV Metro Area    

• Graded straight F’s for all three measures of air quality.
• Ozone smog worsens from D to F, rank drops from 90th to 63rd worst in nation.
• Short-term particle pollution: Improves but still fails and rank worsens from 16th to 11th worst.
• Year-round particle pollution: Improves to best-ever, but still fails, rank changing from 12th to 16th 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.