American Lung Association Ranks Honolulu Air Quality best in the United States; Cleanest air designation again in State of the Air 2024

The Honolulu metro area was named one of the cleanest cities in the nation for ozone and particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association’s 2024 “State of the Air” report, which was released today.

The Lung Association’s 25th annual “State of the Air” report grades exposure to unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone air pollution, annual particle pollution and short-term spikes in particle pollution over a three-year period. This year’s report includes air quality data from 2020-2022 and is updated to reflect the new annual particle pollution standard that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized in February.

“In the 25 years that the American Lung Association has been doing our ‘State of the Air’ report, we have seen incredible improvement in the nation’s air quality. Thankfully, Honolulu continues to be one of the cleanest cities for three measures of the most common air pollutants,” said Pedro Haro, Executive Director for the American Lung Association. “It’s important to note that these readings were taken before the Maui fires in August of last year, so we are expecting that to have an effect on reporting in the future.”

In the Honolulu County, the 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. Additionally, the urban Honolulu metro area ranked among the nation's cleanest cities for short-term particle pollution and lowest annual particle pollution levels in the entire U.S. (3.7 micrograms reported in 2020-2022, the same average as last year’s report). Honolulu County also received a passing grade for pollution levels below the federal standard that was recently updated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Maui, Kauai, and Hawai‘i Counties also ranked among the nation’s cleanest cities for short-term particle pollution. Maui and Hawai‘i Counties received a passing grade for pollution levels below the federal standard that was recently updated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The “State of the Air” report found that nationally, more than 131 million people live in an area that received a failing grade for at least one measure of air pollution, and 43.9 million people live in areas with failing grades for all three measures. In the three years covered by this report, individuals in the U.S. experienced the highest number of days when particle pollution reached “very unhealthy” and “hazardous” levels in the history of reporting the “State of the Air.” Communities of color are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air and are also more likely to be living with one or more chronic conditions that make them more vulnerable to air pollution, including asthma, diabetes and heart disease. The report found that a person of color in the U.S. is more than twice as likely as a white individual to live in a community with a failing grade on all three pollution measures.

Both ozone and particle pollution can cause premature death and other serious health effects such as asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, preterm births and impaired cognitive functioning later in life. Particle pollution can also cause lung cancer.

EPA recently finalized new air pollution rules that will help clean up particle pollution and address climate change. Now, the Lung Association is urging EPA to set long overdue stronger national limits on ozone pollution. Stronger limits would help people protect themselves and drive cleanup of polluting sources across the country. See the full report results and sign the petition at Lung.org/SOTA.

Get involved and support the mission of American Lung Association. The Outstanding Mothers Award in Honolulu is coming up on May 26th.