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 more than 706,882 in New Jersey, as communities across the state experienced both worsening smog conditions and selective improvements in particle pollution.
The report finds that the New York to Newark metro area – including 13 New Jersey counties – earned an F for ozone smog as it worsened for a third report in a row, placing it 12th worst in the nation, and worst in the U.S. east of Texas. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia-Reading to Camden metro area – including seven New Jersey counties – again worsened and failed for the year-round measure of fine particle pollution, dropping its rank from 26th to 17th worst in the country.
Except for residents of Warren County, all state residents live in a metro area ranking among the nation’s worst 25 for a pollutant measure. The New York-Newark metro area posted improvements for both particle measures, enough to earn a D for the daily measure and to pass for year-round particles. The Philadelphia daily particle measure improved but still fails.
Parts of the state showed declines, improvements or continued strong performance for certain pollution measures, highlighting air quality contrasts across New Jersey communities.
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 – known as soot – over the three-year period of 2022 to 2024.
“Particulate matter air pollution is a mix of tiny solid and liquid particles so small that they bypass our bodies natural defenses making their way deep into the lungs,” according to information on the American Lung Association website. “The smallest particles can even pass into the bloodstream and circulate, causing harm to the lungs, heart, brain and other organs.
“Breathing any amount of particle pollution can harm your health.”
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, pre-term 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 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 well-being of families across New Jersey,” said Michael Seilback, assistant vice president of nationwide advocacy and state public policy for the American Lung Association. “Children deserve to breathe air that won’t make them sick.
“Unfortunately, too many people across the state, particularly in several of our metro areas, are living with unhealthy levels of ozone and/or particle pollution. This air pollution is causing kids to have asthma attacks, contributing to chronic health conditions, and making people who work outdoors sick.”
“To compound the issue further,” Seilback added, “the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rollbacks of critical healthy air rules are impacting our residents. We urge Gov. (Mikie) Sherrill and the legislature to take action to improve our air quality, including that the state achieve its climate change goals, increasing solar and wind energy, and moving forward with initiatives to reduce air pollution from energy products, from the transportation sector and from buildings.
“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, 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 country – 152 million total – live in a county that received a failing grade for at least one measure of air pollution. Some 32.9 million people live in counties with failing grades for all three measures.
