6 MD Jurisdictions Get 'F' For Air Quality

MARYLAND — Many Maryland residents are among the more than 40 percent of Americans living in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association’s 2021 “State of the Air” report released this week.

The report assigned each jurisdiction three air quality grades — one for ozone pollution, one for short-term particle pollution and another for annual particle pollution. Air quality data was collected from official monitoring sites operated by federal, state, local and tribal governments.

In Maryland, the report issued an "F” grade for ozone in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Cecil, Harford and Prince George's counties and Baltimore City. Kent County got a "D"; Dorchester, Frederick and Montgomery counties earned a "C"; and Calvert, Carroll, Charles and Washington counties earned a "B." Garrett County was the only jurisdiction in Maryland that got an "A."

All jurisdictions in Maryland that reported data passed the 24-hour particle pollution and annual particle pollution tests.

Most Living With Unhealthy Air

More than 135 million Americans — about 41.1 percent of the country — are living in places with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, according to the report, which relied on data from 2017 to 2019, three of the six hottest years on record globally.

The American Lung Association, which has issued its “State of the Air” report around Earth Day every year since 2000, noted some progress since last year’s report was released — 14.8 million fewer people are living in areas with unhealthy air. Researchers mostly attributed that to reduced levels of ozone pollution.

Often called smog, ozone pollution forms when gases from tailpipes, smokestacks and other sources come into contact with sunlight. It is “one of the most dangerous and widespread pollutants in the U.S.,” according to the American Lung Association.

Particle pollution is a mix of tiny solid and liquid particles in the air.

“High ozone days and spikes in particle pollution, related to extreme heat and wildfires, are putting millions more people at risk and adding challenges to the work states and cities are doing across the nation to clean up air pollution," according to the report.

Some Communities At Increased Risk

Minority communities are at a significantly higher risk of breathing in polluted air, researchers found. Non-white people are 61 percent more likely than white people to live in a county that failed at least one category, and they are more than three times as likely to live somewhere that had a failing grade for all three.

The 13 counties that failed all three are mostly urban areas, with nearly 20.7 million people — including 14 million minority residents — living there.

The report also ranked the most polluted cities in all three categories, with places in California accounting for a majority of the 25 in all three.

Los Angeles kept its No. 1 spot for worst ozone pollution, as Bakersfield, California, had the worst year-round particle pollution and Fairbanks, Alaska, the worst short-term particle pollution.

These are the five cities most polluted by short-term particle pollution:

1. Fairbanks, Alaska
2. Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California
3. Bakersfield, California
4. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, California
5. Yakima, Washington

Here are the five cities most polluted by ozone:

1. Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
2. Bakersfield, California
3. Visalia, California
4. Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California
5. Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona

Here are the five cities most polluted by year-round particle pollution:

1. Bakersfield, California
2. Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California
3. Visalia, California
4. Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
5. Medford-Grants Pass, Oregon

The five “cleanest places to live” were also listed:

1. Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, Vermont
2. Charlottesville, Virginia
3. Elmira-Corning, New York
4. Urban Honolulu, Hawaii
5. Wilmington, North Carolina

"This report shines a spotlight on the urgent need to curb climate change, clean up air pollution and advance environmental justice," American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer said in a statement. "The nation has a real opportunity to address all three at once – and to do that, we must center on health and health equity as we move away from combustion and fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy."

— Tim Moran and Elizabeth Janney