Nearly half of the Americans breathe in dangerous levels of air pollutants, and a new report shows an increase compared to a year ago, and it is likely to increase in the coming years thanks to the climate crisis and the eclipse environmental decline of the Trump administration.
Little more than 156 million people living in neighborhoods with unhealthy levels of soot or smoky fog – a 16 % increase compared to last year and the highest number in a decade, according to the American Lung Association (ALA).
SOOT and SMOG can cause early death and increase the risk of a group of serious medical conditions such as asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, premature birth, and obstruction of cognitive performance in subsequent life. Partitions pollution also increases the risk of lung cancer.
The matter gets worse due to thermal waves and forest fires-harsh air events that are increasing and expanded due to global man-making.
Every year, ALA is trained at unhealthy levels of smoky fog at the ground level (ozone pollution), nails throughout the year and short -term in soot (flour particle pollution/PM2.5) over a period of three years (2021 to 2023).
His latest analysis found that approximately 43 million people live in areas with failed degrees for all three measures. The colored person is more than twice that is likely to live a white American in a neighborhood with unhealthy levels of smoky fog and soot. But the Latin Americans are the most influential, and it is more likely to breathe in both toxic air pollutants.
PM2.5 or Soot comes from forest fires, stoves that burn wood, coal stations and diesel engines from other industrial sources-and can be fatal. The new report includes data from the summer of 2023, when smoke lit forest fires across Canada heaven and the United States gathered in the Middle West and East in Soad.
Ozone or smoky fog is a strong respiratory irritation similar to the cause of sunburn from the lungs. After years of progress in cleaning ozone, some societies see the worst fog in years.
The heat and extreme forest fires driven by the climate crisis have increased ozone levels to many parts of the country, especially in the central states of Minnesota to Texas. The warmer temperatures increase the risk of ozone formation and make it difficult to clean.
“Families throughout the United States deal with the health effects of air pollution every day, and the intense heat and forest fires increase. Air pollution Harold Wemen, President and CEO of the American Lung Association, said:
The report found that only two cities, Bangur, Men, San Juan, Portorico, were classified as clean cities without mutations in smoky fog or soot, which reflects the exacerbation of air quality throughout the country.
“The efforts made to reduce employees, finance and programs at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) leaves families more vulnerable to harmful air pollution,” said Yamar.
The Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970 by the Nixon government amid increasing protests against the industrial expansion that was not verified by public health and environment defenders, as well as societies that bear the burden of air and water pollution.
The Trump administration has made climate dismantling and environment for regulations, policies and programs is a top priority, and has already taken steps to freeze the Environmental Protection Agency by requesting to lay down collective workers and financing. Environmental justice was exposed in a special attack, as Trump is making efforts to address contracts of environmental racism that led to poor air quality of heavy industry, waste clips and highways in colored societies with diversity, stock and integration policies (Dei).
Even before Trump 2.0, approximately 73 million people lived in provinces where ozone or PM2 pollution levels are not monitored, according to the association, the Black Data Puncture of Public Health is likely to increase with a decrease in financing discounts.
