Post Incorporated: Nearly half of US children are breathing dangerous levels of air pollution, report warns
Nearly half of US children are breathing
dangerous levels of air pollution, report warns
American Lung Association report comes amid
Trump EPA’s expansive rollback of environmental protections
Maya Yang
Wed 22 Apr 2026 11.00 BST
Nearly half of children in the United
States are breathing dangerous levels of air pollution, according to a new
report, as experts warned Donald Trump’s expansive rollback of protections will
make the situation worse.
The 27th annual air quality report from the
American Lung Association (ALA) released on Wednesday evaluates pollution
across the country by grading levels of ground-level ozone – also known as smog
– as well as year-round and short-term spikes in particle pollution, commonly
referred to as soot. The report analyzed quality-assured data collected between
2022 and 2024.
It found that 33.5 million children in the
US – 46% of those under 18 – live in areas that received a failing grade for at
least one measure of air pollution.
The report also found that 7 million
children, or 10% of all children in the US, live in communities that failed all
three measures.
Speaking to the Guardian, Will Barrett,
assistant vice-president of the ALA’s Nationwide Clean Air Policy, said:
“Children’s lungs are still developing. For their body size, they’re breathing
more air. And also, kids play outdoors, they’re more active, they’re breathing
in more outdoor air … So, air pollution exposure in children can contribute to
long-term developmental harm to their lungs, new cases of asthma, increased
risks of respiratory illness and other health considerations later in life.”
The report further found that communities
of color are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air. As a result, they are
more likely to live with one or more chronic health conditions that make them
more vulnerable to pollution, including asthma, diabetes, and heart disease.
Although people of color make up 42.1% of
the US population, they represent 54.2% of those living in counties with at
least one failing grade, the report noted. It also found that a person of color
is 2.42 times more likely than a white person to live in a community that fails
all three pollution measures.
Smog remains the most widespread pollutant
affecting Americans’ health. Between 2022 and 2024, 38% of the US population –
approximately 129.1 million people – were exposed to ozone levels that put
their health at risk. This marks the highest number recorded in the ALA’s
report in six years, and a 3.9 million increase from the previous year.
Several factors contributed to these
unhealthy pollution levels, including extreme heat, drought and wildfires which
have exposed a growing share of the population to harmful ozone, the report
said.
The regions most affected by high ozone
levels include south-western states from California to Texas, as well as much
of the midwest. This is mainly driven by smoke from Canada’s 2023
wildfires crossing into the US, along with high temperatures and weather patterns that favored
ozone formation in 2023 and 2024 – particularly in southern states.
More broadly, the report found that climate
change is intensifying ozone pollution by boosting precursor emissions and
creating atmospheric conditions such as higher temperatures and lower wind
speeds that allow pollutants to build up and ozone to form.
The report also highlighted datacenters as a growing source of air pollution. In recent years, datacenters have consumed roughly 4.4% of total
US electricity, a figure that could rise to as much as 12% within the next
decade.
Their impact stems largely from reliance on regional electricity grids where fossil fuels such as methane gas and coal still account for a large portion of generation, the report said. In addition, many datacenters use dozens of large diesel-powered backup generators, which emit carcinogenic particulate matter.
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