Chicago Air Pollution Worsens After Improving Last Year: Report

CHICAGO, IL — After receiving its best air quality report ever last year, Chicago lost the ground it gained, according to a new study by the American Lung Association. The group's 2018 "State of the Air" report showed the city's ozone pollution had worsened in a year, and Chicago went from the 26th to the 22nd most polluted city in the United States.

“The 2018 ‘State of the Air’ report finds that unhealthful levels of ozone in Chicago put our citizens at risk for premature death and other serious health effects such as asthma attacks and greater difficulty breathing for those living with a lung disease like COPD,” Angela Tin, vice president of clean air for the American Lung Association, Upper Midwest Region, said in a statement. “Across the nation, the report found improvement in air quality, but still, more than four in 10 Americans — 133.9 million — live in counties that have unhealthful levels of either ozone or particle pollution, where their health is at risk.”

Many cities had more days when ground-level ozone — known as "smog" — reached unhealthy levels, the report said.

But it wasn’t all bad news. Most cities reduced their “burden of year-round particle pollution,” the report said. Also, fewer cities suffered from more spikes in particle pollution, known as "soot."

When it comes to the number of high smog days in Illinois, five counties received “A” grades and five counties, including Cook, received failing grades. Many counties across the country received either an INC grade — meaning there was incomplete monitoring data — or a DNC grade, indicating there was no monitor collecting data.

Illinois counties did not receive grades for soot levels because that is not collected in the state.

More than 40 percent of Americans live in counties with an unhealthy level of either smog or soot, the study said. California had many cities with the most air pollution.

Eight of the 10 smoggiest cities and eight of the 10 most soot-ridden cities reside in the Golden State. Among these were Los Angeles, Fresno, Bakersfield and Visalia.

“Los Angeles remains the city with the worst ozone pollution as it has for nearly the entire history of the report,” the authors wrote.

For the first time, Fairbanks, Alaska, ranked as one of the most polluted for year-round soot levels, while Bakersfield maintained its badge of shame as the city with the worst short-term soot levels.

The study used the latest quality-assured data available and examined soot levels in two ways: averaged year-round and over short-term levels, defined as 24 hours. The analysis also used a weighted average number of days. Click here to read the full methodology.

The authors emphasized the need to keep the Clean Air Act intact, funded and enforced — something some lawmakers have targeted for repeal. The study says the number of people exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution increased to nearly 134 million people, up from 125 million in their previous report.

Furthermore, the authors said climate change contributed to worsening smog levels, particularly with record-setting heat.

“The spike in ozone demonstrates the public health impact of increased temperatures from the changing climate on the nation’s air quality,” the report said. “With 2016 marking the second warmest year on record, the higher temperatures provided fuel to increase the formation of ozone from the still under-controlled emissions of the precursor emissions.”

Ozone and particle pollution are associated with premature death, developmental harm, reproductive harm, lung cancer and heart damage, the ALA says.

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

Photo by Joe Raedle | Getty Images