127 million Americans are breathing bad air
Pollen, smog levels a ‘double whammy’
About 40% of Americans live in counties where a “double whammy” of unhealthy levels of smog and ragweed pollen — both tied to climate change — combine to threaten respiratory health, a Natural Resources Defense Council report said Tuesday.
“Today, 127 million Americans live where ragweed and ozone can threaten their next breath,” said Kim Knowlton, senior scientist at the council, who oversaw the project. “This health threat will just get worse if we don’t curb climate change soon.”
Climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal, both worsens ozone pollution and extends the ragweed season, the report said.
The late summer and early autumn season for ragweed pollen is now almost a month longer in many parts of the U.S. than it was 20 years ago, and that trend is likely to continue, the council said.
Smog forms on warm, sunny days and is made worse from the chemicals that are emitted from vehicle tailpipes and from power plant and industrial smokestacks. It worsens respiratory illnesses such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Plus, allergies alone can be life- threatening, especially in children, said Perry Sheffield, a pediatrician at Mount Sinai in New York.
In addition, air pollution from smog and allergens doesn’t just damage the lungs, it also affects the brain, heart and skin. “Clean air is so important for human health,” Sheffield said.
Ragweed was selected for this report instead of other pollens, such as tree and grass, because more people are allergic to it than to all the others combined, Knowlton said. Ragweed comes out toward late summer when temperatures and smog levels are the highest.
The report focuses on 15 of the worst jurisdictions where smog and pollen are especially bad. Those, listed in order starting with the worst: District of Columbia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Utah, Ohio, Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, Delaware, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Indiana and Kansas.
“It’s ironic and tragic that the nation’s key ‘hot spot’ is Washington, D.C., the very place where wrongheaded policy threatens to make climate and pollution problems worse by the day,” said Juanita Constible of the NRDC. Instead of dismantling the Clean Power Plan, the federal government should focus on limiting smog, curbing power plant pollution and increasing vehicle fuel efficiency, she added.
The group said governments at the state and local levels should also work to ramp up the use of clean energy and diminish smog levels, among other actions.