New air quality report raises concerns about ozone pollution in Raleigh, Durham

Raleigh-Durham’s air quality is a mixed bag, a new report revealed.

The Raleigh-Durham metro area set a new best-ever level for year-round particle pollution, but levels of ozone smog increased. This is according to the American Lung Association's 2024 "State of the Air" report released on Wednesday.

The association’s "State of the Air" report grades exposure to unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone air pollution, annual particle pollution and short-term spikes in particle pollution over a three-year period. This year’s report included air quality data from 2020-2022 and was updated to reflect the new annual particle pollution standard that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized in February.

Both ozone and particle pollution can cause premature death and other serious health effects such as asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, preterm births and impaired cognitive functioning later in life. Particle pollution can also cause lung cancer.

The report looked at levels of ozone "smog," the air pollutant affecting the largest number of people in the United States. The Raleigh-Durham metro area ranked 116th worst in the nation for ozone pollution. The ranking was based on the area’s worst county’s average number of unhealthy days—0.3 days per year, a "B" grade, in Granville County. This was worse than the area’s ranking in last year’s report among the nation’s cleanest cities, with 0 days per year, which is an "A" grade.

So what is ozone pollution?

"This happens when pollutants emitted by cars, power plants, industrial boilers, refineries, chemical plants and other sources chemically react in the presence of sunlight," the EPA said on its website.

The EPA said ozone is most likely to reach unhealthy levels on hot sunny days.

The report also tracked short-term spikes in particle pollution, which can be extremely dangerous and even deadly. The Raleigh-Durham metro area ranked 124th worst in the nation for short-term particle pollution.

The ranking was based on the area’s worst county’s average number of unhealthy days—0.3 days per year, a "B" grade, in Wake County. This was better than the area's ranking in last year's report of 118th worst.

Particle pollution refers to a mix of tiny solid and liquid particles that are in the air we breathe, according to the American Lung Association. This includes tailpipe exhaust or the haze in the air from wildfire smoke.

For the year-round average level of particle pollution, the area’s worst county, Durham County, received a passing grade for pollution levels below the federal standard that was recently updated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The Raleigh-Durham metro area ranked 162nd worst in the nation. This was better than the area's ranking in last year's report of 112th worst in the nation.

"Unfortunately, more than 131 million people still live in places with unhealthy levels of air pollution, and Raleigh-Durham still has work to do," said Danna Thompson, director of advocacy for the American Lung Association in North Carolina. "Climate change is making air pollution more likely to form and more difficult to clean up. So, there are actions we can and must take to improve air quality, such as calling on EPA to set long-overdue stronger national limits on ozone pollution."

The report said Charlotte metro area’s air quality improved, earning its first-ever passing grade for ozone pollution and passing grades for particle pollution.

The Wilmington metro area was ranked one of the cleanest cities in the nation for the 8th consecutive year, according to the report.

Particle pollution reaches highest levels ever recorded, communities of color disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air

Nationally, the report found that more than 131 million people, or nearly four in ten people, in the U.S. live in counties that had unsafe levels of ozone or particle pollution. The "State of the Air" report found that 43.9 million people live in areas with failing grades for all three measures of air pollution.

In the three years covered by this report, individuals in the U.S. experienced the highest number of days when particle pollution reached "very unhealthy" and "hazardous" levels in the history of reporting the "State of the Air."

Communities of color are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air and are also more likely to be living with one or more chronic conditions that make them more vulnerable to air pollution, including asthma, diabetes and heart disease. The report found that a person of color in the U.S. is more than twice as likely as a white individual to live in a community with a failing grade on all three pollution measures.

The EPA recently finalized new air pollution rules that will help clean up particle pollution and address climate change. Now, the Lung Association is urging the EPA to set long overdue stronger national limits on ozone pollution. Stronger limits would help people protect themselves and drive cleanup of polluting sources across the country.

For more information about the 2024 "State of the Air" report, go to lung.org/SOTA.