Canva The average healthy person takes about 22,000 breaths per day. But depending on where you live in the United States, going outside for a few breaths of fresh air may be slowly killing you. Millions nationwide live in regions where air pollution levels exceed what the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe. Children, older adults, people with preexisting heart or lung conditions, communities of color, and low-income communities are among the most vulnerable and most severely impacted by air pollution. Exposure to air pollution is associated with over 100,000 premature deaths annually, most of those being people over age 65. By race, Black and Hispanic populations bear a disproportionate share of those deaths. A majority of air pollution comes from burning fossil fuels like gasoline, diesel, oil, and wood. Tiny inhalable particle pollutants–just a fraction of the width of a single piece of human hair–form when compounds such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emitted from power plants, industrial sites, and automobiles undergo chemical reactions in the atmosphere. The most dangerous type of pollution is fine particle pollution or PM2.5. When inhaled, PM2.5 pollutants can travel deep into the lung tissue, enter the bloodstream, and create an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses such as asthma, and even lung cancer. To better protect public health, the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee is seeking to make the standards around air quality and pollution stricter, leading to thousands of lives saved and billions of dollars added back into the economy. Currently, PM2.5 levels are limited to 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air, as established by the standard set in 2012. The EPA proposes changing that limit to between 8 and 11 micrograms. Even within that range, the impact on public health can vary. A 2022 study commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund found that an annual standard of 8 micrograms prevents more than four times as many premature deaths as a standard of 10 micrograms. Moreover, many experts, including medical professionals and environmental scientists, do not believe the proposed limits go far enough to address the threat to public health adequately. Stacker cited data from the Environmental Protection Agency to look at what the agency’s consideration of new particulate pollution standards means for people across the U.S. You may also like: ‘I have a dream’ and the rest of the greatest speeches of the 20th century At least 12 cities are already above recommended particulate standards
Here are the places where air pollution levels could soon be considered dangerous by the EPA
