Metro Atlanta’s air quality dropped to an “F” rating for ozone pollution this year, meaning residents are being exposed to more smog.
Other air pollutants are also on the rise, though the region has seen dramatic improvement in the air we breathe in recent decades.
Those findings are from the American Lung Association’s Wednesday release of its annual State of the Air report, which grades exposure to unhealthy levels of smog and particulate matter over a three-year period. This year’s report, based on data from 2021 through 2023, ranks the metro area as the third-worst in the Southeast for ozone pollution. Metro Atlanta is tied with Augusta’s metro area for fourth-worst in the Southeast in terms of year-round levels of particle pollution, or soot.
Compared to the rest of the country, the report ranks Atlanta as the 48th worst out of 228 metro areas for ground-level ozone pollution. That’s a decline from last year’s national ranking, when Atlanta held the 67th spot.
Ground-level ozone, or smog, is a gas created when chemicals coming out of vehicles and factories get “cooked” by the sun, according to the U.S. Air Quality Index. Inhaling that can sometimes be painful and could make the lining of your airways red and swollen, similar to a sunburn.
In the metro area, the number of days of unhealthy levels of ozone has increased from 1.8 days in last year’s report to 5.5 days this year. That resulted in the “F” grade, a fall from last year’s “C” grade.
Overall, though, air quality in the metro area has significantly improved in the last 25 years. From 1998 through 2000, the city saw 95.5 days of high ozone levels, for example.
The report also assesses particulate matter, which is similar to ozone but is made up of dust, soot and other pollutants that can sometimes be seen floating through the air. It’s produced by fires or other combustions, including gasoline burning in a car’s engine, the AQI explains. It can even be produced by dust kicked up in construction or from a dirt road.
This year, metro Atlanta was downgraded from a “B” to a “C” for short-term spikes in particle pollution, with 1.7 unhealthy days instead of just 0.3 days last year.
The decline in air quality is concerning because it affects everyone’s health. Both ozone and particulate matter can cause health complications, such as asthma attacks and even premature death, the lung association warns.
“Unfortunately, too many people in the Atlanta metro area are living with unhealthy levels of ozone and particle pollution,” Danna Thompson, the group’s Georgia advocacy director said in a statement. “This air pollution is a threat to human health at every stage of life — increasing the risk of premature birth and low birth weight in babies to causing or worsening lung and heart disease to shortening lives.“
Metro Atlanta is not the only Georgia region to see a decline in air quality this year. Savannah fell from an “A” grade to a “B” grade for ozone.
There were bits of good news. While Augusta tied with Atlanta as one of the Southeast’s worst metros for year-round particle pollution, it ranked among the cleanest in the nation for smog.
And despite Atlanta’s poor grades, no city in Georgia or the Southeast made the association’s list of 25 most polluted cities, as measured by ozone and short-term and year-round particle pollution. The three worst cities nationwide in those categories are all in California, with Los Angeles coming in as the No. 1 worst by ozone.
However, the report notes that nearly half of the country lives in areas with unhealthy air quality. Extreme heat and wildfires are contributing to worsening air quality in much of the country, experts warn.
“We urge Georgia policymakers to take action to improve our air quality, and we are calling on everyone to support the incredibly important work of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” Thompson said. “Without EPA staff and programs, Georgians won’t know what’s in the air they’re breathing, and efforts to clean up air pollution will be undone.”
— This is a developing story. Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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