Health
- Air pollution is a serious health threat. It can trigger asthma attacks, hinder lung development in children and even be deadly.
- Breathing polluted air can irritate the lungs like a sunburn irritates the skin.
- Idling vehicle engines produce thousands of tons of pollution per year including air toxins, which are known to cause cancer, respiratory and reproductive effects, birth defects or other serious health concerns.
- Ozone and particle pollution are both linked to increased risk of lower birth weight in newborns.
- Breathing ozone can shorten your life. Research shows that the risk of premature death increases with higher levels of ozone.
- People who live near high traffic roads face greater risk of cancer, heart disease, asthma and bronchitis as these places contain more concentrated levels of air pollution.
- Aerobic activities like walking and running when air quality conditions are favorable give your heart and lungs the kind of workout they need to function efficiently.
- Particle pollution can increase the risk of heart disease, lung cancer and asthma attacks and can interfere with the growth and work of the lungs.
- The average American breathes two gallons of air per minute, which means around 3,400 gallons of air each day.
- People who work or exercise outside face increased risk from the effects of air pollution.
- Many air pollution particles are smaller than 1/30th the diameter of a human hair. When you inhale them, they are small enough to get past the body’s natural defenses.
- You can protect your family by checking the air quality forecasts in your community and avoiding exercising or working outdoors when unhealthy air is expected.
- Studies have shown long-term exposure to traffic pollution can lead to poor cognition and may increase the risk for dementia.
- People of color and those earning lower incomes are often disproportionately affected by air pollution which put them at higher risk for illnesses.
- Ozone aggressively attacks lung tissue by reacting chemically with it.
- Lawn mower exhaust and gasoline vapors contain VOCs that are key to ozone formation in the presence of heat and sun.
Transportation
- Idling for longer than 10 seconds uses more fuel than restarting your engine.
- Idling for 10 minutes a day wastes more than 27 gallons of fuel in a year.
- Carpooling, using transit, telecommuting and supporting programs to limit idling can all help reduce emissions that lead to poor air quality.
- Indoor air can become polluted with exhaust from vehicles idling outside.
“State of the Air” 2026
- St. Louis ranks 24th overall in the nation for most polluted U.S. cities by ozone.
- St. Louis ranks 31st overall in the nation for most polluted cities by annual particle pollution.
- 44% of Americans — 152 .3 million people — are living in places with failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution.
- Nearly 33 million people live in counties that got an F for all three air pollution measures in “State of the Air” 2026.
- Nearly half of American children (46%, or 33.5 million people under the age of 18) live in counties that received a failing grade for at least one measure of air pollution.
- Ten percent of children (7.3 million people under age 18) live in counties with failing grades for all three measures.
- Infants, children and teens as a group are more susceptible to the health impacts of air pollution. Their lungs are still developing, they breathe more air for their body size than adults, and they are frequently exposed to outdoor air.
- Research shows that people of color and people with lower incomes are disproportionately affected by air pollution that puts them at higher risk for illness.
- Although people of color make up 42.1% of the overall population of the U.S., they represent 54.2% of the people living in a county with at least one failing grade.
- A person of color is more than twice (2.42 times) as likely as a white individual to live in a community with a failing grade for all three pollution measures. Hispanic individuals are more than three times (3.2 times) as likely.
- In the years 2022, 2023 and 2024, 38% of the population, some 129.1 million people, were exposed to levels of ozone that put their health at risk. That is the highest number since the American Lung Association’s “State of the Air” report six years ago, and an increase of 3.9 million people over last year’s figure.