Delawareans might not be surrounded by the smog found in major cities, but the state’s air quality still raises some concerns.
Mostly a sprawl of suburbia and farmland, Delaware has plenty of open space to enjoy nature and get some air.
But according to the American Lung Association’s 2023 State of the Air Report, that air isn’t so fresh.
What is the State of the Air Report?
The 24th annual report covers air quality from 2019 to 2021, in Delaware and nationally, and grades Americans’ exposure to annual particle pollution, unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone air pollution and short-term spikes in particle pollution over a three-year period.
The findings include whether local air quality is unhealthy to breathe; which Delaware residents are most vulnerable; and what actions local, state and national leaders can take to improve air quality.
This year’s report determines that one in three people nationwide, nearly 120 million, are exposed to unhealthy air.
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What is the air quality in each Delaware county?
In Delaware, air quality showed mixed results for fine particle pollution and ozone smog, some of the most widespread and harmful types of air pollution.
All counties continue to receive their best marks yet in terms of ozone smog but concerns still linger.
Grade rankings per county were assigned by counting days high in ozone and particle pollution and weighting worse days more than days that are just slightly elevated. A weighted average of the number of such days per year over a three-year period from 2019 to 2021 was then calculated, according to the report’s methodology.
Each grade value is assigned as follows:
- Grade “A” is a weighted average of 0.0.
- Grade “B” is a weighted average of 0.3 to 0.9.
- Grade “C” is a weighted average of 1.0 to 2.0.
- Grade “D” is a weighted average of 2.1 to 3.2.
- Grade “F” is a weighted average of 3.3 or higher.
New Castle County earned a “D” in the ozone smog category, its first passing grade, which indicates there are still too many days with poor air quality, according to the report.
Kent County remains unchanged with a “B” grade.
These findings follow the trend of a 16-county Philadelphia-Reading-Camden region in the PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area, which includes Delaware’s New Castle and Kent counties, seeing improved results for ozone smog.
Sussex County, which belongs to the five-county Salisbury-Cambridge, MD-DE metro area, earned its first “A” grade in the ozone smog category by recording zero days with unhealthy levels of ozone, according to the report.
For daily fine particle pollution, New Castle County dropped from the list of the nation’s cleanest counties after falling from an “A” in last year’s report to a “B.”
Kent and Sussex counties continued to earn “A” grades for the 12th straight year.
What is Delaware’s air quality compared to other states?
A study from QuoteWizard analyzed the most common environmental health hazards, air and water pollution, and found which states are the most polluted based on these factors.
Data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Air Quality Index (AQI) measurements from 2022 were evaluated to determine what “good” air quality is and the percentage of “good” days per state. The five pollutants covered by the AQI are ozone (O3), particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2)
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Delaware has 77% of “good” air quality days over a five-year period, according to QuoteWizard.
California leads the nation with the lowest percent of “good” air quality days, coming in at 67%. Hawaii leads with the most “good” air quality days, at 99%, followed by New Hampshire at 95%,
The study cites poor air quality as an increased risk for heart disease, lung cancer, stroke and other health problems.
What about national air quality?
The report found that ozone pollution has generally improved nationwide, with a large amount of credit going to the Clean Air Act, but more work remains to fully clean up harmful pollution, and short-term particle pollution continues to get worse, the report stated.
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Among the 120 million people impacted by unhealthy air quality, 64 million of those people (54%) are people of color.
People of color are 64% more likely than white people to live in a county with a failing grade for at least one air pollution measure, the report said, and 3.7 times as likely to live in a county with a failing grade for all three measures.
A push for better air quality
Chief Mission Officer for the American Lung Association Deb Brown says there is much more work to do in the Philadelphia metro area to improve air quality and stresses that even one day of poor air quality is too much exposure for residents, especially children, older adults, pregnant individuals and those living with chronic disease.
“Delaware must seize the opportunity to make a significant improvement to the health and wellbeing of all Delawareans by moving forward with the implementation of the Advanced Clean Cars II. This health-protective standard would accelerate the transition to zero emission vehicles and improve air quality in the state,” said Brown in this year’s report.
The American Lung Association is pushing for President Joe Biden to move forward on environmental measures that would mitigate air pollution nationwide, including placing new pollution limits on ozone and particle pollution and new measures to clean up power plants and vehicles.
Got a tip or a story idea? Contact Krys’tal Griffin at kgriffin@delawareonline.com.
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