Nearly 40% of people in the US live with unhealthy air pollution, report says

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1. More people across the United States – nearly 40% – are living in places with [unhealthy levels of polluted air](https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/23/health/unhealthy-air-report/index.html), according to a new report from the American Lung Association.

   The number of people living with levels of air pollution that can significantly affect their health climbed from about 119 million in last year’s data to 131 million in the current data, according to [the “State of the Air” report](https://www.lung.org/research/sota) released Wednesday.

   Extreme heat, drought and wildfires are among the factors that have contributed to a rise in deadly air pollution, especially in the Western part of the country, said Katherine Pruitt, author of the report and senior director of the American Lung Association’s Nationwide Clean Air Policy.

   “The air pollution produced by wildfire smoke is getting worse every year,” Pruitt said. “Climate change is contributing to that situation, and those wildfires are a very serious threat to our health.”

   In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act into law, and since then, emissions of outdoor air pollutants have dropped 78%, [according to the US Environmental Protection Agency](https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/progress-cleaning-air-and-improving-peoples-health).