The American Lung Association was invited by the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club to present the annual State of the Air report and much of New Mexico received failing grades.
According to the report by the American Lung Association, both Bernalillo county and Doña Ana county received “F” grades for pollution relating to high ozone and particle pollution from years 2022 to 2024.
The Las Cruces metro area also saw a noticeable decline in air quality dropping to have the 31st worst in the country when looking at the average year round level of particle pollution.
The last report had Las Cruces ranked as the 70th worst in the same category.
Las Cruces also ranked 16th worst in the nation for ozone pollution, also known as smog.
JoAnna Strother, senior director of advocacy with American Lung Association, said that worsening ozone pollution is a national trend.
“More communities are seeing the worst ozone levels in years. The number of people living in counties with unhealthy ozone pollution increased in this year's report and more than 129 million people, so that is 23% of the nation's population lived in a county earning an “F” grade for ozone,” Strother said.
Strother continued by saying that the parts of the country that are hit hardest by ozone pollution are the southwest states from California to Texas. Nationwide, this worsening can be linked back to wildfires, precursor pollutants that come across the border and higher temperatures.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, ozone pollution can cause an increase in asthma attacks, damage to airways, coughing and an increased vulnerability to infections.
“The local data is important but it is easy to lose the big picture and that is breathing air pollution harms everyone's health. Ozone pollution and particle pollution cause harm to health at every single stage of life and across multiple systems in the body, not just respiratory. Air pollution also shortened lives even at relatively low levels,” Strother said.
According to the report, nearly half of the people living in the United States breathe unhealthy levels of air pollution.
