Report: Utah air quality shows improvement, but still not good

The 2022 “State of the Air” report, released last week by the American Lung Association, finds that Salt Lake City’s and Logan’s rankings have improved for some of the most harmful and widespread types of air pollution — particle pollution and ozone. Residents in these areas experienced fewer days of unhealthy levels of ozone and particle pollution on average, but the cities still ranked among the most polluted nationally.

Compared to last year’s report, the Salt Lake City region improved slightly from 17th to 20th most-polluted for short-term particle pollution and from eighth to 10th most-polluted for ozone. Logan-area residents experienced an improvement with fewer unhealthy days of short-term particle pollution spikes. Logan’s ranking improved from seventh to 18th most-polluted for short-term particle pollution.

St. George ranked among the country’s cleanest cities, making the lists for both short-term and year-round particle pollution.

The “State of the Air” report is the Lung Association’s annual air quality report card that tracks and grades Americans’ exposure to unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone air pollution (also known as smog), annual particle pollution (also known as soot) and short-term spikes in particle pollution over a three-year period. This year’s report covers 2018-2020.

The full report is available at lung.org/sota.

“Despite some recent improvements, the levels of ozone and particle pollution seen in several areas of Utah can still harm the health of all of our residents. But particularly at risk are children, older adults, pregnant people, and those living with chronic disease. Both ozone and particle pollution can cause premature death and other serious health effects such as asthma attacks, cardiovascular damage, and developmental and reproductive harm. Particle pollution can also cause lung cancer,” said Nick Torres, advocacy director for the Lung Association.