Almost half of U.S. exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution: Report

CBS Evening News Almost half of U.S. residents are exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution, new report says. These are the areas that got an "F" .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-evening-news.jpg'); } By Kiki Intarasuwan Kiki Intarasuwan News Editor Kiki Intarasuwan is a news editor for CBS News & Stations. Read Full Bio Kiki Intarasuwan Updated on: April 23, 2025 / 8:40 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google A new report on air quality across the United States offered a cloudy prognosis on the long-term health of about 156 million residents who live in areas that received an "F" in smog and soot pollution. The American Lung Association's annual State of the Air report, which looked at the latest air quality data from 2021 to 2023, concluded that 25 million more people are breathing "unhealthy levels of air pollution" compared to last year. According to the report, around 46% of people in the U.S. live in an area that received a failing grade in at least one of the three measures that were studied: short-term particle pollution, year-round particle pollution and ozone pollution.Since the Clean Air Act was signed into law in 1970, emissions of the six most common air pollutants have fallen by 78%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency — but recent analyses show air pollution has been on the rise in recent years."Since the act passed, the air pollution has gone down overall," Laura Kate Bender, an assistant vice president at the American Lung Association, told CBS News. "The challenge is that over the last few years, we're starting to see it tick back up again and that's because of climate change, in part. Climate change is making some of those conditions for wildfires and extreme heat that drive ozone pollution worse for a lot of the country."The most polluted and cleanest U.S. citiesFor the sixth year in a row, Bakersfield, California, remained the city with the worst year-roun...