DETROIT – A new report by the American Lung Association has found nearly half of Americans are living with unhealthy levels of air pollution.
Detroit was ranked sixth for year-round average particle pollution. It was the 13th year prior.
The pollution can come from factories, refineries, auto emissions, wood-burning stoves, wildfires and more. But there was one event in particular that was a big factor in Detroit’s poor score.
In the summer of 2023, Canadian wildfires sent particle pollution soaring for several days across the region.
“Looking at the data, the wildfire smoke had a really great impact on Detroit’s outcome, and even Midwestern states,” said Kezia Ofosu Atta with the American Lung Association in Michigan.
Those tiny solid and liquid particles can bypass our bodies’ natural defenses and make their way deep into the lungs. The smallest particles can even pass into the bloodstream and cause harm to the lungs, heart, brain and other organs.
Another concern is ozone.
“From the years 2021, 22 and 23, we had 6.2 days on average per year that had an unhealthy number of days regarding this category of ground-level ozone pollution,” Atta said.
Breathing in ozone pollution can cause damage to our lungs, but it can also worsen many other health problems.
The report doesn’t say Detroit’s air is bad every day, but we need to pay more attention to know when it is. And there are ways we can all help improve our air.
“We can also take action to reduce our emissions,” Atta said. “So if we have several errands to run in a week, rather than go into all those errands separately, we can combine some of them as much as we can based on our schedule.”
If you have any sort of breathing issues, like asthma or COPD, it’s important to pay attention to those days when the air quality is poor -- Those are days when it’s best to limit time outside.
