Nearly Half of Americans Breathe Unsafe Air. Trump's Climate Rampage Is Set to Make It Worse

U.S. President Donald Trump pledged following his 2024 election victory to deliver the "cleanest air" on the planet, but a report published Wednesday warns that his assault on the Environmental Protection Agency, efforts to roll back progress on clean energy, and attempts to boost the polluting coal industry are set to make an already bad situation worse.

The American Lung Association's (ALA) 2025 "State of the Air" report found that 156 million people in the U.S.—nearly half of the country's population—lived in areas with dangerous ozone or particle pollution between 2021 and 2023, the latest years from which data is available.

That's 25 million more people living in areas with unsafe air than the previous period examined by the ALA, which attributed the increase to "extreme heat and wildfires" made more frequent and intense by the global climate emergency. Trump appears bent on accelerating the crisis with his efforts to bolster the fossil fuel industry, the primary driver of planetary warming.

"In the three years covered by this report, individuals in the U.S. experienced the highest number of days when particle pollution reached 'unhealthy' (red days) and 'very unhealthy' (purple days) levels in the 26 years of reporting the 'State of the Air,'" the group said Wednesday. "This year's report includes data from the summer of 2023, when smoke from wildfires in Canada significantly impacted midwestern and eastern states, resulting in worse particle pollution."

Bakersfield-Delano, California, Fairbanks-College, Alaska, and Eugene-Springfield, Oregon ranked as the three U.S. areas impacted most by short-term particle pollution. Los Angeles-Long Beach, Visalia, and Bakersfield-Delano—all in California—and Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona were the areas hit hardest by ozone pollution, according to the ALA report.

"Families across the U.S. are dealing with the health impacts of air pollution every day, and extreme heat and wildfires are making it worse," said Harold Wimmer, the ALA's president and CEO. "Air pollution is causing kids to have asthma attacks, making people who work outdoors sick, and leading to low birth weight in babies. This year's report shows the dramatic impact that air pollution has on a growing number of people."

"Even as more people are breathing unhealthy air, the federal staff, programs, and policies that are supposed to be cleaning up pollution are facing rollbacks, restructuring, and funding challenges," Wimmer continued, alluding to the Trump administration's slash-and-burn attacks on key government intiatives. "For decades, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has worked to ensure people have clean air to breathe, from providing trustworthy air quality forecasts to making sure polluters who violate the law clean up."

"Efforts to slash staff, funding, and programs at EPA," he warned, "are leaving families even more vulnerable to harmful air pollution. We need to protect the EPA."

The report comes after the Trump administration marked the eve of Earth Day by sending termination notices to more EPA employees, specifically taking aim at environmental justice divisions. The EPA is currently led by Trump appointee Lee Zeldin, who as a member of Congress repeatedly voted to weaken Clean Air Act standards.

The New York Times reported Monday that under Zeldin's leadership, the EPA has "shut down its offices responsible for addressing the disproportionately high levels of pollution that poor communities face."

"Internal documents have outlined plans to eliminate the agency's scientific research arm, a move that experts have said will hinder clean water improvements, air quality monitoring, toxic site cleanups, and other parts of the agency's mission," the Times added.

Earlier this month, as Common Dreams reported, Trump signed several executive orders aimed at promoting the coal industry, which the ALA report identifies as a key contributor to dangerous fine particulate matter air pollution.

"Coal kills," Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous said in response to the orders. "In the last two decades, nearly half a million Americans have died from exposure to coal pollution. Forcing coal plants to stay online will cost Americans more, get more people sick with respiratory and heart conditions, and lead to more premature deaths. Donald Trump's plan is as despicable as it is reckless and ill-conceived."