Climate Change Undercuts Air Pollution Improvements
"The number of people breathing unhealthy air in the United States is increasing
despite decades of declines in the overall amount of air pollution being released, and climate change is a major cause."
"The latest data on the nation's air comes from the American Lung Association, a public health group. The group's 21st annual State of the Air report warns that climate change is undercutting decades of regulatory progress that has reduced pollution from factories, cars, power plants and other major air pollution sources, because more frequent and intense heat waves and wildfires are leading to more days with dangerously high levels of ozone and particulate matter."
"Hot weather helps create ozone, or smog. "Emissions of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide cook in the presence of sunlight to create ozone or smog," explains Paul Billings, the senior vice president for public policy at the American Lung Association."
"'What we've seen is that hot weather is making it more difficult to achieve health-based [air quality] standards,' Billings explains. Even though overall emissions are down, 'climate change makes the conditions for formation of smog or ozone easier, so we need to do more to reduce the underlying emissions.'"