Second Annual Health of the Air Report

The second annual "Health of the Air" report from the Marron Institute of Urban Management at NYU and the American Thoracic Society (ATS) is now available showing the health impacts of air pollution in cities across the United States. Health estimates in the report are made for counties with outdoor pollution levels that exceed ATS recommendations of 60 parts per billion for ozone, 11 micrograms per cubic meter of PM_2.5 for the annual standard or 25 micrograms per cubic meter of PM_2.5 for the short-term standard.

Approximately 6,270 excess deaths—as well as 15,500 major health events, or morbidities, and 12.7 million impacted days, or days when an individual was kept from work, school, or other activities due to health exacerbations— are occurring each year in the United States as a result of air pollution concentrations exceeding ATS-recommended standards for fine particle pollution (PM_2.5) and ozone.

You can see the local estimates of the health impacts of air pollution in your city at HealthoftheAir.org.

See Your City

The results are described in the report published in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of the American Thoracic Study.

Read the Report

Tile image courtesy of Josh Rose.