Phoenix Is Progressively Seeing More Days With Unhealthy Ozone Levels
By Ginny Reese
April 21, 2021
According to the American Lung Association's annual "State of the Air" report, Phoenix is seeing more days with unhealthy ozone levels. The city did, however, see fewer days with harmful levels of particulates.
The organization ranked Phoenix as the fifth-worst city in the entire nation for air quality.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality said that the city say lower-than-expected ozone levels in 2020. This is thanks to the stay-at-home order that Arizona underwent in April of last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Phoenix had some good news, however. The city dropped completely out of the top 10 cities with the most short-term particle spikes, which are "extremely dangerous, even lethal."
Tucson-Nogales saw more days with the unhealthy short-term particle spikes, but improved its overall ozone pollution ranking.
Sierra Vista-Douglas, a city about three-and-a-half hours south of Phoenix, is one of the cleanest cities in regard to short-term particle spikes.
According to the American Lung Association, unhealthy ozone and particle pollution "can cause premature death and other serious health effects such as asthma attacks and cardiovascular damage and are linked to developmental and reproductive harm." The association also said, "Particle pollution can also cause lung cancer."