(WJET\/WFXP)\u2013 Each year, the American Lung Association (ALA) releases their State of the Air report, detailing how clean or unhealthy the air citizens in every part of the United States breathe, with Erie County receiving passing marks.<\/p>\n
The annual report from the ALA focuses on three areas from 2022-2024: high ozone days, 24-hour particle pollution and annual particle pollution for participating counties, with the first two categories receiving an A-F grade and a pass or fail designation for the last.<\/p>\n
While the grades weren\u2019t spectacular overall, Erie County received passing marks in all three, ranking in the middle to upper-middle among other metropolitan areas nationally.<\/p>\n
From 2022-2024, the ALA reported that Erie County had three \u201corange\u201d high ozone days and no days with a red or purple designation, which came out to a C grade and was ranked 135th worst out of 226 metros.<\/p>\n
Erie woman accused of accepting bribes to approve pandemic unemployment claims <\/a><\/p>\n As for 24-hour high particle pollution days, Erie had one orange designation day and three in the red, averaging 1.8 per year and good for another C grade and ranked 101st worst out of 224 metros.<\/p>\n Erie also passed the annual particle pollution test with a design value of 6.8, whereas areas with a design value of 9.1 or higher failed and had a ranking of 171 out of 211 recorded metros.<\/p>\n Comparing Erie\u2019s numbers to those of other Pennsylvania metros, the ALA ranked the Harrisburg-York-Lebanon metro as the 76th worst for ozone pollution, receiving an F grade for 3.3 unhealthy days per year in Dauphin County.<\/p>\n The ALA also reported the Lancaster County metro had its best results since the reports started for year-round fine particle pollution, but still received a failing remark and ranked 45th worst in the country.<\/p>\n What is a \u2018trusted person\u2019 scam, how do you avoid them? <\/a><\/p>\n The\u00a0Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD received straight F\u2019s from the ALA across all three categories, ranking the 17th, 26th and 43rd worst for all three categories, respectively.<\/p>\n They weren\u2019t alone in that regard, with the Pittsburgh-Weirton-Steubenville, PA-OH-WV\u00a0metro also receiving straight F\u2019s and actually receiving worse grades from the last report, sliding 90th to 63rd worst for ozone pollution, slightly from 12th to 16th worst for fine particle pollution and from 16th to 11th worst for annual particle pollution.<\/p>\n For the full report and an in-depth look at how metros were graded, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n