{"id":600416,"date":"2026-04-22T22:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/600416\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T22:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:22:15","slug":"phoenixs-air-quality-is-among-worst-in-u-s-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/600416\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix&#8217;s air quality is among worst in U.S., report says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Phoenix has once again earned a failing grade from the American Lung Association in the organization&#8217;s annual rankings of air quality across the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>According to this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lung.org\/research\/sota\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">State of the Air report<\/a>, Phoenix is the fourth-smoggiest city in the U.S. Phoenix had no improvement from last year, when the city also ranked fourth-worst for ozone pollution.<\/p>\n<p>Ozone pollution, or smog, comes from tailpipe emissions, power plants and other industrial sources, but it\u2019s exacerbated by heat and sun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we see more vehicles on our road, combined with the extreme heat we experience in Phoenix over the summers, that\u2019s driving up ozone pollution,\u201d said Melissa Ramos, American Lung Association senior manager for clean air advocacy.<\/p>\n<p>Phoenix\u2019s particle pollution worsened in this year\u2019s report. Phoenix now ranks 15th-worst in the nation for particle pollution. Last year, the city ranked 20th-worst.<\/p>\n<p>Phoenix\u2019s hot, dry climate plays a role in particle pollution as well, Ramos said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDrought, catastrophic wildfires, dust from construction \u2014 all of that also contributes to our particle pollution burden,\u201d Ramos said.<\/p>\n<p>The report emphasizes that poor air quality can contribute to a range of health problems, including asthma, cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer.<\/p>\n<p>Under the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency has recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kjzz.org\/politics\/2026-02-13\/arizona-groups-call-epas-reversal-of-climate-change-finding-reckless\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">rolled back several emissions regulations<\/a>. The report warns those changes could threaten Americans\u2019 health and calls on policymakers to strengthen air quality protections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOverturning these rules is a huge public health setback, it\u2019s not only going to increase air pollution and worsen lung and heart diseases, but it\u2019s ultimately going to worsen climate change impacts as well,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cWe\u2019re calling on EPA to just prioritize public health again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phoenix has once again earned a failing grade from the American Lung Association in the organization&#8217;s annual rankings&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-600416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}