MAINE, USA — The American Lung Association's annual air quality "report card" is out, and it tells a mostly positive story for Maine.
This year’s report covers 2017, 2018, and 2019, the years with the most recent quality-assured data available collected by states, cities, counties, tribes, and federal agencies.
More than 300,000 Mainers live with lung or heart disease – especially vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. Even infrequent days with poor air quality can still pose a serious issue.
“Maine’s stymied progress on air pollution has been the story of this report for several years. The American Lung Association’s 2021 “State of the Air” report continues to demonstrate long-term, gradual progress here in Maine, while reinforcing the need to think bigger, bolder and take more action on climate change,” said American Lung Association Senior Director for State Advocacy in Maine Lance Boucher.
Ozone is typically high on hot, humid summer days, and the trends in the last 25 years have been quite encouraging. The last few years have averaged one to two days with high ozone levels, the fewest on record, compared to more than 20 days in the early 2000s.
Of the 10 Maine counties graded, five scored A grades for Ozone levels – lower grades were either metro or coastal counties – Cumberland, Hancock, Knox, Washington and York.
"There are sources from away – we've often said that Maine is the tailpipe of the country – so we get everything coming up this way from states to our west. But we do have home grown pollution sources as well," said Boucher.
"Climate change is making continued improvements harder to achieve. We've seen an increase in climate-driven wildfires, which contribute to an increase in the particulate matter we are seeing, which caused Aroostook County's grade (for high particle pollution days) to worsen," added Boucher.
Throughout the state, every county maintained their grade for ozone from last year's report. All counties continued to meet the national standard for year-round particle pollution.