Cheyenne Gets ‘F’ on Air Quality Report Card
If you live in Cheyenne, the air you breathe may actually put your health at risk.
According to the American Lung Association's annual State of the Air report, the capital city's air quality has gotten worse since last year's report.
The report grades cities and counties based on ground-level ozone air pollution, annual particle pollution, and short-term spikes in particle pollution over a three-year period. This year’s report covers 2019-2021.
After earning an A for its levels of ozone pollution on last year's report card, Cheyenne got an F this year.
As for particle pollution, Cheyenne's year-round levels were slightly higher than in last year's report, but still earned a passing grade, while 24-hour levels stayed the same on average, maintaining a D grade.
Many Wyoming counties also received failing grades for ozone pollution.
Laramie County’s grade fell from an A to an F, Albany County’s grade dropped from a C to an F, Campbell County's grade fell from a B to an F, and Sublette County maintained its F grade.
Campbell, Fremont, Sublette, Sweetwater, and Teton counties also experienced more unhealthy short-term particle pollution days on average compared with last year’s report.
Nationally, the report found that ozone pollution has generally improved across the United States, thanks in large part to the success of the Clean Air Act.
However, more work remains to fully clean up harmful pollution, and short-term particle pollution continues to get worse.
The report found that more than one in three people in the U.S. live in counties that had unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution.
The ALA is calling on President Biden to urgently move forward on several measures to clean up air pollution nationwide, including new pollution limits on ozone and particle pollution and new measures to clean up power plants and vehicles.
You can see the full report and sign the petition by visiting lung.org/research/sota.