High-Density Zoning Approved, England Grove Update, City Council Preview + Earth Day Recap
Healthy East Valley Hosts Drug Free Communities Coalition with a Spotlight on Behavioral and Mental Health Resources from LLU
Investing in new heating and air conditioning equipment can lower your monthly costs, reduce repairs, and even improve your indoor air quality.
County receives failing grades across the board as American Lung Association report shows 46% of Americans breathe unhealthy air
REDLANDS, Calif. — San Bernardino County continues to be ranked worst in the nation for ozone pollution, according to the American Lung Association's 2025 "State of the Air" report released on April 23.
Why it matters: The county experienced an average of 153.7 high ozone days and received F grade ratings across the board for both ozone and particle pollution.
This continues a troubling trend for the county's more than 2.1 million residents, who face significant health risks from persistent air quality issues.
Details: The annual report, now in its 26th edition, finds that nationwide, 156.1 million Americans—46% of the population—live in areas with failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone and/or particle pollution. This represents an increase of nearly 25 million people breathing unhealthy air compared to last year's report.
Particle and ozone pollution: Ground-level ozone, also known as smog, forms when pollutants from vehicles, power plants and other sources react with sunlight. The effects have been likened to a sunburn of the lungs, causing shortness of breath, triggering coughing and asthma attacks and potentially shortening life.
Particle pollution, also called soot, consists of tiny particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs. These particles come from wildfires, wood-burning stoves, coal-fired power plants, diesel engines and other sources.
San Bernardino County did see some improvement from the previous report, however. From 2020-2022, the county experienced an average of 175.2 high ozone days, which is 21.5 more days than the 153.7 average for 2021-2023.
Both pollutants pose serious health risks, including premature death, asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and impaired cognitive functioning.
"Families across the U.S. are dealing with the health impacts of air pollution every day, and extreme heat and wildfires are making it worse," said Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association in a statement. "Air pollution is causing kids to have asthma attacks, making people who work outdoors sick, and leading to low birth weight in babies."
The unequal impact: The burden of this pollution falls disproportionately on vulnerable populations. In San Bernardino County, this includes:
Nationwide, the report highlights significant disparities in who breathes the most polluted air. People of color, who make up 41.2% of the U.S. population, represent 50.2% of those living in counties with at least one failing grade.
Hispanic individuals are nearly three times as likely as white individuals to live in communities with failing grades for all three pollution measures tracked by the report.
"This year's report shows the dramatic impact that air pollution has on a growing number of people," Wimmer notes. "Even as more people are breathing unhealthy air, the federal staff, programs and policies that are supposed to be cleaning up pollution are facing rollbacks, restructuring and funding challenges."
Political backdrop: The American Lung Association is calling for support and defense of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), describing it as essential to protecting public health.
"Without EPA staff and programs, families won't know what's in the air they are breathing, and efforts to clean up air pollution will be undone," the organization states.
That call comes just as House Republicans, joined by a few Democrats, voted Wednesday to stop California from requiring an increasing percentage of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles over time and to block the state’s effort to reduce smog, according to The New York Times.
These votes are part of a larger push by congressional Republicans to challenge California’s longstanding authority to set pollution standards stricter than federal rules. On Thursday, the House is expected to vote on whether to block California from implementing what is widely considered the nation’s most ambitious climate policy: a ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered automobiles by 2035.
Redlands, with its many warehouses, sees about 11,000 daily diesel truck trips. The harmful diesel exhaust combined with wildfires in the area continues to contribute to San Bernardino County’s poor air quality.
Zoom out: Climate change plays a big role in the equation. Extreme heat, drought and wildfires are contributing to worsening levels of air pollution across much of the country. The report includes data from summer 2023, when smoke from Canadian wildfires significantly impacted midwestern and eastern states.
While western states have traditionally seen the worst air quality problems, the geographic distribution is shifting. The 2023 data shows improved conditions on the west coast, but a deadly heat wave in Texas and unprecedented wildfire smoke from Canada drove pollution levels higher in dozens of central and eastern states.
The report also recognized the nation's cleanest cities. Only two cities—Bangor, Maine and San Juan, Puerto Rico—made the cleanest cities list for all three pollution measures this year, reflecting an overall worsening of air quality across the country.
Last year, five cities made this list.
Moving forward: The full report results are available at Lung.org/sota.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter
