the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Apr 28, 2025
The American Lung Association released its annual State of the Air report, which found that 156 million Americans, or 45%, lived in areas it gave failing grades for air quality. That includes measures for ozone pollution (smog), long-term and short-term spikes in particulate matter (soot). The number means 25 million more people are breathing bad air than last year, by the ALA’s measures, a 19% increase.
The report found about 43 million Americans lived in counties that failed on all three air pollution measures. These counties include the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles and a number of others in California, just to name a few. Not surprisingly, it found black and Hispanic people to be twice as likely to live in such areas as white people. This is also likely to be the case for the working class, which the report did not measure.
Ozone and particulate matter pollution lead to many types of health problems in the population, including asthma, chronic bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and premature death.
The report blamed the worsening air quality on the increasing number of wildfires producing soot, and climate change contributing to the increase in ozone pollution or smog. When air becomes warmer at higher altitudes, it increases the chances that the chemical reactions needed to produce ozone will take place.
Cuts to the Environment Protection Agency and reductions of Clean Air regulations being carried out by President Trump only stand to lead to even poorer air quality measures. The harmful climate change that leads to wildfires, and the emission of chemicals into the air that lead to ozone pollution, are products of the lack of controls preventing environmental contamination that has gone on for many decades. Neither Trump nor the more mainstream politicians of the Republican and Democratic parties who serve the corporations and the wealthy are about to do what’s necessary to really protect the environment and people’s health.
To accomplish that requires getting rid of the system that puts profits before anything else, the system of capitalism.