2025 State of the Air: Dangers of the Air We Breathe with George Thurston, ScD

Nearly half of Americans are breathing unhealthy air, according to the American Lung Association (ALA)’s latest State of the Air report, which analyzes ozone and particle pollution levels across the U.S. Drawing on federally verified data from 2021 to 2023, the report reveals that 156 million people—46% of the U.S. population—live in areas receiving a failing grade for at least one pollutant, with more than 42 million exposed to unhealthy levels of all three key measures: ozone, short-term particulate matter (PM₂.₅), and annual PM₂.₅. Worsening air quality trends, driven by extreme heat and wildfires, have pushed short-term particle pollution to the highest levels in 16 years, posing serious risks to respiratory and cardiovascular health. Yet, large data gaps remain—over 72 million people live in counties without any monitoring, leaving many at-risk communities invisible in national air quality assessments.

An internationally recognized leader in air quality, epidemiology and exposure assessment, George Thurston, ScD, a professor of medicine and population health at New York University School of Medicine headlines this important episode analyzing the Lung Association’s 2025 “State of the Air” report. In this episode, Thurston delves into the acute and accumulative health impacts on communities across the country. Listen in to learn more about the report’s key learnings, from adverse effects of exposure to ground-level ozone pollution to the decade-long worsening trend of particle pollution.

“You really have to have the evidence, and it's hard to have the evidence if you don't have people actually living at these lower levels. So that’s been very slow but positive progress towards cleaner air as we learn more and more about the effects of air pollution at even at lower and lower levels,” Thurston said.

Lungcast is a monthly respiratory news podcast series hosted by Albert Rizzo, MD, chief medical officer of the ALA, and produced by HCPLive.

Subscribe to Lungcast on Spotify here, or listen to the episode below.