Over 50% of New Yorkers Live in Areas With Failing Air Quality

The air you breathe in most of the Hudson Valley may put your health at risk, according to health officials.

On Wednesday, the American Lung Association released its 2019 “State of the Air” report which found half of New Yorkers live in areas with failing air quality. Four New York counties, including two in the Hudson Valley, received reduced grades for ozone.

“New York residents should be aware that we’re breathing unhealthy air, driven by emissions and extreme heat as a result of climate change, and it is placing our health and lives at risk. When 50% of New Yorkers are being exposed to unhealthy air, we must do more on the local, state and federal levels to improve our air quality,” Elizabeth Hamlin-Berninger, Director of Advocacy for the American Lung Association in New York, said in a press release. “In addition to challenges here in New York State, the 20th-anniversary ‘State of the Air’ report highlights that more than 4 in 10 Americans are living with unhealthy air, and we’re heading in the wrong direction when it comes to protecting public health.”

The annual air quality “report card” tracks Americans’ exposure to unhealthful levels of ozone or particle pollution, both of which can be deadly. The 2019 report covers the most recent quality-assured data available collected by states, cities, counties, tribes and federal agencies in 2015-2017.

Those three years were the hottest recorded in global history, officials say.

Below is how counties in the Hudson Valley were graded. Note, some counties didn't receive a grade because there is no monitor collecting data in that county

Dutchess County: