Ozone is known as a secondary air pollutant for its property of being formed from primary pollutants reacting in sunlight. From worst to best, these 8 months included:

Notoriously polluted Los Angeles has cleaner air, by comparison, with an annual PM2.5 average of 12.7 μg/m 3.Ĩ of 12 months exceeded “good” monthly AQI averages in 2019. On a national level, Indianapolis air quality is ranked 53rd (out of 1517 included cities) for worst particle pollution, tied with the air quality of South Pasadena, California. Mount Vernon ranked as the 3rd most polluted in Indiana, with a PM2.5 concentration of 12.1 μg/m 3.

Of the most polluted cities in Indiana for PM2.5, Indianapolis came in 2nd with a PM2.5 concentration of 13.4 μg/m 3, shortly behind Harlan, Indiana with an annual PM2.5 concentration of 14.1 μg/m 3. While a vast majority of air quality days wavered between “good” and “moderate” AQI levels, Indianapolis experienced 7 “orange” days and 1 “red” day for particle pollution. 1 According to a corresponding “State of the Air” report that aggregated data from 229 metropolitan areas, Indianapolis ranked 44th for worst ozone nationally.įor PM2.5, Indianapolis similarly struggled to meet targets, with a number of days reaching “unhealthy” levels. Indianapolis experiences an average of 6 annual “unhealthy” ozone days, landing the city an “F” rating by the American Lung Association (ALA). Breathing even small levels of ozone can potentially cause breathing problems, such as coughing, chest pain, and shortness of breath as well as long-term health problems, such as lung cancer, lung damage, and early death. When inhaled, it aggressively attacks the lungs by reacting with the lung tissue. Ozone is one of the most poorly controlled air pollutants in the US and also one of the most dangerous. Indianapolis PM2.5 levels, on the other hand, only exceeded federal targets in 2019 after a decade of attainment. While ozone levels have long wavered, they have been on the rise since 2015. The excess over allowed federal limits is recent.

Indianapolis air quality has recently failed to meet Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards for both annual PM2.5 and ozone, two of the nation’s most pervasive and dangerous air pollutants.

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