(Radio Iowa) – In recent years, the skies over Iowa have repeatedly been clouded by smoke from distant wildfires, which is part of the reason the state dramatically dropped in the latest national study on air quality. Kristina Hamilton, director of advocacy for the American Lung Association in Iowa, says the “State of the Air” report measures unhealthy levels of ozone and particle pollution. “Unfortunately for Iowa, the air quality did worsen across the state,” Hamilton says, “and that’s in large part due to increased temperatures — warmer temperatures — and the effects of wildfires.” Other factors play a role as well, things like the chosen modes of transportation. The Iowa D-O-T says as of June of 2023, there were about 12-thousand-800 electric vehicles registered in Iowa, at least one in every county. Hamilton says that’s way too low.

“The Lung Association urges the use of zero-emission vehicles,” Hamilton says, “and then also Iowa still does have coal plants operating in the state, so we really need to speed up the phase-out of coal to improve the air quality in Iowa.” While the Des Moines-Ames metro area ranked as the 154th worst air in the country last year, the area jumped to 75th worst this year. Also, the Davenport metro area’s grade for ozone pollution fell from a B to an F, while the grade for particle pollution in the Quad Cities dropped from a B to a D. Breathing polluted air can have serious implications, and Hamilton says it can hit some of us even harder on those “unhealthy” days, when the air is hazy from wildfire smoke.

The American Lung Association says if more Iowans switched to EVs, that would help improve air quality. (Radio Iowa photo)

“If you are in a sensitive group, if you have a chronic condition like asthma or heart disease, try to limit your time outdoors,” Hamilton says. “If you can, if it’s a warm day, keep your windows closed, and then encourage policy makers to speed up the transition away from coal. Coal is the leading cause of air pollution.” See the full “State of the Air” report and see several county-by-county breakdowns for Iowa at the American Lung Association website: Lung.org/SOTA.