Air pollution remains a threat

Two new reports released this month by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Minnesota Department of Health find that air pollution continues to pose a threat to public health in the Twin Cities area and other regional metropolitan centers in Minnesota, with impacts falling disproportionately on communities with more residents who are low-income, uninsured, people of color, or people with disabilities.

The reports, “Life and Breath: Metro” and “Life and Breath: Greater Minnesota,” examine how air pollution affected health in 2015, the most recent year for which data has been analyzed, across the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area, and in three regional centers: Duluth, Rochester, and St. Cloud. The reports build on previous reports that looked at air pollution’s health effects in certain zip codes statewide.

While Minnesota’s air quality has improved over the past few decades and meets federal standards, even low and moderate levels of pollution play a measurable role in premature deaths and hospitalizations across the state.

The report found that air pollution was estimated to play a role in 280 deaths in the three non-Twin Cities Minnesota cities studied, attributable to 8 percent of all deaths in Duluth, 10 percent in Rochester and 8 percent in St. Cloud. Pollution-related deaths were more prevalent than deaths from accidents, which make up 6 percent of all deaths.

The findings are consistent with previous reports, demonstrating that air quality poses a persistent public health problem despite overall improvements in air quality. Between 2008 and 2015, fine-particle pollution improved by about 30 percent and ozone pollution improved by nearly 10 percent in the metro area.