Oglebay Park is a popular place to get some fresh air, but overall, the region’s air quality is declining, according to a report from the American Lung Association. (File Photo)

The greater Wheeling-Ohio metro region’s air quality has declined in recent years, according to the American Lung Association’s 2025 State of the Air report.

Out of all the greater metropolitan areas across the United States, the Wheeling-Ohio metro area ranked as the 130th most polluted in the nation for ozone pollution and 77th worst in the nation for year-round particle pollution.

Numbers for both ground-level ozone pollution (also known as smog) and spikes in short-term particle pollution (known as soot) made the metro area’s air quality grade drop from a “B” to a “C “in both categories.

Although the new report looks at the latest air quality data from a sample period between 2021-23, the State of the Air report is released annually, using the most recent data available to update the statistics.

Nationwide, the report found that 156 million people — or 46% of the U.S. population — are living in areas that had unhealthy levels of air pollution.

Advocates champion policies that empower the Environmental Protection Agency and other governmental entities to enhance clean-air practices and regulations. However, concern has been expressed about the U.S. EPA’s impact as the Trump administration has put billions of dollars in departmental funding for various programs under the microscope and potentially on the chopping block.

“We really need to be talking to our elected officials and decision makers, and making sure that we’re making the best decisions when it comes to air pollution in our local area,” said Elizabeth Hensil, director of advocacy in West Virginia for the American Lung Association. “On the federal level, we have to be really concerned. The EPA is currently under attack. We need to make sure that they are able to continue to monitor air quality and provide guidance on how to best clean up the air so we can continue to breathe clean air.”

However, Wednesday’s State of the Air report acknowledges the significant impact that wildfires have had on the most recent numbers. The onslaught of wildfires in California and in other areas of the country have greatly contributed to poor air quality nationwide.

Most people in the Ohio Valley remember when smoke from Canadian wildfires engulfed the area in the summer of 2023, causing the air quality drop to hazardous levels and making it difficult to even go outside.

“Wildfires put a damper on a lot of scores,” Hensil said, noting that a “pretty significant” decrease in air quality was seen across West Virginia and Pennsylvania because of the 2023 wildfires.

But many other factors contribute to a region’s air quality, Hensil noted. Motor vehicles, power plants, oil and gas wells, coal mines and other commercial and industrial activity have an impact, she said.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for that ground-level ozone pollution,” she said. “We really support a decrease in the reliance on the burning of fossil fuels. Our role is to protect people’s lungs. Over the last couple of decades, we’ve seen a really large increase in asthma cases. Asthma is the leading cause of school and work absenteeism — so it is affecting us, and we can do better. It’s going to continue to worsen if we don’t put in the proper measures to protect our lungs.”

Dr. Robert Herron, medical director for the Lung Cancer Screening Program at WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital, serves as a volunteer spokesman for the American Lung Association. Herron said air quality can make it difficult for a lot of people, particularly patients with pre-existing conditions related to the health of their lungs.

“I’m a general thoracic surgeon, so my main area of surgical intervention and treatment of patients is far and away early stage lung cancer,” Herron said. “So a lot of my patients are long-term smokers, although not all of them are. One out of three patients with lung cancer will actually have never smoked in their life before.

“But in addition to smoking, potentially polluted air has been shown to not only affect the lungs themselves — for example, worsening the effects of COPD, asthma or emphysema for patients that do smoke — but also affect other organ systems as well, like the brain, the circulatory system the GI (gastrointestinal) system. So it’s definitely a concern regarding not only lung health, but overall health.”

When patients are exposed to long-term smoking or exposure to dust in coal mines, poor air quality can exacerbate the problem, Herron said. Vaping among young people has also become “a huge concern” when it comes to lung health, he added.

The more pollutants that are in the air, the bigger the chance that the health of the community can decline, particularly in the case of those who have pre-existing conditions.

“It’s always a conglomeration of those types of issues that I hypothesize can lead to worsening of lung diseases,” Herron said.

“The air pollutants highlighted in this report are widespread and pose a risk to everyone’s health,” Hensil added. “Both ozone and particle pollution can lead to premature death and cause serious health issues such as asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, preterm births and even problems with cognitive function later in life. Particle pollution can also increase the risk of lung cancer.”

The director of advocacy for the American Lung Association in West Virginia said the agency is urging policymakers to take action to improve air quality.

“Sadly, too many people in the metro area are living with dangerous levels of ozone and particle pollution,” she said. “This pollution is making kids have asthma attacks, causing people who work outdoors to get sick and unable to work, and even contributing to low birth weight in babies.”

For the year-round average level of particle pollution, the area’s worst county — Marshall County — received a passing grade for pollution levels below the federal standard. The Wheeling-Ohio metro area — as 77th worst in the nation — declined from last year’s ranking as 96th worst in the nation.

Other notable findings the State of the Air report revealed for the greater state and region included:

– All air pollution measures in the Morgantown metro area worsened slightly, the metro area falling off the cleanest 25 list for both ozone smog and daily particle pollution, dropping from A grades to Bs. For year-round particle pollution, the area worsened but received a passing grade and ranked 142nd worst in the nation vs. last year’s report of 172nd worst.

– In the Pittsburgh-Weirton-Steubenville metro region, measures of particle pollution worsened, ranking it worst in the Mid-Atlantic section of the nation. It ranked 16th worst in the country for daily particle pollution and 12th worst for year-round average of particle pollution. Ozone smog again earned the region a D grade.

– The Charleston-Huntington-Ashland metro area’s daily particle pollution worsened as Scioto County’s grade changed from A to D. However, the ozone level in this metro area remains among the cleanest in the nation with straight As for the third consecutive year.

Full results of the State of the Air report can be found at lung.org/sota.