(WXYZ) — The American Lung Association gave the Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor region a failing grade for air quality in its latest "State of the Air" report.
Watch Randy Wimbley's video report:
Detroit now ranks 11th nationwide for short-term particle pollution, a steep drop from 22nd last year.
Mayor Sheffield said the city is responding by tasking the health department to deploy new air monitors to make real-time data accessible to the public.
In Southwest Detroit, near the Marathon refinery, residents said the assessment matches the reality they face every day. Ulysses McCaskill, 70, works 11 to 12-hour days in masonry and said poor air quality affects his sleep.
"I'm 70 years old, still out here working like a young man, but you know, when I come home, it's no fresh air," McCaskill said. "And I have a hard time sleeping at night. I wake up and toss through the night, this and that, I'm on inhalers."
Bernie Bayn said the air quality is poor due to industrial emissions.
"I think it's poor, yeah, because all the smoke from the plants and everything, especially from Zug Island and that, it travels," Bayn said.
Luke Schaeffer, Detroit's Chief Executive of Health, Human Services, and Poverty Solutions, says the City is doing its part to tackle the issue:
Air quality in the City is something that Mayor Sheffield cares deeply about and is something she has tasked the Detroit Health Department to focus on. The first step for the administration is to integrate air quality monitors throughout the city and make information from them accessible to [the] public. More broadly, the City will use its new health-in-all-policies approach to look for ways to tackle this challenge, improve air quality, and, as a result, improve the health of Detroiters.
ALA Advocacy Director Kezia Ofosu Atta said the pollution levels are triggering asthma attacks and chronic illness:
Clean air is essential to the health and wellbeing of families across Michigan. Children deserve to breathe air that won’t make them sick. Unfortunately, too many people in the Detroit metro area are living with unhealthy levels of ozone and particle pollution. This air pollution is causing kids to have asthma attacks, contributing to chronic health conditions, and making people who work outdoors sick. We urge Michigan policymakers to take action to improve our air quality, including ensuring that any proposals for data centers be designed in partnership with the community, and powered by renewable, zero-emission energy sources. We are also calling on everyone to tell EPA that our kids’ health counts and to value health benefits in rulemaking.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is pushing the Environmental Justice for All Act to address the issue, noting the impact on minority communities.
"I grew up in Southwest Detroit. I used to think that smell was normal. I thought people having asthma and cancer at those high levels were normal," Tlaib said. "And it's hard because it's mostly black and brown communities that are directly impacted."
"Hey government, no matter if it's a Democrat or Republican office, we want public health to be at the forefront before we say yes to more environmental pollution in our air, especially in communities like ours," Tlaib said.
The Environmental Protection Agency provided a statement regarding the regulations:
The Trump EPA is committed to ensuring clean air, land, and water for all Americans regardless of age, race, gender, creed, or background. All our regulatory decisions are rooted in gold standard science and the law. It is not surprising to see ALA—which gets lots of money from left-wing foundations—fearmongering with their latest report. What ALA failed to acknowledge is that U.S. air quality has seen massive improvements in recent decades. In just the first year since President Trump took office, EPA has built on this with hundreds of environmental wins, making America cleaner and healthier than ever. This Administration has repeatedly proven that we can BOTH protect human health and the environment and grow the economy. And we will continue to do so in order to deliver clean air for every American to breath[e].
Emissions from plants and refineries have long played a role in the region's air quality. The American Lung Association said the Clean Air Act helped reduce emissions, but climate change is contributing to extreme heat, drought, and wildfires, such as those in Canada last summer, which took a toll on Southeast Michigan.
You can find the report here: https://www.lung.org/getmedia/32f0646d-c5de-4501-b0ac-07cd63c974d4/State-of-the-Air-2026-Report.pdf [lung.org]
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