Each year, the UW’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation collaborates with the Boston-based Health Effects Institute on a Global Air Report, tracking trends in air pollution and its impact on human health. The 2025 report is out now, and the results are not good. Deaths attributable to air pollution are on the rise globally. The largest health impacts are attributable to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which contributes to millions of deaths each year.
High levels of particulate pollution in South Asia are a big source of the problem.
The United States has been making progress against particulate air pollution, although the data does not yet reflect the Trump administration’s moves against clean energy and in favor of coal and other fossil fuels.
Improvements nationwide have largely eliminated Seattle’s former advantage when it comes to clean air. One wonders whether Seattle’s progress is impeded by climate change and resulting smoke from forest fires.
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