A new report shows a mix of good and bad findings for air quality in Maryland. The American Lung Association recently released its annual State of the Air Report, and while some areas of the state showed improvement, metro Washington-Baltimore was ranked 26th worst for ozone pollution out of 227 metro areas in the nation. Four area counties -- Prince Georges, Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford -- received a failing grade for ozone. The report shows the number of unhealthy air quality days for ozone in the metro area was 6-point-7, which is unchanged from the year prior. Ozone, often called smog, is produced mainly by burning fossil fuels and has both short- and long-term health impacts. On a more positive note, overall the number of unhealthy ozone days for the state dropped. Aleks Casper with the American Lung Association says it's still important to promote policies that improve air quality.
"While areas can show slight improvements, progress is not always guaranteed. And so we really need to focus on policies to make sure that we're doing the best we can to improve air quality."
The report showed ozone pollution generally improved nationwide. The Lung Association attributes that improvement to the success of the Clean Air Act. For a look at air quality in your area, you can visit airnow.gov.
The report also covers particle pollution, with metro Washington-Baltimore showing worse numbers this year. The metro area was given a C grade for short-term particle pollution, although Casper points out that the state has made recent moves to improve air quality.
"Maryland has made some great announcements in the last couple of weeks about looking at adopting Advanced Clean Cars II, which would cover passenger vehicles, and the bill that passed the Legislature around advanced clean-trucks implementation, so looking at medium- to heavy-duty trucks."
 In March, Governor Wes Moore announced Maryland would join the multi-state Advanced Clean Cars II rule which requires manufacturers to continuously increase the percentage of electric vehicles sold in the state, reaching 100 percent of passenger cars and light trucks by 2035.