The Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean metro area has seen an increase in ozone and particle pollution since last year, according to a new report from the American Lung Association.

The metro area ranked the 98th most polluted in the nation for ozone and 101 worst for particle pollution in the ALA’s 2024 “State of the Air” report released Wednesday. The region ranked 114th worst in particle pollution in 2023 and 111th worst in ground-level ozone pollution, signifying an increase in both ozone smog and short-term particle pollution.

“In the 25 years that the American Lung Association has been doing our ‘State of the Air’ report, we have seen incredible improvement in the nation’s air quality. Unfortunately, more than 131 million people still live in places with unhealthy levels of air pollution, and Buffalo still has work to do,” said Trevor Summerfield, director of advocacy for the American Lung Association. “Climate change is making air pollution more likely to form and more difficult to clean up. so there are actions we can and must take to improve air quality, including and calling on EPA to set long-overdue stronger national limits on ozone pollution.”

According to the report, the New York-Newark metro area ranked 13th worst for ozone pollution in the United States and was ranked worst in Northeast for all three pollutant measures. However, the Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls metro area ranked among the nation's cleanest cities for short-term particle pollution, and the Albany-Schenectady metro area ranked among the nation's cleanest cities for ozone pollution.