It doesn't matter where you are in New Jersey: There's a good chance you are breathing dirty air.

That's according to a new report released by Environment New Jersey on Thursday.

The report found that nearly every metropolitan area in the state experienced an average of about 91 days with degraded air quality in 2016. That means elevated levels of particle pollution, like soot, and smog. According to the report, poor air quality is linked to public health issues, particularly respiratory problems. The report describes smog pollution as causing "sunburn on the inside of the lungs."

The report analyzed data from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air monitoring stations to determine the number of degraded air quality days in New Jersey in 2016. Days were counted if there was an elevated level of ground-level ozone (also called smog,) particulate matter or both in the air.

The findings are broken down by six metropolitan areas across New Jersey, and including parts of New York and Pennsylvania.

It is important to show that air pollution is endemic across the state despite its reputation as an urban problem, said Doug O'Malley, the director of Environment New Jersey.

"We want to be able to show across the board, air pollution is not an issue for just one part of the state," O'Malley said.

The dirtiest air in the report was found in the Lehigh Valley. The Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metropolitan area, which includes parts of Sussex and Warren Counties, registered 133 days in 2016 with elevated levels of particle or ozone pollution. The Atlantic City-Hammonton metropolitan area scored the cleanest record, with 50 days of elevated pollution levels in 2016.

About 800,000 New Jerseyans with asthma are put at risk on days with elevated air pollution, according to O'Malley. Elderly people and children are are impacted more heavily by air pollution.

The findings reflect a situation illustrated by the American Lung Association's 2018 "State of the Air" report, which was released in April. That study found that New Jersey was among the worst areas for ozone pollution, but that the state's particle pollution situation was improving.

Environment New Jersey's report gives a more dire view of the Garden State's air pollution problem than the American Lung Association because of differences in how the studies were carried out.

The American Lung Association was based on a three year average from 2014 to 2016, and only counted days that were deemed unhealthy for sensitive groups (orange on the risk scale.) Environment New Jersey, on the other hand, only used data from 2016 and included moderate air pollution days (yellow on the risk scale.)

O'Malley said that the decision to include the lower pollution levels was made because his group's goal is to see stricter air pollution regulations. The report points out that current EPA standards for air pollution are not as strict as standards recommended by the World Health Organization.

"The reality is there's no safe level of air pollution," O'Malley said. "We see direct health links between elevated levels of air pollution and premature deaths."

The main source of air pollution in New Jersey is emissions from cars. On hot days, car emissions can undergo a chemical reaction that produces hazardous, low-lying ozone. O'Malley said increasing the number of electric vehicles in New Jersey is crucial to the state's public health.

"If we're going to reduce air pollution in this state moving forward, we need to reduce the emissions coming out of our tail pipes," O'Malley said.

Besides cars, fossil-fuel-burning power plants are also major contributors to Garden State emissions. O'Malley said that he'd like for the EPA to take a tougher stance on power plant regulation across the nation because air pollutants drift from other states into New Jersey. He also added that Environment New Jersey is opposed to two new natural gas power plant proposals in New Jersey, one in the meadowlands and one in the highlands.

Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, pointed out that in 2016 New Jersey only violated federal clean air standards on 26 days, far less than the 91 days in the Environment New Jersey report.

The state continues to work to improve air quality, citing New Jersey's strict car exhaust standards, and the Garden State's abandonment of coal power, he said.

Under the Murphy administration, New Jersey is opposed to rollbacks of federal air pollution regulations because of the impacts that could have on the state, Hanja added.

"New Jersey is working very hard to improve air quality and has a number of programs in place to address air quality issues in the state," Hajna said. "However, we don't have control over issues with pollutants that blow in from upwind states."

NJ Advance Media staff writer Carla Astudillo contributed to this report.

Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MSolDub. Find NJ.com on Facebook.