Air pollution in New Jersey is so bad it could be dangerous to your health to breathe

New Jersey’s air continues to be among the most polluted in the nation, with a large swath of the state receiving failing grades for smog, according to a report by the American Lung Association released Wednesday.

North Jersey and New York City ranked as the 10th worst metropolitan area in the U.S. for ozone levels, the main ingredient in smog that can trigger asthma attacks in the estimated 735,000 state residents who suffer from the disease.

Much of the Jersey Shore and the South Jersey counties outside Philadelphia also received failing grades over a three-year period from 2014-2016, the latest data show.

Like the rest of the nation, New Jersey's smog levels were worse in 2016 because of record-setting high temperatures. The state's average of 55 degrees was the third warmest since 1895.

"We're seeing higher ozone levels all across the Eastern Seaboard," said Kevin Stewart, director of environmental health of the American Lung Association of the Mid-Atlantic. "Warmer temperatures have a significant effect and that's why you're seeing higher levels in states like New Jersey."

There is some good news: soot in New Jersey’s air continues to decline thanks to older diesel engines on trucks being retired or retrofitted along with the continued closing of coal-fired power plants.

"It's market forces that are really making the move from coal to natural gas," Stewart said. "It's a cheaper fuel and it produces far less pollutants."

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State and federal government efforts in recent years have been introduced to buy back old high-emission vehicles, impose new restrictions on diesel truck emissions and retrofit diesel-burning school buses, garbage trucks, heavy construction equipment and train engines.

All 11 counties where data on soot was available passed from 2014 to 2016, a trend that began in 2012.

The numbers for soot should continue to fall in New Jersey when the American Lung Association incorporates 2017 data in next year's report.

In 2017, PSEG Power shut down its two coal-burning power plants — one in Jersey City on the Hackensack River and the other outside Trenton. That leaves the B.L. England plant in Cape May County as the only plant that burns coal in New Jersey.

Still, a sizable amount of air pollution gets blown into New Jersey from coal-burning power plants in the Midwest.

The report comes as President Donald Trump moves toward weakening clean air standards in an effort to boost the nation's manufacturing sector. The White House issued a directive last week to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to expedite approvals for large construction projects in communities including those that do not meet clean air standards.

The administration is looking at rolling back fuel emission standards for cars and small trucks, which environmental advocates say will harm air quality. And it also wants to dismantle the Clean Power Plan that restricts the amount of greenhouse gases that go into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

"Global warming exacerbates ozone levels," said Trisha Sheehan, national field director for the advocacy group Moms Clean Air Force, and a New Jersey resident. "It will increase the number of days that your kids can't go outside to play for fear of an asthma attack."

Nationally, California continued to have some of the worst air problems in the nation. Eight of the top 10 communities with high ozone levels were in California, according to the report ,now in its 19th year.

Cities with the least smog were topped by Anchorage, Alaska, Bangor, Maine and Bellingham, Washington.

New Jersey at-risk groups

Pediatric asthma: 161,461

Adult asthma: 575,425

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: 437,827

Lung cancer: 4,993

These are estimates based on the association's methodology

N.J. High Ozone Days 2014-2016