You may not see it, but it’s there.
It slips through open windows, drifts across playgrounds, and lingers where we work and worship. It’s in the air. Quiet, invisible, and deadly. And for millions of Latino families across the U.S., it’s a daily reality.
Air pollution isn’t new in our communities. For decades, Latino neighborhoods have been placed near freeways, factories, refineries, and fossil fuel sites. These aren’t just dots on a map—they’re the places where our children grow up, where our elders try to rest, where we work long hours in the sun and heat. And now, according to the latest State of the Air report, this exposure is reaching alarming levels. Nearly half the country (156 million people) are breathing unhealthy air. Communities of color are disproportionately impacted, making up 50% of those living in areas with failing air quality, even though they represent just 41% of the U.S. population.
Latinos are among the hardest hit: over 15 million live in counties that received failing grades for all three major pollution measures. In fact, Latino communities are nearly three times more likely than white communities to live in areas with the worst air pollution.
Two Pollutants Stand Out as the Worst Threats to Our Health
These pollutants are getting worse. PM2.5 levels surged in 2023 due to massive wildfires and extreme weather. Ozone pollution is climbing again too, especially in the Midwest, South, and East Coast regions, not traditionally known for poor air quality. Cities like Houston, Phoenix, New York, and Los Angeles remain some of the worst, but new communities, like New York City and Philadelphia, are showing up on the danger list each year. It’s a widening crisis.
Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5): PM2.5 is made up of microscopic particles, smaller than a grain of dust, that come from car exhaust, industrial pollution, wildfires, and even gas stoves.
These particles are small enough to enter your lungs and seep into your bloodstream. They’ve been linked to asthma, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and even premature death.
Ozone: Not the protective layer high in the sky, but ground-level ozone formed when pollution reacts with sunlight. It’s the main ingredient in smog, and it burns.
Ozone inflames our lungs, triggers asthma attacks, and makes breathing feel like a struggle. On hot summer days, ozone builds up fast, and Latino communities living near traffic corridors and warehouses feel it first.
Impact on our comunidades
For Latino families, the impact is not just environmental, it’s generational. Latino children are 40% more likely to die from asthma than white children. Workers in our community face higher exposure on the job, whether they’re in construction, agriculture, or logistics. Many of us are renters, unable to make our homes safer through things like weatherization or air filtration. We’re paying more for energy while breathing in more pollution.
But we are not passive victims. We’re organizers, parents, promotoras, neighbors, voters. We’re leading solar projects, demanding accountability, and rewriting what environmental justice looks like, from Brooklyn to Bakersfield.
Still, the truth is: we’re fighting uphill.
The Threat of Rollbacks
Now more than ever, the clean air protections we depend on are under attack. There are real efforts underway to roll back environmental safeguards, weaken state implementation plans, gut the Environmental Protection Agency, and undermine foundational laws like the Clean Air Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). These protections exist because communities like ours fought for them. Stripping them away would erase decades of hard-won progress.
We need action—and we need it now.
We need strong and enforceable air quality standards that reflect the lived experiences of overburdened communities. We need tougher state implementation plans to reduce emissions from highways, warehouses, refineries, and power plants. We need major investments in our neighborhoods, air monitors to track pollution, green spaces to cool our cities, and worker protections for those laboring outdoors on dangerous air days.
We need to defend the agencies and laws that stand between us and unchecked pollution. The EPA must be funded and protected. NEPA and the Clean Air Act must remain strong. We deserve better. And we’re not asking for a favor. We’re demanding the right to breathe healthy, clean air.
Join the Climate Justice & Clean Air Collective!
Want to take meaningful action on clean air and climate justice in Latino communities? Be part of our Collective! You’ll get updates, resources, and chances to plug into virtual and in-person events—all while building power with GreenLatinos.