Grant County among areas hardest hit by air pollution, study finds

OLYMPIA — The George and Mattawa areas were identified as most affected by air pollution in Washington in a report released by the Washington Department of Ecology last week. The report also identified 14 other areas of the state, according to an announcement from the DOE. Researchers investigated health data and found people in these communities face a higher death rate from air pollution than the state average, the announcement said. The report – required under the state’s landmark Climate Commitment Act – predicts that older adults in these communities are twice as likely to die from health conditions linked to breathing fine particles from human-caused sources. In analyzing data for 2016 to 2020, the report found that people of all ages in the communities lived an average of 2.4 years less than people in the rest of Washington.