The Trump administration has eliminated roughly $1 million in funding from the Environmental Protection Agency to the state Department of Public Health intended specifically to address asthma in western Massachusetts, according to Gov. Maura Healey’s office. This termination comes shortly after the American Lung Association reported a decline in air quality across the state and region.

The money was meant to provide in-home air quality remediations to combat environmental factors, such as improvements to ventilation and the removal of mold throughout Chicopee, Holyoke and Springfield. The state was promised about $1 million over three years for these remediations, but the withheld funding makes up nearly $900,000 of that amount. The DPH so far has spent approximately $100,000 of the money to address asthma in communities disproportionately at risk.

In Hampden County in 2024, 5,576 children and 43,484 adults suffered from asthma, while an additional 1,324 children and 16,755 adults suffered from asthma in Hampshire County, the lung association reported. In Franklin County, 11,591 children and 18,241 adults suffered from asthma that year, according to the American Lung Association.

The funding also went toward community engagement, capacity building, collaboration across bureaus and to build resilience in communities to adapt to public health threats. The DPH has filed a formal dispute contesting the decision to terminate these EPA funds, and Healey’s office released a statement on Friday opposing the cuts.

“By canceling these grants for Hampden County, the Trump administration is undermining our efforts to improve the health of the people of western Massachusetts,” Healey said in the statement. “With extreme heat, droughts and wildfires becoming all the more common, it’s essential that we prioritize improving air quality and reducing causes of asthma. This is just their latest attack on the health and well-being of communities across our country.”

Recently, the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst also had a $500,000 grant terminated. This grant was for a three-year term of staff support, partnership work, youth education and more surrounding the center’s missions around conservation as well as local air quality monitoring and betterment. Billy Spitzer, executive director of the Hitchcock Center, explained that the center had had the chance to use only about 25% of that funding.

“It’s a really big blow to have that funding removed,” he said. Spitzer also said the loss of this funding is “definitely” affecting the center’s work, but that it is committed to using other funding sources to continue pursuing its goals.

Mike Seilback, the lung association’s national assistant vice president of state public policy, explained that the decrease to air quality grades in the region exacerbating problems like asthma can be largely attributed to an increase in wildfires over the past few years. Those increased wildfires, he said, are a symptom of a warming climate that will only continue to grow hotter without large-scale intervention.

The association releases a report each year grading air quality in counties nationwide.

“This report looks at ozone pollution, which is sometime called smog, and particle pollution, which is sometimes called soot,” Seilback explained. He added that these contaminants are chosen for measurement because they are both the most prevalent and some of the most detrimental to lung health. Ozone and particle pollution cause coughing and wheezing in people at lower levels, but can cause serious health concerns at higher concentrations — such as heart conditions.

This year, Hampden County received a grade of “C” in the association’s report for ozone levels, and a grade of “D” for particle pollution. Berkshire and Franklin counties also received “D” grades for particle pollution, while Hampshire County received a “C” grade. For ozone levels, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin counties received “B” grades.

However, Seilback said, Hampshire County’s relatively better grades are still cause for alarm, because they represent a drop in air quality from last year. A large factor in these decreased grades is the June 2023 wildfires that swept through Canada, releasing pollutants into the air that traveled into the Connecticut River Valley and stayed here.

Additional factors that can contribute to this pollution include vehicle traffic, construction, industry and winter wood burning.

“Far too many residents of western Massachusetts are being exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution,” Seilback said. He noted that it should be a “wake-up call” that even in this region, where grades have typically fallen in the “A” range, air quality is seeing declines.

Seilback said it is important to recognize the strides that have been made in air quality through policy changes and environmental efforts over the past several decades. But, he added that “what we’re seeing in this year’s report is that climate change is making it more difficult to maintain these results.”

Similarly, Spitzer explained that “the baseline air quality here is generally pretty good,” and that spikes in wildfires can “really kind of skew the data” when it comes to air quality grades. However, he said there is a need for a strong focus on drivers of climate change like vehicle emissions, industrial air pollutants and the impacts of burning wood, oil and gas for heating and fuel. These factors, he said, are drivers of climate change, resulting in longer, hotter, dryer summers that yield increased ozone production and fire risks.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.