With winter around the corner, Salt Lake City once again prepares for its notorious inversion season. Inversions happen when cold air is trapped under warmer air above it, affecting the health and quality of life of everyone in the valley. Cheryl Pirozzi, a pulmonary medicine specialist and clinical professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah, said in an interview with The Daily Utah Chronicle that “there’s not a safe level of air pollution. There’s not a person who’s safe from the exposure to air pollution. It affects everybody.”
Pirozzi cares for patients with lung diseases both in the hospital and in the outpatient settings where she follows people over time that have lung diseases, such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and asthma. “I care for a lot of people who are affected by air pollution,” she said.
The Salt Lake Valley’s mountains can trap the heat and prevent the typical “vertical mixing of warm and cold air,” leading to the buildup of pollutants, according to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
Rising temperatures due to climate change contribute to this bad air quality, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization and Global Atmosphere Watch. This study also said that heatwaves impact the formation of ground-level ozone, a pollutant that affects people’s health.
Pirozzi said that air pollution exposure is associated with the development and worsening of lung diseases, as well as the rate and severity of respiratory infection, like asthma and permanent lung damage. Additionally, people are more likely to catch other respiratory diseases, for example pneumonia, covid or tuberculosis.
Salt Lake City had the worst air quality in the U.S. with an air quality index (AQI) of 123 on Jan. 13, 2026, according to a Fox 13 article.
The AQI is how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) measures the air quality outside.
John Lin, a professor in the U’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the scientific director of The Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy, said in an interview with The Chronicle that “AQI alone doesn’t tell you about interactions between multiple pollutants.” Lin also said that the pollutant that the AQI reports the highest level pollutant.
Pirozzi said that there’s no safe level of exposure to bad air. Additionally, she said mortality rates and risk for lung cancer look at the entire population, not only those at risk. “One thing that more and more of this kind of research shows is that there’s not a safe level of exposure. That was one thing that was kind of maybe thought in the past or focused on in the past is it was just these high levels of exposure that had health effects,” Pirozzi said. “But more and more studies are showing that there’s really no safe level, that there are health effects even at levels below the National Ambient Air Quality Standard[s] or the AQI cut off.”
Emily Fischer, a Colorado State University professor at their Department of Atmospheric Science, led the 2026 Salt Lake City Summer Ozone study as the principal investigator in charge of the flights measuring ozone precursors, like nitrogen oxides that contribute towards ground-level ozone production.
Ozone is a gas with different impacts depending on where it is in the atmosphere, according to the EPA. The ozone found in the upper atmosphere is the “good ozone” where it protects against the sun’s ultraviolet rays. The harmful ozone is found at the ground level.
Fischer said that the study’s data needs to be finalized to “understand data of this magnitude and complexity” and then it will be shared. Fischer said that her team is working with local organizations, such as the Utah Division of Air Quality, to plan how the data collected can be analyzed to support their work.
“The team collected unique and useful data that will help us quantify things that have been previously really under constraint for this area,” Fischer said. This includes pollution over the Great Salt Lake and how emissions differ between areas like the highway, refineries and the airport. “So it’ll help us understand also what knobs might be able to be turned to decrease ozone in the area because it can be used to diagnose the sensitivity of the ozone to the various sources in the area,” Fischer said.
Fischer said people should check their local air quality “like they check their weather.” She said that it should be “a daily practice, and particularly if you are in a sensitive group or care for someone who is in a sensitive group.”
Gannet Hallar, the department chair of the U’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, told The Chronicle that one way people can check the air quality in Utah is the Utah Division of Air Quality’s app, UtahAir. “You’re able to look at the data in real time as it’s collected and really understand your air quality index,” Hallar said.
Hallar also said it’s important to consider how one’s personal choices impact air quality. For example, she advised taking public transportation instead of driving, “especially during inversion days,” Hallar said.
People can take the protective step during times of bad air quality to stay indoors when possible, Lin said. Additionally, wearing an N95 mask outside “could reduce exposure,” Lin said.
Pirozzi said that respiratory infection is one of the risks of exposure to air pollution. She added that usual preventative measures can help, similar to “washing your hands, but also the respiratory virus vaccinations that help protect you from infections.”
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