Nearly six in 10 Americans live in places with dangerously bad air quality, according to a report from the American Lung Association. The report finds improvements in air quality in some eastern and Midwestern cities, while California cities — including Bakersfield, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, Visalia-Porterville, Fresno-Madera and Modesto — were the only ones with worse year-round particulate levels than last year. From the American Lung Association press release:
People with heart or lung diseases, children and older adults are the most likely to be affected by particle pollution exposure,” said Norman H. Edelman, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of the American Lung Association. “Numerous scientific studies have linked particle pollution exposure to a variety of problems, such as irritation of the airways, coughing, or difficulty breathing. It also causes irregular heartbeat, heart attacks and even premature death in people with heart or lung disease.”
The Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz. metropolitan area moved to the top of the list of cities most-polluted by year-round particle levels, while Bakersfield, Calif., ranked as the city having the most days of unhealthy short-term particle pollution.
Read more about the report in the Associated Press.
Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that the country’s overall air quality had improved since 1990, though more than 40 percent of Americans still lived in areas with unacceptably dirty air.
