Air Scare: Ten Dirtiest Cities in America

Although air pollutions across the United States have declined up until three years ago, two in every five Americans, or 42 percent, still live in areas with unhealthy levels of either ozone or particle pollution, according to a new report by the American Lung Association. Meanwhile, one in three Americans live in counties where the monitored air quality places them at risk for decreased lung function, respiratory infection, lung inflammation, and aggravation of respiratory illness.

While the "State of the Air" report shows improvement among several of the worst-polluted cities, including Los Angeles (which is still the smoggiest city in the country), it tracks declines in many others, such as Pittsburg, Pa., which has the dubious honor of worst short-term particle pollution. Other cities with waning air quality include Atlanta; Charlotte; the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. metro area; Birmingham, Ala.; and San Diego.

Three types of air pollution are featured in the report: short term particles, year-round particles, and ozone. Ozone, a component of smog, formed when smokestack and tailpipe exhaust react with heat and sun, can scar lung tissue, as well as trigger asthma attacks and other respiratory illness. Small particles, which include dust and chemical droplets, on the other hand, can enter the lungs and bloodstream, resulting in what the Lung Association calls "a deadly cocktail of ash, soot, diesel exhaust, chemicals, metals, and aerosols."

Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Short-Term Particle Pollution

1. Pittsburgh, Pa.
2. Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, Calif.
3. Fresno/Madera, Calif.
4. Bakersfield, Calif.
5. Birmingham, Ala.
6. Logan, Utah
7. Salt Lake City, Utah
8. Sacramento, Calif.
9. Detroit, Mich.
10. Baltimore, Md./Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia.

Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Year-Round Particle Pollution

1. Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, Calif.
2. Pittsburgh, Pa.
3. Bakersfield, Calif.
4. Birmingham, Ala.
5. Visalia/Porterville, Calif.
6. Atlanta, Ga.
7. Cincinnati, Ohio
8. Fresno/Madera, Calif.
9. Hanford/Corcoran, Calif.
10. Detroit, Mich.

Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Ozone

1. Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, Calif. 2. Bakersfield, Calif.
3. Visalia/Porterville, Calif.
4. Houston, Texas
5. Fresno/Madera, Calif.
6. Sacramento, Calif.
7. Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
8. New York, N.Y./Newark, N.J.
9. Baltimore, Md./Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia
10. Baton Rouge, La.

Visit State of the Air to find out how your neighborhood stacks up.

Difficulty level: Easy

Comments

[Gericault]

10:39 AM on 06/02/2008

We test drove the Prius and the Civic yesterday.

Hate the Prius. Liked the Civic. Any input?

[garbovatwins]

06:11 AM on 06/01/2008

Imagine your world as one city, the peoples of your world as one. Now act as one and heal your world for you.

[madvetenskapsman]

06:56 PM on 05/31/2008

Pittsburgh is also misspelled in the article

[Gingerously]

10:22 PM on 05/30/2008

yeah! we're number one!

[JScott]

04:36 PM on 05/30/2008

Well living in So. Calif. most all of my life, I can tell for a fact that the air quality has improved A LOT,
I remember when it was so smoggy your eyes stung and you couldn't see the moon at night, but now there is rarely a severe smog episode. As for the other areas of Calif. yes they have started to deal with it, one big step has been banning wood burning fireplaces thru much of the state, and will be required as of March 09 in the So. Cal. Air Quality Mgmt. District juristiction. But still development still rules despite the crash of the real estate market builders and developers are scrambling to get entitlements to essentially allow even more urban sprawl and leaving questions about water availability unanswered. And indrectly they still build homes with 3 and 4 car garages (does that encourage car use or what) and retail areas with drive thru businesses-seems like they could do better. There is one potential so called planned community called Quay Valley that is touted as being 'green' yet it has artificial lakes all over and a 'auto motorsports attraction' in it, nor does it address the indrect sprawl issues on adjacent lands-a prefect example of corporate greenwashing.

[RTIII]

12:00 PM on 05/30/2008

Jasmin Malik Chua, the author of this article, needs to improve her english skills.

The opening sentence is horrid. It should be "pollution", not "pollutions." There's at least one vital missing conjunction ("and"), and most places where "particle" is used it should be "particulate". There are quite a few other spots with wrong word choice. In short BAD EDITING.

[MagisterLudi]

05:03 PM on 05/30/2008

Add to list of editing mistakes.

"1. Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, Calif. 2. Bakersfield, Calif."

hmm, I seen better quality in the English 1 class.

[yorfutrxhsbnd]

03:57 PM on 05/31/2008

Hmm. You didn't capitalize "English". "In short BAD Editing" is not a sentence. The phrase "where 'particle' is used it should be 'particulate' is also improper. A better wording would be "where particle is used, particulate should have been used". Before you criticize others, maybe you should look in the mirror.

[RTIII]

04:34 PM on 06/02/2008

1st: English should be capitalized when at the start of a sentence or when it's a proper name, as in a region of Great Britain. When used to denote the language, it's not capitalized except as I just cited.

2nd: The word "it" was "understood." I was taught that this is a valid grammatical form.

3rd: "Particulate" is the word scientists use to describe this type of pollutant. The criticism wasn't for bad use of english, but for uninformed reporting.

Before criticizing a criticism, you should better get your facts straight.