When we step outside for the day, a lot of us take a nice deep breath, and while we may think we are inhaling fresh air, it turns out a lot of us should be worried.
A new report by the American Lung Association reveals that nearly half of Americans are breathing in pollutants, with four of every ten people living in areas with unhealthy levels of smog and air pollution. That translates to about 141.1 million people.
The report reveals how certain cities are fairing when it comes to certain types of pollution, including the ones with the most smog and the most soot, and you probably won’t be shocked to find out that a lot of those cities are in California. In fact, seven of the smoggiest and six of the sootiest cities are in California, with Los Angeles/Long Beach the worst for smog, and the Fresno-Madera-Hanford area the worst for soot.
Top Ten Smoggiest Cities in the U.S.
- Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA
- Visalia, CA
- Bakersfield, CA
- Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA
- Sacramento-Roseville, CA
- San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA
- Phoenix-Mesa, AZ
- San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA
- Houston-The Woodlands, TX
- New York City-Newark, NY, NJ
Top Ten Sootiest Cities in the U.S.
- Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA
- Bakersfield, CA
- Fairbanks, AK
- Visalia, CA
- Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA
- San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA
- Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV
- El Centro, CA
- Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH
- Medford-Grants Pass, OR
So is there any place you can go to breathe clean air? Well, the report finds that only six areas qualify for their cleanest cities list, including (in alphabetical order):
- Bangor, ME
- Burlington-South Burlington, VT
- Honolulu, HI
- Lincoln-Beatrice, NE
- Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL
- Wilmington, NC
Source: Lung.org