California was home to eight of the 10 most air-polluted U.S. cities, according to a new report. Phoenix and New York City were the only non-California metro areas on the top 10 list.
Researchers have found that, when it came to the air everyone is breathing, the Los Angeles/Long Beach area topped the list of the nation’s most ozone-polluted cities in 2014, 2015 and 2016 , USA Today reported. LA was followed by Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento and San Diego.
Overall, more than four in 10 people in the U.S. lived in counties that have unhealthful levels of either ozone or particle pollution, said The American Lung Association's annual “State of the Air” report released on Wednesday.
Adding to the unsettling statistic, researchers found that more than 7.7 million people lived in 10 counties with unhealthful levels of all ozone and particle pollution, with Los Angeles remaining the city with the worst ozone pollution, as it has for the nearly 19 years that the report has been released.
Researchers were able to draw these conclusions based on data available on official monitoring sites that looked at particle pollution across the U.S.
According to this information, ozone-pollution has spiked dramatically over the years, posing a number of health and environmental risks.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, air pollution can cause shortness of breath, coughing, inflamed and damaged airways and could aggravate lung disease, cause damage to the lungs and cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
There was some good news though.
The report noted that, thanks to the provisions in the Clean Air Act, the U.S. has continued to reduce ozone and particle pollution as well as other pollutants for decades.
The six cleanest cities were also listed in the report: Bellingham, Wash.; Burlington, Vt.; Casper, Wyo.; Honolulu; Melbourne, Fla.; and Wilmington, N.C.
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