Bad CA Air

From USA TODAY:

“Best, worst cities for air quality: California ranks among worst, East Coast is cleaner”

A report released by the American Lung Association revealed millions of Americans are breathing unhealthy levels of air pollution across the country. State of the Air 2022, based on data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 2018 to 2020 also revealed which cities had the best and worst air quality. The rankings are based on three categories: ozone pollution, year-round particle pollution and short-term exposure particle pollution over 24 hours. The report, released Thursday, listed climate-change-driven wildfires as one of the biggest contributors for the rise in air particle pollution, a factor reflected in the rankings. Western cities have been plagued by historic wildfires in recent years. Most of the cities with the cleanest air quality were on the East Coast.

Worst air in the United States It isn't West Coast best coast when it comes to air. California dominated the worst-air rankings, with three of the state's cities topping each of the categories for worst air. The Los Angeles-Long Beach area had the worst air by ozone, Bakersfield had the worst year-round particle pollution, and the Fresno-Madera-Hanford area had the worst air by short-term particle pollution.

The top 10 cities in each of the three categories were in Western states; the most eastern city was Houston. Here are the worst air cities:

Worst air by ozone:

Los Angeles-Long Beach, California

Bakersfield, California

Visalia, California

Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California

Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona

San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, California

Denver-Aurora, Colorado

Houston-The Woodlands, Texas

Sacramento-Roseville, California

Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem, Utah

 

Worst year-round particle pollution:

Bakersfield, California

Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California

Visalia, California

San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, California

Los Angeles-Long Beach, California

Medford-Grants Pass, Oregon

Fairbanks, Alaska

Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona

Chico, California

El Centro, California

 

Short-term particle pollution:

Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California

Bakersfield, California

Fairbanks, Alaska

San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, California

Redding-Red Bluff, California

Chico, California

Sacramento-Roseville, California

Los Angeles-Long Beach, California

Yakima, Washington and Visalia, California

Best air in the United States While the Pacific states had the worst air, the East Coast and some Midwest cities are breathing better. But Cheyenne, Wyoming, is an outlier from the West. The Wyoming capital ranked first in cleanest cities for year-round particle pollution, despite being roughly 95 miles away from Denver, which had the seventh-worst ozone air pollution. Casper, Wyoming, also made the top 10. Another exclusion from the Pacific is Hawaii. Two areas – Honolulu and the Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina region – were in the top five.

Best cities in year-round particle pollution:

Cheyenne, Wyoming

Wilmington, North Carolina

Urban Honolulu, Hawaii

Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, Hawaii

Bangor, Maine

Casper, Wyoming

Bellingham, Washington

Bismarck, North Dakota, Elmira-Corning, New York, Sioux Falls, South Dakota and St. George, Utah

Numerous cities were tied for first in ozone air (64) and short-term particle pollution (80). Here are some of the biggest cities in each category:

 

Best cities for ozone air

Charlottesville, Virginia

Cheyenne, Wyoming

Eugene-Springfield, Oregon

Jacksonville-St. Marys-Palatka, Florida-Georgia

Lexington-Fayette-Richmond-Frankfort, Kentucky

Lincoln-Beatrice, Nebraska

Shreveport-Bossier City-Minden, Louisiana

Urban Honolulu, Hawaii

Virginia Beach-Norfolk, Virginia-North Carolina

 

Best cities for short-term particle pollution

Boston-Worcester-Providence, Massachusetts-Rhode Island-New Hampshire-Connecticut

Champaign-Urbana, Illinois

Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, North Carolina

Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut

Knoxville-Morristown-Sevierville, Tennessee

Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, Wisconsin

Montgomery-Selma-Alexander City, Alabama

New Orleans-Metairie-Hammond, Louisiana-Mississippi

Richmond, Virginia

^ While I don't want anyone to have to live in a place with polluted air I do enjoy mentioning to those Californians - you know that one kind I mean - who try and act as though they are so healthy (that they are extremely careful of what they put in their bodies since their "bodies are their temple" that California not only ranks at the top of the polluted air list, but also many California cities rank on the top 10 polluted lists. ^

https://www.yahoo.com/news/best-worst-cities-air-quality-103007962.html