LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The Los Angeles-Long Beach area retained its dubious distinction as the nation’s smoggiest region, with ozone pollution getting worse over the past year, according to an annual report by the American Lung Association.
The region has been ranked the worst area for ozone pollution in 26 of the past 27 years of the association’s “State of the Air” report. But the Southland isn’t alone in its misery. According to the latest report released Tuesday, nearly half of all American children live in places with unhealthy levels of air pollution.
“Clean air is not something we can take for granted. It takes work,” Harold Wimmer, president/CEO of the American Lung Association, said in a statement. “For decades, people in the U.S. have breathed cleaner air thanks to the Clean Air Act. Unfortunately, that progress is now at risk due to extreme heat and wildfires, fueled by climate change, and policy changes that are making the problem worse.
“Now is the time to strengthen air pollution standards, but EPA is doing the opposite. In the last year, EPA has weakened enforcement and rolled back rules that would have protected kids from power plant and vehicle pollution. Children need clean air to grow and play, and communities need clean air to thrive. Leaders at every level must act to improve and protect America’s air quality.”
The report found that 44% of people in the United States live in a county that received a failing grade in at least one of the study’s three measures of air pollution, with 32.9 million people living in counties that earned poor grades in all three categories.
People of color are more than twice as likely as white people to live in areas that failed in all three categories. Hispanic people are more than three times as likely as white people to live in such areas.
The Los Angeles-Long Beach area ranked the worst in the nation in terms of ozone pollution. Three other California communities placed in the top five in terms of smog, with Visalia placing second behind L.A./Long Beach, followed by Bakersfield-Delano; Phoenix/Mesa, Arizona; and Fresno-Hanford- Corcoran placing fifth.
“Ground-level ozone pollution, also known as smog, is a powerful respiratory irritant whose effects have been likened to a sunburn of the lungs,” according to the Lung Association. “Inhaling ozone can cause shortness of breath, trigger coughing and asthma attacks, and can cause premature death. Though progress has been made over the years to clean up ozone, that progress is fragile, and more communities are seeing their worst ozone levels in years.”
The Los Angeles-Long Beach region was again ranked the seventh-most polluted region in the country for short-term particle pollution, the same ranking as last year. The region was also seventh-worst for year-round particle pollution, an improvement from last year, when the area ranked fifth. The short- term figure represents daily spikes in particle pollution, or soot, while the year-round figure is an annual average.
On a countywide level, San Bernardino County was ranked as the nation’s most ozone-polluted place to live, followed by Riverside, Los Angeles, Tulare and Kern counties. Kern County also topped the list as the most polluted county for year-round particle pollution.
Los Angeles and Riverside counties all earned failing grades in the report for all three pollution categories, as did Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Merced, San Bernardino, Stanislaus and Tulare counties.
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