Shocking list of cities where polluted air is slowly killing its residents
A shocking new report has revealed the most dangerous US cities for air pollution, where toxic conditions could be damaging residents' health day after day.
Air pollution, which triggers a multitude of health problems, is one of the world's biggest killers. The American Lung Association compiled the new rankings based on weighted averages of unhealthy air days.
Cities earned their positions based on ozone measurements that indicate dangerous breathing conditions.
Long Beach in Los Angeles County topped the list of metropolitan areas with the worst ozone pollution, followed closely by several California neighbors.
Visalia, California, made number two on the list and Bakersfield-Delano was in third place.
The devastating rankings expose how millions of Americans are unknowingly breathing harmful air that experts warn can lead to serious respiratory issues, heart disease, strokes, and even premature death.
Mesa, near Phoenix in Arizona, claimed the fourth spot in the ozone pollution rankings, while Fresno-Hanford-Corcoran, California rounded out the top five most polluted areas.
Denver-Aurora-Greeley, Colorado earned the sixth spot, with Houston-Pasadena, Texas following at number seven.
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, in California, landed at eighth place, while Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem - which spans both Utah and Idaho - secured the ninth spot.
Dallas-Fort Worth area, extending across Texas and Oklahoma, completed the list of the top ten.
The list continues with Sacramento-Roseville, California at number eleven, followed by gambling mecca Las Vegas-Henderson, Nevada at twelve and Fort Collins-Loveland, Colorado ranking 13th.
The San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland corridor appears at number fourteen.
America's third-largest city, Chicago-Naperville - which spans Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin - comes in at 15th place.
Surprisingly, New York-Newark, the nation's largest metropolitan area stretching across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, closes out the list at number sixteen.
The World Health Organization has warned that close to 7 million people die each year from exposure to unhealthy air.
'Families across the U.S. are dealing with the health impacts of air pollution every day, and extreme heat and wildfires are making it worse,' said Harold Wimmer, the president and CEO of the American Lung Association.
Air pollution is causing kids to have asthma attacks, making people who work outdoors sick, and leading to low birth weight in babies.
'This year's report shows the dramatic impact that air pollution has on a growing number of people.
'Even as more people are breathing unhealthy air, the federal staff, programs and policies that are supposed to be cleaning up pollution are facing rollbacks, restructuring and funding challenges.'
'For decades, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has worked to ensure people have clean air to breathe, from providing trustworthy air quality forecasts to making sure polluters who violate the law clean up.'
'Efforts to slash staff, funding and programs at EPA are leaving families even more vulnerable to harmful air pollution. We need to protect EPA.'
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