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Lucy Nicholson / Reuters
Smog shrouds Los Angeles on Dec. 31, 2007. An American Lung Association report found that L.A.'s air has seen a significant improvement since then.
The cities with the dirtiest air are finally cleaning up their act, the American Lung Association (ALA) reported Wednesday in its annual listing of cleanest and most polluted areas across the country.
But the nonprofit that's been on a crusade to ease lung ailments also noted that some 127 million Americans — more than 40 percent of the population — still live in areas that it graded with an "F" due to smog or soot levels.
"The air has gotten cleaner while the population, the economy, energy use and miles driven increased greatly" since 1990, the ALA said in its State of the Air 2012 report. "Even as the economy begins to improve after the recession, air emissions continue to drop."
Since 2001, ALA noted, ozone-causing smog is 13 percent lower; year-round particle pollution from soot is 24 percent lower and short-term particle pollution is 28 percent lower.
Children, older adults and people with asthma suffer most from smog and soot pollution, which, the ALA said in the report, "can increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and emergency-room visits for asthma and cardiovascular disease, and most importantly, can increase the risk of early death."
The EPA announced new pollution rules for power plants, reports CNBC's John Harwood.
In a statement released with the report, the ALA attributed the progress to tougher Clean Air Act standards set in the 1990s "that have driven continued cleanup of coal-fired power plants and the turnover of the fleet of older, dirtier SUVs, pick-up trucks, vans, and diesel engines."
Other findings in the ALA report:
- Ozone: "major improvements were seen in 18 of the 25 cities most polluted" by the chemical from vehicle exhausts. That includes Los Angeles, which had the lowest smog levels since the State of the Air report was first published in 2000.
- Year-round soot: Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati were among 17 of the 25 cities most polluted by diesel engines and other sources to see "major improvements."
- Short-term soot: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Visalia, Calif., had their lowest levels ever. (Short-term soot is defined as 24-hour periods with elevated soot levels.)
Moreover, three cities — Birmingham, Detroit and York, Pa. — dropped completely off the report’s 25 most-polluted cities lists. That's the first time any cities cleaned up enough to be removed, the ALA added.
Santa Fe, N.M., was named America's cleanest city, finding a place in all three clean-city categories — the only city to do so, ALA said.
The ALA also flunked 235 counties where Americans are exposed to unhealthful levels of ozone or soot. Nearly 6 million of those live in counties with unhealthful levels of all three categories: ozone, year-round soot and short-term soot, it added.
American Lung Association
The city and county listings were based on ozone and soot data from 2008, 2009 and 2010, the most recent years for which reliable statistics are available, the ALA said.
Interactive maps on the ALA website provide detailed data on the cleanest and most polluted cities.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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Since everything is made in China now and people can't afford to drive, our air should be very clean. Go America! (sarcasm fully intended)
Very funny. In all seriousness, it is clear that the Clean Air Act and other environmental regulations are working to improve things and they are NOT, as is often claimed, stifling economic growth.
California needs to do a lot more to eliminate the need for cars and start building efficient rail systems and create more bus routes.
Oh wait, California is broke, nevermind....
LOL I'm not broke.
dave-sunny so.cal
Your state is broke. Unless you are a ambulance-chasing lawyer, plastic surgeon or a porno actor - you should be close to being broke if you aren't already.
Why does LA have so much pollution? Vehicular emissions are down an insane amount since the 1970s and I still see pictures of LA with what appears to be a permanent smog blanket. Has the idea of home factories caught on there or what?
I was wondering that too, and about CA in general. I went to Yosemite last year and you could see the faint haze over the entire valley.
LA is sitting in a natural basin and so it is difficult for trapped smog to escape, unlike in a more exposed metropolis like New York. I live in Oxford, England, and it is also, like LA, in a basin and suffered from pollution too. (The Mini factory is on the East side.)
All three locations, the L.A. basin, the entire San Joaquin valley and the much smaller and higher altitude Yosemite valley suffer from the same problem: Enclosing mountains which prevent dissipation of pollutants through normal air flow patterns.
It requires a major storm to stir up the air enough to blow this crap outta there, so instead, the ozone, carbon monoxide, particulate matter (i.e. dust) and other junk just builds up in the air until you can't see the mountains even though they're only a few miles away and you don't dare over exert yourself for fear of triggering an asthma attack.
I've lived in Fresno most of my life. I know what it used to be like when I was a kid and you could enjoy the view of the mountains almost day you cared to look. These days you're lucky to catch a glimpse on the day after a big rain. If both myself and my wife, who has fairly serious asthma, didn't have established careers here, we'd seriously consider moving. Come retirement, we're outta here!
UDunnoBro
Because they are dependent on the car for conveyance. Rail lines and bus routes are very inefficient so people use their cars instead. It also doesn't help that LA is a concete jungle with millions of people packed into a valley, which in effect seals in all the pollution.
In LA it is a combination of lots of cars and the lay of land that traps pollution over the city.
There's millions and millions of residents in los angeles county alone. The elephant in the living room is too many people - over population, as it were. Yes, Los Angeles is a basin, closed on 3 sides, open to the ocean on the west side. Pollutants caused by too many people driving too many cars, toxins produced by various industry types there, keep that blanket of brown haze very much apparent most days of the year. If you ever fly in an airplane and land at LAX airport, you'll see it below, fly through it, and land... then you'll look up at it, and see the horizon through that hazy sunshine called smog. Los Angeles style...
The improvement in LA might be because of the new emission rules for the Port of LA trucking companies. And also because of introduction of ultra-low sulphur diesel.
Fairbanks AK made the list? Wow, would have never guessed that one!!!
Now Palin can't see Russia anymore
Fairbanks is a dirty, run-down city. Nowhere near as nice as Anchorage.
I'm surprised Anchorage isn't on the list. Last time I was there, the city was blanketed in brown in the winter.
Last time i checked Philadelphia is not located in New Jersey at illustrated on the map... LOL
I was thinking Bergen County in NJ. Garfield, NJ failed all 3 sections by the EPA: land, water, air.
In AZ, its the snowbirds that drive their "non emission" tested cars down for the winter from states that have no tests. And the natural inversions that occur.
I suppose we in AZ will continue to be fined for our natural environment and weather. The drought we are experiencing means everything is bone dry and the slightest winds whip up dust and dirt. A single dust storm means big fines.
Dust storms don't produce ozone or soot.
para, that's out there. You lack understanding of Emission Results. NOx, SOx and Ozone. There's a start. Look them up. FYI, the "x" is a variable number.
No they produce dirt in the air which makes for bad samples and poor air quality. The measures used to improve our air includes things like fencing and using water to keep down construction dirt. Unfortunatly it is not practicle to water or fence the entire desert area. BTW, very impressive that you add a completely unneeded symbol to your comment.
The regs you are using are different than how these tests are run. You are speaking more in line with local and state regs dealing with dust and visibility.
The EPA tests for dust. AZ continually fails the standard established by the EPA for dust. AZ is being fined and losing federal money because of the EPA "dust violations". The EPA will throw out some readings considered exceptional but that only accounts for a few of the massive dust storms a year. The hundreds of smaller ones throughout the Phoenix Valley are counted in.
Just left LA yesterday, great people but smog covered the ENTIRE 5 DAYS! They need some major
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION...and SOON!
Thats one of the benefits of the republiCON jobs plan. No jobs, no pollution.
Ingenious.
I was born in L.A. when smog was so bad you couldn't ever see mountains and a walk to the bus stop caused my eyes to burn as a little girl. After government regulations banned the use of home incinerators (everyone burned their own trash), within a few years, it was so much better. The real problem now is the increase in population and cars. California has been battling smog for 50 years with many regulations through the years. A short list includes catalytic converters, better fuels, fuel efficieny standards, tax credits for fuel efficient and/or electric cars, bi-annual emission tests... But when you have 26 million cars and few are of the newest technologies, you still have terrible smog problems with no easy solutions. But without those much criticized government regulations, smog would be so bad, it would create a london-type killer fog and be pretty much uninhabitable or at least very unhealthy. California is on the forefront of new ideas like fuel cells and algae fuel and I predict they will eventually prevail and be a great model for the rest of the country.