Most polluted cities in US

[DaddyBoyAU 130]

LA ranks first in the list of the nations most polluted cities - Birmingham is 4th. I'm surprised that Atlanta is not in the top ten - having lived there for over a decade I thought it was bad. Link to article.

L.A. tops list of nation's most polluted

NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 41 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles can continue being the butt of smog jokes now that it has once again topped the American Lung Association's bad air list of most polluted cities in America.

The association found that the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside metropolitan area had the worst air based on 2003 through 2005 figures.

The Pittsburgh area was ranked as the nation's second most polluted metropolitan area followed by Bakersfield, Calif., Birmingham, Ala., Detroit and Cleveland. Visalia, Calif., Cincinnati, Indianapolis and St. Louis rounded out the top 10.

The news wasn't all bad for Los Angeles. Despite the dubious distinction, the number of days residents breathed the nation's worst ozone levels was fewer than in previous years.

"Nobody is surprised that LA has an air pollution problem," said Janice Nolen, the association's assistant vice president for national policy and advocacy. "The problems there are one of the reasons we have the Clean Air Act. But it is important for folks to know that there has been some improvement."

The organization based the rankings on ozone pollution levels produced when heat and sunlight come into contact with pollutants from power plants, cars, refineries and other sources. The group also studied particle pollution levels emitted from these sources, which are made up of a mix of tiny solid and liquid particles in the air.

Such pollution can contribute to heart disease, lung cancer and asthma attacks, the association said. Those especially vulnerable to polluted air are children, senior citizens, people who work or exercise outdoors and people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Nearly half of the U.S. population lives in counties that still have unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, even though there appeared to be less ozone in many counties than previous years, the study found.

[saniflush 0]

As someone who has lived in various parts of the country I find this very hard to beleive!

[AUChizad 0]

As someone who has lived in various parts of the country I find this very hard to beleive!

I was thinking the same thing.

How exactly is this guaged.

Hello, New Orelans? New York? I've been to cities where the air's so bad you have to hold your breath.

[otterinbham 0]

Birmingham's chief problem has to do with georgraphy. We get a lot of air inversion pockets that keep pollution closer to the surface rather than dissipating into the air. That being said, I've seen a lot of awful pollution in other cities, and Birmingham is light years ahead of where it was in the early 70s when the particulate count would top 600.

[BZ770 2]

It is all of the Beer farts from Homers in the metro BHAM area which includes Tuscaloozer.

[AU_tiger_2000 0]

Maybe it is a holdover of the pollution from the coal and steel days. I worked with an AU alum who grew up in Bessemer in the '50's. He said there were days you couldn't see more than 2 blocks from the coal smoke. Maybe some of that is still around.

[abrnfanatc 6]

Maybe it is a holdover of the pollution from the coal and steel days. I worked with an AU alum who grew up in Bessemer in the '50's. He said there were days you couldn't see more than 2 blocks from the coal smoke. Maybe some of that is still around.

In Tarrant, on a good day, you still have to have a knife to get through the smoke from the Coke plant; not to mention the Ductile Iron pipe plants all around the N. B'ham area.

[BamaGrad03 0]

I find that hard to believe having been to most of the cities on the top 10 list. Bham isn't even close IMO. Maybe they measured pollution right outside those plants/factories in hueytown. Who knows.