Top 10 Cities with the Highest Air Pollution Levels

The American Lung Association recently released its annual “State of the Air 2011” report, chronicling both the most polluted cities, and those who are blessed with the best air quality during the period of 2007-2009. This year, California comes up short again, outshining every other state on all three of the criterion lists: ozone, year-round particle pollution, short-term particle pollution.

For twelve years, the American Lung Association has been producing its “State of the Air” report, a study that examines the ozone and levels of particle pollution in metropolitan cities and surrounding counties throughout the United States. Studying the air quality requires meticulous monitoring during various 24-hour periods during the year to determine an annual average.

Unfortunately more than half the nation are living in areas where pollution is extreme enough to make breathing difficult. That means 154 million Americans live in one of the 366 counties that have unhealthy levels of either ozone or particle pollution. One in 17 people—more than 18.5 million in the United States—live in the 10 counties with unhealthful levels of all three measures covered in the report.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put new standards for ozone pollution into place in March of 2008 in the hopes of reducing levels of pollution in this area. Some of the more major cities like Los Angeles and Houston, have actually improved their levels. In fact, all metro areas in the 25 cities most-polluted by ozone showed improvement over last year’s report.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside triangle hit all 3 lists, topping the ozone list and ranking #2 and #4 on particle pollution lists. Bakersfield ranked #1 on two of the lists and #2 on the third, meaning overall it is in worse shape than metropolitan Los Angeles. Visalia-Porterville, Fresno-Madera, and Hanford-Corcoran also made the Top 10 on all three lists.

Sacramento managed to stay off the Year-Round Particle List, but was ranked on both Ozone and Short-Term Particl Pollution. San Diego and Merced both made one list each. Interesting to note that the majority of the polluted California cities are located in or around farming/agricultural hubs (Bakersfield, Visalia, Fresno, Hanford, Sacramento, Merced).

Here are the Top 10 by criteria:

By Ozone:

#1: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA
#2: Bakersfield-Delano, CA
#3: Visalia-Porterville, CA
#4: Fresno-Madera, CA
#5: Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Yuba City, CA-NV
#6: Hanford-Corcoran, CA
#7: San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
#8: Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX
#9: Merced, CA
#10: Charlotte-Gastonia-Salisbury, NC-SC

By Year-Round Particle Pollution

#1: Bakersfield-Delano, CA
#2: Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ
#2: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA
#2: Visalia-Porterville, CA
#5: Hanford-Corcoran, CA
#6: Fresno-Madera, CA
#7: Pittsburgh-New Castle, PA
#8: Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, AL
#9: Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington, OH-KY-IN
#10: Louisville-Jefferson County-Elizabethtown-Scottsburg, KY-IN

By Short Term Particle Pollution

#1: Bakersfield-Delano, CA
#2: Fresno-Madera, CA
#3: Pittsburgh-New Castle, PA
#4: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA
#5: Salt Lake City-Ogden-Clearfield, UT
#6: Provo-Orem, UT
#7: Visalia-Porterville, CA
#8: Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, AL
#9: Hanford-Corcoran, CA
#9: Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Yuba City, CA-NV
#9: Logan, UT-ID

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