California's Metros are the Most Polluted US Cities in 2014

Citizens of California, take out your Kleenex and hack up some phlegm in victory! Your state has once again beat out the rest of the nation in sheer quantities of air pollution, according to new report from the American Lung Association.
In the broad view, the country is still suffering from dismal levels of pollution, says the ALA in its "State of the Air 2014." (The report actually covers 2010 to 2012, for what it's worth.) More than 147 million people, or roughly half the nation, lives in places with unhealthy concentrations of ozone or particulate pollution. Fifty-three million others reside in areas that the association has slapped with a most troublesome "F grade" for pollution.

State of the Air 2014

The health implications of this coast-to-coast blanketing of foulness are hard to overstate. Such pollution is tied to a wheezing horde of ailments, from asthma attacks to heart disease to premature deaths. Last year, the World Health Organization announced that airborne contaminants are causing lung cancer, and deemed outdoors air the "most widespread environmental carcinogen" in existence. And of course at greatest risk of air pollution's withering touch are society's most vulnerable: the elderly, children, and people with low incomes.

• Nearly half of the people in the United States (147.6 million) live in counties with unhealthy levels of either ozone or particle pollution.
• More than 27.8 million people (8.9%) in the United States live in 17 counties with unhealthful levels of all pollutants measured in the report. 
• Twenty-two of the 25 most ozone-polluted cities in the 2014 report – including Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago – had more high ozone days on average when compared to the 2013 report.
• Thirteen of the 25 cities with the worst year-round particle pollution reached their lowest levels yet, including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Bakersfield.

Some more bad news: Levels of ozone have gone up in the United States since the association's last report covering 2009 to 2011. That fact can be attributed to the past years' number of warm summers. Los Angeles, Houston, the Washington-Baltimore area, New York and other major cities logged worse ozone problems and, in a twist, they're likely to have even poorer conditions if climate trends continue on their torrid course. "We know that warmer temperatures increase risk for ozone pollution," says ALA president Harold Wimmer, "so climate change sets the stage for tougher challenges to protect human health."

Read more @ Atlantic Cities