Sorry. Check this out while I catch my breath.
Associated Press:Sixty percent of Americans live in areas with unhealthy air pollution levels, despite a growing green movement and more stringent laws aimed at improving air quality, the American Lung Association said in a report released Wednesday.
The public-health group ranked the pollution levels of U.S. cities and counties based on air quality measurements that state and local agencies reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency between 2005 and 2007.
Overall, the report found that air pollution at times reaches unhealthy levels in almost every major city and that 186.1 million people live in those areas. The number is much higher than last year's figure of about 125 million people because recent changes to the federal ozone standard mean more counties recognize unhealthy levels of pollution.
"Six out of 10 Americans right now as we speak live in areas where the air can be dirty enough to send people to the emergency room, dirty enough to shape how kids' lungs develop and even dirty enough to kill," said Janice E. Nolen, the association's assistant vice president on national policy and advocacy.
Some areas have seen improvements in air quality over the past decade, the report says, so the news isn't all bad. Among the cities that have seen improvement are Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Baltimore. But people in LA shouldn't think that means everything's OK. It still sucks there, it just used to be worse. According to the report, "The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside region of Southern California remained the metropolitan area with the highest levels of ozone pollution, as it has in each of the past 10 reports. Other metropolitan areas considered to have the most ozone pollution included Houston-Baytown-Huntsville and Dallas-Fort Worth in Texas."
The cleanest city listed was Fargo, ND.
Look, if you don't believe in global warming and use that disbelief to excuse air pollution, consider the fact that you probably have to chew the air you're breathing. Then consider the fact that we can fix that.
Seriously, why wouldn't you?
