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Smog in Los Angeles is a fraction of what it once was. But according to the American Lung Association, it’s still the worst in the country.
The organization released its annual “State of the Air” report Wednesday, detailing the level of harmful matter in the air across the U.S. The report grades cities on three types of pollution: ozone, also known as smog, as well as the number of harmful particles in the air on a year-round basis, and the number of individual days with elevated particulate levels.
L.A. ranked worst in the country for its number of high-ozone days, fifth-worst in year-round particle pollution, and seventh-worst in short-term particle pollution. Out of 36 years in which the ALA has released its ranking, L.A. has been smoggiest in 25.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, ozone is created when exhaust from cars, power plants, and manufacturing reacts with the sunlight. Though the gas is beneficial in the high atmosphere, at ground-level it can harm our breathing.
Other California cities had similarly poor showings. The three worst cities in terms of both year-round particle pollution were in the Central Valley: Bakersfield, Visalia and Fresno. These are also three of the four cities with the most short-term particle pollution.
L.A. experiences 88% fewer high particle days per year than it did in 2000, and the concentration of particulate matter has fallen by half in that time. However, these levels are still substantially higher than those which the ALA considers to be acceptable.
On the other hand, the amount of ozone in the air has declined only modestly. Greater L.A. saw 138 days each year with elevated ozone in the late 1990s, and 98.5 in the early 2020s. ALA benchmarks hold that 3.2 such days per year is the maximum acceptable level.
Almost half of Americans live in areas with poor air quality. “In total, the report finds that 156 million people, 25 million more than last year’s report, are living in areas that received an “F” grade for either ozone or particle pollution,” the ALA said in a statement. “Extreme heat and wildfires contributed to worse air quality for millions of people across the U.S.”
