AP Photo/Mark Avery/American Lung Association
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Move over, Los Angeles, you’re not quite the dirtiest city in America any more. Don’t worry. You’re still number 2, and you're still a shallow and morally bankrupt place to live. You still have that. But there's a new dirtiest city in town. So which city was dubbed the most polluted city of 2008 by the American Lung Association? Hint: It's not Los Angeles.
The answer is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburg leads the way with short-term levels of particle pollution. (LA still leads in long-term particle pollution.) Those particles are usually comprised of ash, soot, diesel exhaust, chemicals, metals and aerosols. Breathing air like this can cause asthma, heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer.
Here is the official list of most polluted cities. These are ranked by short-term particle pollution:
- Pittsburgh, PA
- LA, CA
- Fresno/Madera, CA
- Bakersfield, CA
- Birmingham, AL
- Logan, UT
- Salt Lake City, UT
- Sacramento, CA
- Detroit. MI
- Baltimore, MD/Washington D.C.
The good news is that some of the top cities have actually shown improvement. It seems like we need to find what has been working in the those cities and enact those measures in every city.
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