Smoggiest cities for 2007

May 1, 2007 | Real Estate |  4 comments

Not surprisingly, Los Angeles is listed as the smoggiest major city in the United States. This is based on a report released today by the American Lung Association. Yet LA is much better than it was 20 years ago before the strict smog laws (if you can imagine that). I remember feeling a burning in the throat on hot summer days if you spent any time outside anywhere near the inland empire. It is surrounded by mountains and the onshore air currents would pin the smog in the valley.

Miami shows up as the city with the cleanest air. Of course, this is largely because it is flat area with no mountains to hold these pollutants in. Combined with the vast presence of water gives Miami a certain advantage over other US cities.

The 10 most polluted are (population 1mil+):

  1. Los Angeles, CA
  2. Pittsburgh, PA
  3. Fresno, CA
  4. Birmingham, AL
  5. Salt Lake City, UT
  6. Detroit, MI
  7. Cleveland, OH
  8. Washington, DC
  9. Sacramento, CA
  10. Chicago, IL

The 10 cities with the cleanest air are (population 350K+)

  1. Honolulu, HI
  2. Tucson, AZ
  3. Albuquerque, NM
  4. Anchorage, AK
  5. Salinas, CA
  6. Phoenix, AZ
  7. Miami, FL
  8. Colorado Springs, CO
  9. Reno, NV
  10. Palm Bay. FL

 

For more information check out the full report from the American Lung Association : State of the Air 2007

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Reader Comments

Glaser on January 21, 2008 at 7:10 am

How can Phoenix have clean air? Phoenix has high smog and Ozone alerts every winter and summer - it’s so bad that you can’t use your fireplace during the cold winters or use a leaf-blower. Phoenix has a term they call “Brown Cloud” every winter because of the air they can see that they breathe. Please update your information - there is no way Phoenix has clean air.

Jay on July 17, 2008 at 6:55 am

Where do they get this information from? Pittsburgh has about 300,000 people not 1 million. The ironic thing is, I was born and raised in Pittsburgh which he says is very smoggy. Now I live in Tucson. Which is one of the cleanest.

Tom Voli on July 17, 2008 at 7:44 am
tom@tomvoli.com

Not sure where the data is compiled from but population statistics is right. There are way more than 300K in Pittsburgh.

Kathy on April 12, 2009 at 6:32 pm

There is a place called Pittsfield Massachusetts that has all of the others beat although the EPA who is supposed to be protecting us has instead given permission for the company GE and the city officials of this city to dispose of PCBs which were dumped all around the city and the Housatonic river in a “dump” which is a stones throw from an elementry school , I am not kidding this huge pile at least 4 times the height of the school, and growing is covered only with tarps and tires!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are cacer clusters Brain, bladder. pancreatic and others along with many neuralogical diseases in epedemic proportions and nothing has been done for this to be cleaned up in fact the citys mayor applauds the improvements the city has made like building a theatre, reconstructing some roads and revitalizing the downtown area also they have these haymen no lie men and other figures made out of hay all over downtown to show off its artsy stlye. This is by far the most polluted city not only because of the pcb dups and pollution but also the city runs a energy generating plant which burns 247 3 large stacks in the city limits all garbage from the city and even imports some from other areas, It stinks so bad and clouds up th city 247, clearly these leaders have not heard of global warming or green energy, this area was rewarded stimulus money to repair some roads .

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