Six in ten Americans 'live in areas with poor air quality'

Air quality monitoring

Six in ten Americans 'live in areas with poor air quality'

29 Apr, 2009

Published over 17 years ago. See the latest and most current information on Air quality monitoring.

Research conducted by the American Lung Association (ALA) has analysed the air quality of the US' cities and concluded that six in ten Americans, or 186 million people, live in cities with unacceptable air quality which endangers their health.

The State of the Air report revealed that cities with the worst air quality include Los Angeles, Bakersfield in California and the Pittsburgh-New Castle, Pennsylvania.

Particle pollution, which is associated with traffic fumes, as well as ozone levels, were also taken into account. On the list of worst ozone-polluted areas, Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey featured in the top 25.

However, the Star-Ledger reports that the news was not all bad, as vice president of national policy and advocacy for the ALA Janice Nolen explained.

"The good news is that air pollution overall has gone down in the last ten years," she stated. "We are hopeful that we will continue to see improvements".

It seems that the US is not the only country experiencing difficulties with pollution. China's minister for environmental protection Zhou Shengxian said last week that managing air quality is becoming increasingly difficult in the Asian country.

Latest News

IET 36.3 May

Explore our Digital Edition

Discover the latest news and research

Digital edition

Explore Our Other Sites

Labmate Online
Lymph node behaviour may explain why brain tumours resist immunotherapy
Explore more Arrow
Pollution Solutions Online
Slurry grant a fossil fuel failure?
Explore more Arrow
Petro Online
Next-generation analytical instrumentation delivers enhanced performance and usability
Explore more Arrow
Chromatography Today
Unlock high-resolution analysis of therapeutic oligonucleotides
Explore more Arrow