All I Need is the Air that I Breathe.... and

Well, the latest air quality survey is out from the American Lung Association, and to the dismay of my dear friend in Chicago who wants to move back home to Pittsburgh, it still ain't good. Or as she put it..."Oops it did it again," since the region was #4 in 2005 in this category.


(Okay, it is not as bad as Pittsburgh- 1890, pictured at the right. . . but there is plenty of room for improvement.)



Metropolitan Areas Most Polluted by Short-term Particle Pollution (24-Hour PM2.5)
2007 Rank


1 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA
2 Pittsburgh-New Castle, PA
3 Fresno-Madera, CA
4 Bakersfield, CA
5 Logan, UT-ID
6 Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, AL
7 Salt Lake City-Ogden-Clearfield, UT
8Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI
9 Eugene-Springfield, OR
10 Cleveland-Akron-Elyria, OH



I'll reprint a few highlights from the same site:


Outdoor Air Basics

Two types of air pollution are especially dangerous to breathe—ozone (smog)
and particle pollution (soot). The American Lung Association State of the Air 2007 report grades communities across the nation based on the number of days they have unhealthful levels of air pollution. The grades come from the color-coded alert system called the Air Quality Index, which may be familiar from newspaper, radio, television and on-line weather forecasts.

Particle pollution (soot) is the most dangerous, and deadly, of the widespread outdoor air pollutants. Soot is an old name for particle pollution. Particle pollution comes from many sources. The particles are usually a complex mixture that can include ash, soot, diesel exhaust, chemicals, metals, and aerosols. In the eastern U.S., many particles come from power plants that burn coal to produce electricity.

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If you have read this far and want to know more about how breathing all this causes a variety of health effects, do not click here, because it will only further depress you.