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Report: Los Angeles County Air Among Most Polluted in U.S.

The American Lung Association marks Ozone pollution as the area's key air quality issue.

The American Lung Association released its annual State of the Air report on Wednesday morning, and the report concludes that the Greater Los Angeles area has the worst ozone pollution in all of America. 

The State of the Air report determines the cleanest and most polluted cities across the country, and for the second consecutive year, the Los Angeles area has ranked at the top in Ozone pollution. In addition, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside area came in fourth in the United States in terms of short-term particle pollution and third nationally in annual particle pollution. 

Many local communities fall into the boundaries of L.A. County, which ranks No. 5 overall in ozone pollution. The county also came in eighth in the U.S. for short-term particle pollution and 10th in annual particle pollution.

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Nine of the top-10 ozone-polluted cities nationally are in California.

“This report shows that air pollution remains a serious health threat to too many Californians,” said Jane Warner, President and CEO of the American Lung Association in California, in a press release. “State of the Air 2012 shows that we’re making real and steady progress in the fight for clean air, but unhealthy levels of air pollution still exist, putting the health of millions Californians at risk. Much still needs to be done, and now is not the time to stop progress.”

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However, in the 13 years that the ALA has published the State of the Air report, California has produced its cleanest air to date in 2012.

Still, a large majority of Californians live in areas with severely polluted air. The ALA determined that 90 percent of California residents live in a county "plagued with unhealthy air."

ALA tested the air quality of 49 California counties and 35 of those counties received a grade of F in regards to ozone pollution. Only nine counties received a grade of A.

Read the entire report here


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