Noticias
y campañas
de la OCA
en español
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa strolled to the microphone, his jacket slung over his shoulder, a broad smile on his face. "What a wonderful day," he said to the reporters and American Lung Assn. members gathered in Echo Park. "All these cameras, all these good people here to celebrate good news. Put a smile on your faces, everybody. . . . After nearly a decade at the top, the Los Angeles region has been "bested" by the Pittsburgh metropolitan area for the No. 1 spot on the "Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Short-Term Particle Pollution."
From 2004 to 2006, the area from Los Angeles east to Riverside and south to Long Beach had far fewer 24-hour periods of unhealthy particulate readings than the Steel City. But the region still was the worst offender in the nation for ozone levels and yearly overall particle pollution readings, according to the American Lung Assn.'s annual "State of the Air" study released Wednesday.
"But we're still on the list," said Villaraigosa, who mentioned that he recently suffered a bout of bronchitis, one of the ailments the Lung Assn. cited in its "F" grade for nearly all of Southern California. "Moving forward, we still have our work cut out for us," he said.
The study tracked ozone as well as daily and annual readings for small particles in cities and counties across the country.
The rest of the state did not fare well, either: Five of the eight metropolitan areas listed as most polluted by all three measures used by the association were from California. These included Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside and the Central Valley areas of Bakersfield, Fresno, Visalia-Porterfield and Hanford-Corcoran. The San Diego metropolitan area made the list of top 25 most ozone-polluted cities at No. 12.
In all, 26 of the 52 counties monitored in the state received "F" grades, for having the most unhealthy high-ozone days or particle-pollution days. Nineteen counties, primarily coastal, received "A" grades. And Salinas, Redding and the San Luis Obispo region were among the top 25 cleanest U.S. cities for long-term particle pollution.
Full Story: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lungs1-2008may01,1,5860246.story
