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Dirtiest Cities in America

Christopher Helman, Forbes.comNovember 4, 2011 Provided by:

California has gone to extremes to improve the state’s air quality, pushing out coal-fired power

plants and implementing the strictest auto emissions standards in the nation. L.A.’s persistent

smog layer may be a shadow of its former self, but it hasn’t been enough. Lots of people and too

many cars means California still has seven big cities that rank among the 20 most polluted in the

nation.

L.A. ranks No. 2 on our list of America’s Dirtiest Cities, and San Diego is no. 9, but some of the

worst air in the country is in smaller cities in the San Joaquin Valley, where a ring of mountains

traps a stagnant stew of ozone and particulate matter. According to data that Forbes crunched

from The American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2011 report, the most hazardous breathing

in America is in Bakersfield. Hot, dusty, adjacent to California’s biggest oil fields, Bakersfield has

60 days a year of unhealthy air, 10 times a level considered acceptable. Its ozone levels are better

than at any time in the past 15 years, but still unhealthy for 100 days out of the year.

See full list: America’s Dirtiest Cities 

By contrast, Houston (No. 18) has 25 bad ozone days a year while New York (No. 14) suffers just

17, down from 40 a decade ago).

The Lung Association figures that half of the U.S. population lives in places where the air is

sometimes unfit to breathe, contributing to asthma and lung cancer. And death. The data show

that more people die of respiratory ailments on bad-air days.

Here are the top 10 dirtiest cities:

#10 Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Yuba City, CA-NV 

Population: 2.4 million

Year-round particulate pollution rank: 45 (approx.)

Short-term particulate pollution rank: 9

Ozone pollution rank: 5

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A little better than Bakersfield and Fresno, but Sacramento still suffers stagnant air stuck in the

San Joaquin Valley.

#9 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 

Population: 3 million

Year-round particulate pollution rank: 30 (approx.)

Short-term particulate pollution rank: 15

Ozone pollution rank: 7

There's no dirty coal plants here, and you'd think the ocean breeze would keep the air clean, but

San Diego has a big port and busy highways that lead to and from Mexico.

#8 Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ 

Population: 4.4 million

Year-round particulate pollution rank: 2

Short-term particulate pollution rank: 24

Ozone pollution rank: 19

Heat plus cars equals ozone. Epic dust storms also regularly engulf Phoenix.

#7 Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, AL 

Population: 1.2 million

Year-round particulate pollution rank: 8

Short-term particulate pollution rank: 8

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Ozone pollution rank: 21

Pollution levels have improved a lot, but Birmingham suffers from being located in a valley that

tends to trap stagnant summer air. Two interstate highways don't help either.

#6 Modesto, CA 

Population: 500,000

Year-round particulate pollution rank: 10

Short-term particulate pollution rank: 12

Ozone pollution rank: 14

Home to E&J Gallo Winery, which also operates the largest wine bottle manufacturing plant in the

world.

#5 Pittsburgh-New Castle, PA 

Population: 2.4 million

Year-round particulate pollution rank: 7

Short-term particulate pollution rank: 3

Ozone pollution rank: 24

Birmingham, AL

Photo: iStock

Photo: Forbes

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This old steel town is a new boom town for natural gas drilling, and downwind of coal-fired power

plants in Ohio and West Virigina.

#4 Fresno-Madera, CA 

Population: 1.1 millionYear-round particulate pollution rank: 6

Short-term particulate pollution rank: 2

Ozone pollution rank: 4

San Joaquin Valley air might be getting better; last August, for the first time in recorded history,

Fresno had no days with unhealthy ozone levels.

#3 Visalia-Porterville, CA 

Population: 430,000

Year-round particulate pollution rank: 2

Short-term particulate pollution rank: 7

Ozone pollution rank: 3

Proximity to the giant trees of Sequoia National Park isn't enough to clean Visalia's smoggy San

Joaquin Valley air.

#2 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA 

Population: 17.8 million

Pittsburgh, PA

Photo: iStock

Fresno, CA

Photo: Forbes

Visalia, CA

Photo: Forbes

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Year-round particulate pollution rank: 2

Short-term particulate pollution rank: 4

Ozone pollution rank: 1

Millions of cars, a huge port in Long Beach, busy airports -- at least L.A.'s smog is better than it

used to be.

#1 Bakersfield-Delano, CA 

Population: 800,000

Year-round particulate pollution rank: 1

Short-term particulate pollution rank: 1

Ozone pollution rank: 2

Hot, dusty and surrounded by California's biggest oil fields, Bakersfield has all the ingredients for

the worst air in the nation.

See full list: America’s Dirtiest Cities 

Los Angeles, CA

Photo: iStock

Bakersfield, CA

Photo: iStock

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