The American Lung Association released its annual “State of the Air” report today and once again Bakersfield and several other San Joaquin Valley cities have the dubious distinction of having some of the worst air to breathe in the country.
The organization’s annual review of air quality across the nation found that more than half of the people in the United States live in areas with unhealthful levels of either particulate or ozone pollution. Often referred to as an air pollution “report card,” this year’s report found that 166 million Americans are being exposed to levels of air pollution that put them at risk for serious health impacts. Those include an increased risk for premature death, lung cancer, heart disease, asthma, and other harmful effects.
In this 17th annual report, researchers found that short-term spikes in small particulate pollution (PM2.5) has gotten worse since the 2015 report. This includes Bakersfield, which was found to have the worst 24-hour PM2.5 pollution, the worst annual PM2.5 pollution, and was the second most polluted city for ozone pollution, just behind Los Angeles.
Many of the short-term spikes were attributed to weather patterns, drought, and wildfires which are likely to increase in frequency because of climate change.
Other Valley cities on the lists included Fresno-Madera, Visalia-Porterville-Hanford, and Modesto-Merced.
The report was not all bad news, however. According to Harold P. Wimmer, National President and CEO of the Association, “Thanks to cleaner power plants and cleaner vehicles, we see a continued reduction of ozone and year-round particle pollution in the 2016 ‘State of the Air’ report. However, climate change has increased the challenges to protecting public health. There are still nearly 20 million people in the United States that live with unhealthful levels of all three measures of air pollution the report tracks: ozone, short-term and year-round particle pollution.”
Wimmer added, “Everyone has the right to breathe healthy air, yet only four cities — Burlington-South Burlington, VT; Elmira-Corning, NY; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Salinas, CA — qualified for the ‘cleanest cities’ list in the “State of the Air’ report. We simply must do more to protect the health of Americans.”
