At the end of April, the American Lung Association released it’s annual State of the Air Report at a press conference in which CaFCP’s Catherine Dunwoody participated. Key findings from the report included:

• Air quality in many places improved between 2007 and 2009, yet more than half the people in the U.S. suffer pollution levels that are too often dangerous to breathe.
• The strongest improvement came in reducing ozone smog levels across the nation.
• All metro areas in the 25 cities most-polluted by ozone showed improvement over last year’s report.
• All but two of the 25 cities most polluted by year-round levels of particle pollution (sometimes called soot) improved over last year’s report. Nineteen of those cities reported their best-ever particle pollution levels.
• Success in reducing short-term particle pollution levels varied among metro areas. Twelve of the most polluted cities saw improvement compared to last year’s report, while 17 had worse problems with these spikes in particle levels.

California still tops the list with five of the 10 cities with the most year-round pollution—Bakersfield, Los Angeles, Visalia, Hanford, Fresno, Modesto. (LA and Visalia tied for second.)

Transportation is responsible for about half of California’s air pollution, pointing to the need for zero-emission fuel cell vehicles.

Visit http://www.stateoftheair.org/ to download the report or enter your zip code to read your city’s report card. Visit http://www.epa.gov/air/caa/peg/reduce.html to learn 50 ways you can reduce air pollution today!