LOS ANGELES — Six in 10 Americans — about 175 million people — are living in places where air pollution often reaches dangerous levels, despite progress in reducing particle pollution, the American Lung Association said in a report released Wednesday. The Los Angeles area had the nation’s worst ozone pollution.
Bakersfield, Calif., had the worst particle pollution over a 24-hour period, and Arizona’s Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area had the worst year-round particle pollution.
The U.S. cities with the cleanest air were Bismarck, N.D.; Cheyenne; and Alexandria, La.
The report is accurate but doesn’t show how far California has come, said Dimitri Stanich of the state’s Air Resources Board. Benjamin Grumbles, Arizona’s environmental-quality director, objected to the methodology and called the report, based on 2006-08 figures, outdated, saying pollution levels have improved since then.
