Smog in San Diego County eighth worst in U.S. says American Lung Association

Traffic on San Diego freeways File photo courtesy of SANDAG Five parts of California including San Diego County were listed among the top for smog in the U S by the American Lung Association in a document published Wednesday The San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad region came in eighth smoggiest Visalia placed second Bakersfield-Delano third and Fresno-Hanford-Corcoran fifth The Los Angeles-Long Beach not surprisingly ranked tops for smog in the nation and the association also faulted the region for short-term and year-round particle litter The annual State of the Air overview overall identified that nearly half of people in the United States breathe unhealthy levels of air garbage More than million people live in regions that received F grades for either smog or particle trash Ground-level ozone litter also known as smog is a powerful respiratory irritant whose effects have been likened to a sunburn of the lungs according to the association Inhaling ozone can cause shortness of breath trigger coughing and asthma attacks and may shorten life Leaders also warned that warmer temperatures driven by environment change make ozone more likely to form and harder to clean up The review based its grades on the numbers of high ozone days experienced in a region levels of -hour particle contamination and annual particle pollultion On a countywide level San Bernardino County was ranked as the nation s majority ozone-polluted place to live followed by Riverside Los Angeles Tulare and Kern counties Kern County also topped the list as the the greater part polluted county in both short-term and year-round particle corruption San Diego receive a failing grade on the number of high-ozone days experienced by residents but a B as far as particle corruption Various California counties did not fare so well Los Angeles Orange and Riverside counties earned failing grades in the record for all three toxicity categories as did Fresno Imperial Kern Kings Madera Merced Sacramento San Bernardino Stanislaus Sutter and Tulare counties Families across the U S are dealing with the healthcare impacts of air garbage every day and extreme heat and wildfires are making it worse association President CEO Harold Wimmer mentioned in a declaration Air garbage is causing kids to have asthma attacks making people who work outdoors sick and leading to low birth weight in babies This year s overview shows the dramatic impact that air waste has on a growing number of people City News Institution contributed to this account