State of the air? It depends where you live
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* Lindsey Wahowiak

The air is sweet in Salinas, Calif. It is the only city in California that had no days with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution in 2013, and was among the 25 U.S. cities with the lowest year-round particle levels in the air. That placed it at the top of the healthy heap in the American Lung Association’s “State of the Air 2014” report.

Released April 30, the 15th annual report takes stock of national air quality, grading communities on everything from levels of ozone, or smog, to particle pollution, which is a pollutant recently found by the World Health Organization to cause lung cancer. Air pollution can also trigger asthma, which is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among children younger than 15, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Nationwide, the report found that nearly half of all Americans, 147.6 million, live in counties with unhealthy air quality. More than 27.8 million Americans, nearly 9 percent, live in counties with unhealthy levels of all pollutants measured in the report. And 22 of the 25 most ozone-polluted cities in the 2014 report, including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, had more high ozone days than reported in 2013.

In Salinas, residents know they are lucky to live just eight miles from the ocean, where sea breezes blow fresh air their way. But public health workers and government officials are working to keep the air in Salinas as healthy as possible, said Ray Corpuz Jr., Salinas city manager. That includes complying with state emissions regulations, developing a city-wide Urban Greening Plan using a $250,000 state grant and promoting healthy transportation among its residents.

“We’re big on taking the bus, and we’ve developed a rail link to Silicon Valley, which will be fully developed by 2017,” Corpuz told *The Nation’s Health*. “Our terrain is relatively flat, so the use of bikes (is) really promoted in this city. We believe in greening up the city.”

But less than 150 miles away from Salinas, Fresno-Madera, Calif., has the nation’s worst short-term and year-round particle pollution, and is listed in the report’s top 10 most ozone-polluted U.S. cities. Its air quality is getting worse, in part because ozone pollution is on the rise across the country, according to the report.

How can it be that two communities so close to each other can have such wildly different air quality? Experts say environment is partially to blame.

“Fresno-Madera is located in the Central Valley in California, where the mountains on three sides often trap the high levels of pollution,” said Janice Nolen, MS, assistant vice president of national policy and advocacy with the American Lung Association. “But it doesn’t take a two-hour drive to find differences. Stark changes can be found within cities, not just between them.”

Nolen noted that areas within 300 to 500 meters of a busy roadway are often much more polluted than locations further away in the same county.

The association report came as no shock to Jaime Holt, chief communications officer with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. The district includes Fresno-Madera. Holt said the district’s poor air quality is not the result of excess pollution — far from it, in fact. Climate and terrain make it the perfect spot for pollution to brew. So public health workers and government officials work hand-in-hand to regulate emissions, provide incentives for businesses to make healthy air quality choices and encourage residents to adopt healthy air behaviors, such as taking public transportation, walking or riding a bike instead of driving.

“We in the Valley have to kind of be the best of the best when it comes to air quality innovation,” Holt told *The Nation’s Health*. “We’re working, really, so hard. We’ve seen significant improvements in the last 10 years and we’re really proud of it.”

Because of these discrepancies in air quality — and because nearly half of all Americans live in counties with unhealthy levels of either ozone or particle pollution — APHA, the American Lung Association and other organizations have pushed for federal government interventions. They include more air quality monitoring, tightening restrictions on pollution and funding work to ensure healthy air. The association also called for the EPA to set “strong, health-based standard(s)” that limit ozone pollution, reduce carbon pollution, clean up new wood-burning stoves and protect the Clean Air Act.

APHA is supporting a proposed EPA standard for new power plants, and is expected to weigh in on another standard for existing plants that is slated to be released in June.

To read the full report, visit [www.stateoftheair.org](http://www.stateoftheair.org).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association