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 overview distributed 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 poisoning The annual State of the Air document overall exposed that nearly half of people in the United States breathe unhealthy levels of air toxicity More than million people live in regions that received F grades for either smog or particle garbage Ground-level ozone defilement 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 Officers also warned that warmer temperatures driven by circumstances change make ozone more likely to form and harder to clean up The analysis based its grades on the numbers of high ozone days experienced in a region levels of -hour particle litter and annual particle pollultion On a countywide level San Bernardino County was ranked as the nation s largest part ozone-polluted place to live followed by Riverside Los Angeles Tulare and Kern counties Kern County also topped the list as the the majority polluted county in both short-term and year-round particle litter San Diego receive a failing grade on the number of high-ozone days experienced by residents but a B as far as particle waste Multiple California counties did not fare so well Los Angeles Orange and Riverside counties earned failing grades in the analysis for all three defilement 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 vitality impacts of air toxicity every day and extreme heat and wildfires are making it worse association President CEO Harold Wimmer declared in a announcement Air defilement is causing kids to have asthma attacks making people who work outdoors sick and leading to low birth weight in babies This year s account shows the dramatic impact that air poisoning has on a growing number of people City News Provision contributed to this overview