Healthbuzz

Analysis: Half of U.S. breathes dirty air

by LaVonne on 03/06/05 at 12:43 pm

– Nearly half the U.S. population (49 percent) lives in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone.

– More than 26 percent live in areas with unhealthy short-term levels of particulate pollution.

– One-in-five lives in areas with unhealthy year-round levels of particulate pollution.

– About 50.2 million Americans, nearly 17 percent, live in 47 counties with unhealthy levels of all three types of air pollutions: ozone and short-term and year-round particle pollution.

Adults 65 and older, children under 18, adults and children with asthma, chronic bronchitis, lung disease, cardiovascular disease and diabetes are more at risk from air pollution, according to the American Lung Association’s “State of the Air: 2005″ report released Thursday.

“Dirty air threatens the lives and health of far too many Americans,” said John L. Kirkwood, president and chief executive officer of the American Lung Association. “Unfortunately, some of the largest producers of dirty air are big energy companies, who have worked with their friends in Congress on legislation to change the rules so they don’t have to clean up their pollution. Fortunately, the Senate recently blocked that bill, but the vote was very close. We need to ask ourselves: Why was Congress even considering a bill that protects corporate polluters instead of the public?”
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