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 account 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 defilement The annual State of the Air account overall revealed that nearly half of people in the United States breathe unhealthy levels of air defilement More than million people live in regions that received F grades for either smog or particle toxicity Ground-level ozone poisoning 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 Functionaries also warned that warmer temperatures driven by state change make ozone more likely to form and harder to clean up The summary based its grades on the numbers of high ozone days experienced in a region levels of -hour particle poisoning and annual particle pollultion On a countywide level San Bernardino County was ranked as the nation s the greater part 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 poisoning San Diego receive a failing grade on the number of high-ozone days experienced by residents but a B as far as particle trash Plenty of California counties did not fare so well Los Angeles Orange and Riverside counties earned failing grades in the overview for all three impurity 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 medical impacts of air defilement every day and extreme heat and wildfires are making it worse association President CEO Harold Wimmer revealed in a comment Air waste is causing kids to have asthma attacks making people who work outdoors sick and leading to low birth weight in babies This year s document shows the dramatic impact that air contamination has on a growing number of people City News System contributed to this overview