EFN

For the second year in a row, the American Lung Association has named Pittsburgh as the most polluted city in the U.S.

“Six out of 10 Americans right now as we speak live in areas where the air can be dirty enough to send people to the emergency room, dirty enough to shape how kids’ lungs develop and even dirty enough to kill,” reported Janice E. Nolen, the association’s assistant vice president on national policy and advocacy.

The 2009 findings was based on data gathered at approximately 900 monitoring sites nationwide during a three-year period from 2005 through 2007. Researchers measured the air quality of different areas utilizing three criteria — long-term particle pollution, short-term particle pollution and ozone concentration. All three forms of pollution have been shown to have negative health effects.

The cleanest air quality city in all categories was Fargo, North Dakota.

The association says more than 180 million people live in “areas where the air can be dirty enough to send people to the emergency room, dirty enough to shape how kids’ lungs develop and even dirty enough to kill.”

Smog is a different term for ozone, which happens when airborne pollutants combine with heat and sunlight. Soot is also called particle pollution and refers to tiny airborne contaminants less than 1/30th the width of a human hair.