Nearly half of all Americans (ie, m...

Nearly half of all Americans (ie, more than 137 million people) breathe unhealthy amounts of toxic air pollution, according to a May 1 2003 just discovereds release from the American Lung Association. The American Lung Association State of the Air: 2003 report, which grades and ranks counties' air quality based forward the Environmental Protection Agency's air quality index for ozone air pollution, indicates that no significant improvements in ozone flushs have occurred during the past four years.

Ozone is a highly reactive form of oxygen that arises from an action of sunlight onward hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides that are emitted from material for burning combustion and other sources. Ozone plains typically are highest between May and October appropriate to higher summer temperatures, increased sunlight, and stagnant atmospheric conditions. Ozone can affect healthy people's ability to breathe, and long-term aspect can lead to respiratory disease. Children, older adults, and nation with asthma are at greatest risk for breathing question s related to ozone.

For the fourth year in a uproar four California metropolitan areas (ie, looks Angeles, Fresno, Bakersfield, Visalia-Tulare-Porterville) have been ranked as the smoggiest cities in the United States. Other metropolitan areas topping the list of the chiefly ozone-polluted include

* Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, Tex;

* Sacramento-Yolo, Calif;

* Merc Calif;

* Atlanta;

* Knoxville, Tenn; and

* Charlotte, NC

More than half of the counties with ozone monitors received an F grade. sum of two units metropolitan areas that were among the top ten principally ozone-polluted cities in the 2002 report--Redding, Calif, and Chattanooga, Tenn--were not among the top ten this year; however, the one and the other cities still received an F grade despite the change in rank.

State of the Air 2003: Nearly Half the Nation at Risk from Smog--Overshadows Temporary Improvement (new release, novel York: American Lung Association, May 1 2003) http://www.lungaction.org/reports/sota03_release 1html (accessed 7 May 2003)

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