Millions of Americans Are Breathing Toxic Air, EPA Says
As many as 2.2 million people in the United States are at much greater risk of developing cancer as a result of breathing air that is polluted with toxic chemicals, the Environmental Protection Agency said.
Automobile and factory emissions are most often to blame for the increased cancer risks. Perhaps not surprisingly, portions of car-happy Los Angeles have the unhealthiest air in the United States, with cancer rates of 1,200 per million people. Nationwide, the average risk is 36 per million.
Portions of Madison County, Illinois were a close second, ranking 1,100 cancers per million residents. Other problem areas include neighborhoods in and around Allegheny County, Penn. and Tuscaloosa County, Ala. More than 600 neighborhoods from coast to coast have air that is toxic and considered unhealthy by the EPA.
You can see where your hometown ranked on this map.
Overall U.S. Air Pollution Cancer Risk Down
While the nation’s overall cancer risk from air pollution was down from 41.5 per million reported in 2006, residents of much of the United States are still breathing air that is unhealthy, the EPA said.
“If we are in between 10 in 1 million and 100 in 1 million we want to look more deeply at that. If the risk is greater than 100 in 1 million, we don’t like that at all … we want to investigate that risk and do something about it,” Kelly Rimer, an environmental scientist with the EPA, told The Associated Press.
While the news was bad for much of the country, residents of Coconino County, Ariz. And Lyon County, Nev. can breathe a little easier. Their communities had the lowest cancer risk from airborne toxins. Also scoring well on the EPA analysis with the cleanest air were Kalawao County, Hawaii and Golden Valley County, Montana.
The EPA analysis identified concentrations of 124 hazardous air pollutants, many of which are associated with cancers, respiratory complications, and other potentially deadly diseases.
New York, California Have Most People at Risk
There are more people in New York at risk of cancer from toxic air than anywhere else in the nation. More than 862,000 people live in areas of New York with dangerously high levels of airborne contaminants. There are 445,000 people in California living in areas with contaminated air, the EPA said.
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Lots of black in NJ for such a little State, isn’t there? Illinois, too. And this is where our new EPA director was drafted from, as well as our President. If they have not even taken an interest to clean up her own back yards before they left, how is it people now believe they will help clean up the Nation’s environment? I mean, doesn’t anyone take a trip to the Cities and States these people come from and just have a look?
If you hire a builder, you go look at the houses he’s built. You hire an artist, you go look at the paintings he’s done. You hire a landscaper, you go look at the landscaping jobs he’s completed. But hire a President from Chicago and an EPA director from NJ and take them at face value? HAHAHAHAHA!
Again, you want cheese with than whine, those of you that voted them into office without looking at the areas they oversaw for years? And you expect change for the better? What the heck were you thinking?