Listmania never stops. At Neatorama I encountered a list of The Most Polluted Cities in the United States, as based on data from the American Lung Association. Pittsburgh and Los Angeles are duking it out for the title, with Pittsburgh moving to the top of the list for “short-term particle pollution.” In the LA Times, Mayor Villaraigosa crowed, “Today I’m proud . . . to say for the first time, it feels good to be No. 2.” And Outside Magazine’s blog phoned in some finger-wagging on Pittsburgh:
Congrats, Pittsburgh. Somehow, you beat out LA as the most-polluted city in America… You should probably start a public bike program, and pass some more green initiatives. In the meantime, pick up your phone. China’s calling. They have some facemasks to sell you.
Not so fast. I’ve got to put in a word for Pittsburgh here. They may be tops in “short-term particle,” but that’s only one list. The ALA also has rankings for “year-round particle” and for ozone. Anyone who wants to check it out will notice that LA still comes in first for “year-round,” leaving ozone as the tie-breaker.
And the result? In a split decision… LOS ANGELES. Sorry, suckers. Pittsburgh’s not even in the top ten for ozone. So LA pulls down two out of three lists, and therefore (if you ask me) keeps the title for worst all-around air quality in the country. Hear that, LA? You need to cool it with the “In yo’ face, Pittsburgh!” attitude. It’s also hard not to mention that about half of all the spots on these lists are occupied by cities in California.
That’s right. Anyone who goes to Disneyland is a pollution tourist.
Buried in all of this (specifically, buried on page 10 of the ALA report) is the real news:
Several cities that also reduced year-round particle pollution dropped off the “25 most polluted” list this year, including New York City…
Whoa! All this time I thought NYC was the green champ just based on per-capita carbon footprint, and that in aggregate it was still pretty bad. But in fact, we’re not even on the list. So tell me again, why don’t you live in New York City?
In other listfreak news, Newsweek has the 9 Unhealthiest Summer Vacation Destinations, which sounds great until you realize that they’re just as concerned about crime and restaurant hygiene as they are with pollution. What gives? Just because you could get robbed blind in Detroit doesn’t mean the place is unhealthy. The other problem? Newsweek seems to think you ought to stay away from unhealthy places. As if!
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Thanks to the American Lung Association for their State of the Air report, which is the source of all the ruckus. You can donate to their campaign for clean air.