According to data gathered by the American Lung Association, six out of ten people in the U.S. live in counties with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution.

Complete information is available in the “State of the Air 2009” report.

Here are the 25 cities with the worst ozone levels (click more):

Go here to check the air quality in the counties of your state (some counties do not have data available).  Counties are graded from A through F for high ozone days and particle pollution. Data is also avaialbe for the number of people affected in “Groups at Risk”.

What are the cities with the cleanest air? Here’s the list, lifted directly from the report.

Once again, most of these cities are in the west, continuing a theme from prior blog posts about the happiest states in the U.S. (most of which are in the west), and the counties in the U.S. with the longest life expectancies (over half of which of which are in the west).

According to the report, breathing polluted air can affect your health and might shorten your life. there are things we can do to make a difference and they are covered in the report.
You can download the entire report here and go to State of the Air the website here.