Okay so we all know that Los Angeles has some of the worst air quality in the nation, but it seems like we’re making some progress. Just looking at this picture comparison of LA from 1956 to 2017 you can see the improvement.
In an article by Realtor.com, they ranked U.S. cities pollution based on the following factors:
- Toxic chemicals released from factories
- Greenhouse gas emissions per square mile
- Number of Superfund sites per square mile
- Air quality by number of clear days per year
- Water quality by contaminants such as lead, copper, arsenic, nitrate, and more
Interestingly, there was a trend shown by these comparisons where the cleanest cities were near agricultural communities with natural reserves/forests close by, and the most polluted were in the areas previously known as “industrial hubs in the Rust Belt and along the Gulf of Mexico.”
Here are some quick images to show where the top and bottom fall on the map:
Read the full article from Realtor.com here to understand more about what contributes to these rankings and what we can do to improve it.
