With wildfire smoke plaguing air quality across the U.S. over the past year, many are worried that it will affect Americans' health in the long term. Even before rampant blazes started tanking air quality, experts were concerned about other sources, such as car emissions, drought, industrial areas, and more. That's why Stacker revealed which American cities have the "dirtiest air."
The website states, "To learn more about where in the country the air is the dirtiest, Stacker analyzed the 2021 Air Quality Statistics Report from the Environmental Protection Agency, released in May 2022 to compile a list of the 50 cities with the dirtiest air... Air quality was ranked according to the amount of coarse particulate matter (PM10) in the air in metropolitan areas. The higher the amount of particulate matter, the dirtier the quality of air."
One Colorado city was placed on the list, and it's Denver. This metro area ranked No. 18 overall. Researchers say, "The Denver region is prone to several different types of air pollution including vehicle emissions, wildfire smoke, and industrial emissions. The topography of the region worsens the impacts of these pollutants as they settle in the lower atmosphere."
Here are the Top 10 U.S. cities with the dirtiest air, according to Stacker:
- Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona
- Hartford-Corcoran, California
- Tucson, Arizona
- El Centro, California
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Visalia-Porterville, California
- El Paso, Texas
- Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California
- Las Cruces, New Mexico
- Bakersfield, California