Be Glad You Live Where You Can Breathe

The American Lung Association released its annual State of the Air report late last month, and there's good news for Northern California residents: Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino and Sonoma -- five of the nine cleanest counties in California for ozone -- are located north of the Golden Gate.

Sonoma, along with Humboldt and Mendocino, also make the short list for cleanest counties in California for particle pollution.

These findings reinforce the effectiveness of local and state clean air laws and investments, and the importance of the Clean Air Act, according to the report issued by the American Lung Association.

“State of the Air 2012 shows that we’re making real and steady progress in the fight for clean air," said Jane Warner, President and CEO of the American Lung Association in California.

“This report shows that air pollution remains a serious health … Much still needs to be done, and now is not the time to stop progress.”

This year’s report shows that although air pollution continues to threaten the lives and health of thousands of Bay Area residents, trends show continuous progress in reducing ozone and particulate pollution. The Bay Area experienced a 51% decline in unhealthy ozone days since the State of the Air began collecting this data.

While the cooler climate protects the Bay Area from more severe levels of air pollution found in other areas of the state, clean and healthy air is still a challenge in this region, with millions of residents living in counties with failing grades for either ozone or particle pollution. In addition, the Bay Area still contributes pollution that is transported to other areas.

Despite mixed grades for ozone and particulate pollution in the Bay Area, with coastal counties earning higher grades than more inland counties, the overall trend is toward cleaner air.

Meanwhile, the report concludes that Greater Los Angeles has the worst Ozone pollution in all of America, for the second consecutive year. Nine of the top ten Ozone polluted cities nationally are in California.

A large majority of Californians live in areas with severely polluted air. The ALA determined that 90 percent of California residents live in a county "plagued with unhealthy air."

Cleanest counties in the country? Santa Fe County, New Mexico, is ranked number one. It's followed by Elbert County in Colorado and Laramie in Wyoming.

You can view the full report here.