Philly’s Air Quality Lacking, But Thank Your Lucky Stars You Don’t Live In Lancaster!

The American Lung Association released its annual list of the nation’s most polluted cities earlier this week, and to no surprise Philadelphia is on the list.

After all, it’s a big city, our giant green Comcast Center isn’t finished and the currently mayoral candidates are the ones interested in environmental issues, not the current mayor.

What is kind of surprising is that Philadelphia only 24th, which (I suppose) isn’t so bad, considering York-Hanover-Gettysburg took 14th place and that bastion of pollution, Lancaster, was the 11th most polluted area in the country. (This is all in the “Most Polluted by Year-Round Particle Pollution” list.)

Lancaster, of course, is passing the buck on to the rest of the nation:

Lancaster County gets particle pollution from the Baltimore/Washington, D.C.-area and power plants operating in western Pennsylvania and as far west as the Mississippi River.

Wah wah wah. Hey, start cleaning up after those Amish and maybe then you can complain about other cities.

Update: Breathe easy, city residents! Or, rather, don’t. Philadelphia is still the second-worst city to live in if you have asthma.

York’s air ranked among the worst [AP/York Dispatch]
County air gets poor ranking from Lung Association [Lancaster New Era]
People at Risk In 25 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Year-Round Particle Pollution [ALA]