Birmingham #5 "Most Polluted" for 2008 (Riverside, Grant: pollution, vehicles, rating)

[san phlegmatico]

The top five cities under the "most polluted by short-term particle pollution": 1) Pittsburgh, Pa.; 2) Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, Calif.; 3) Fresno/Madera, Calif.; 4) Bakersfield, Calif.; 5) Birmingham, Ala.

--Source: American Lung Association


Hmmm.

Birmingham is neither a top 5 traffic city, nor is it a top 5 city of industry. So why is it generating so many small-particle pollutants? Granted, the other members of this Top 5 are in the same boat, save Los Angeles. Only L.A. has an alibi for its high rate of pollution: unparalled numbers of vehicles and thus gnarly traffic snarls, huge expanses of smokestacks and heavy industry.

That's fine company you're associating with, Birmingham. Nicely done. Bakersfield and Fresno are two cities often invoked in "hell on earth" confabs, along with the likes of Shreveport, LA; Gary, IN; and Flint, MI.

And Pittsburgh? -- The Birmingham of the South, it seems. Dripping with irony. Guess it couldn't help but follow suit with the Tragic City, which was its southern counterpart all those industrial powerhouse years earlier in the last century.

This topic ought to bring out the B'ham shills.