Here are the states with the dirtiest air in America, from a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC):
Residents of Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania are exposed to more toxic air pollution from coal-fired power plants than in any other state.
Here is a graphic from Good covering the “toxic twenty”. See if your state is on the list:
Those twenty toxic states also represent a majority of the U.S. air pollution, again from Good:
It’s worth checking out the full graphic from Good for much more information. All this pollution does represent significant health concerns, from the NRDC:
As many as 11,000 premature deaths and 130,000 asthma attacks, 5,700 hospital visits, 4,700 heart attacks, and 2,800 cases of chronic bronchitis will be avoided in 2016. The public health improvements are also estimated to save $37 billion to $90 billion in health costs, and prevent up to 540,000 missed work or “sick” days each year.
The good news is the EPA passed a law in Dec 2011 requiring all these power plants to clean-up by 2015.