Salinas comes up clean in ‘State of the Air 2017′

Salinas came out clean in the American Lung Association’s 2017 State of the Air report where it tied with other cities for quality of air and best rankings for both ozone and particle pollution.

Senior Policy Analyst, William Barrett, of American Lung Association in California said Salinas was impressive, considering how other cities in California perform in the report. For example, Salinas was a marked contrast to the L.A. Metro area, where 142 days per year of unhealthy ozone levels were recorded.

“Salinas benefits from coastal influence and other factors that make it clean. In Salinas, the coastal breezes all help to clean out any pollution in the region, whereas with Los Angeles, you have a lot of people, and pollution is being pushed into internal areas where we see the highest number of ozone 142 days of the year,” Barrett said.

Salinas landed coveted spots on two lists of the cleanest cities in the U.S., in the report. This is attributed to zero unhealthy ozone days and one of the lowest year-round particle pollution levels. These lists are the “Cleanest U.S. Cities for Ozone Air Pollution” and “Top 25 Cleanest U.S. Cities for Year-round Particle Pollution”.