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Philadelphia Area Ranks Bottom 25 In America For Air Quality

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The American Lung Association is out with its annual "State of the Air" report, and there's good news and bad news for the Delaware Valley.

Start with the good news, the report says air quality here and across the country has improved since last year's report.

But the Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland metro area still ranks in the worst 25 in the country.

The report's catagories include smog and soot.

Philadelphia County is worst in our region for soot, and the 25th worst county in the nation. WebMD's Daniel DeNoon says that pollution can be serious, even for healthy people:

"It can cause a lot of symptoms like wheezing or coughing or fatigue," he said. "And people who are very young, or people who are very old, or people with asthma, it can be fatal."

Philadelphia County had SEVEN poor air quality days last year, that's down from 11 the previous year.

The Lung Association credits the Clean Air Act for improving the numbers.

Reported by Jim Melwert, KYW Newsradio

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