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Paradise isn't supposed to have smog.
The Tampa Bay area, though, is the second smoggiest metropolitan region in the Sunshine State, according to a report released this week by Environment Florida. Tops on the list was Pensacola.
The report came a day after Businessweek.com attempted to rank "America's Best Cities." Florida had two cities on the list. Tampa was No. 47. Jacksonville was No. 26. The publication cited "air quality" as one of the reasons Tampa didn't rank higher.
"It certainly is cause for concern," Phil Compton of the local chapter of the Sierra Club said. "This is a very serious thing."
Smog comes from burning gasoline and burning coal. Engines and smokestacks. Modern Florida was built for cars, of course, and the Big Bend power plant in Apollo Beach burns coal.
Smog is particularly dangerous for children and the elderly. Bad smog days can do to lungs what sunburns can do to skin. On the worst days, the Environment Florida report says, hospital visits for respiratory ailments go up, more adults miss work, more children miss school, and even healthy people experience a reduction in lung function.
Let's not be alarmist. Tampa's not good relative to Florida. But Florida's not bad relative to the rest of the country. There are more than 100 metropolitan areas with worse air. The worst five are in California. Also in the top 10 are Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, Houston and Atlanta. Florida is only No. 28 on the list of smoggiest states.
But the numbers say what they say.
For the full article, visit the St. Petersburg Times.
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