Did you ever wonder how bad the air we breathe in New Jersey actually is? Well the American Lung Association' State of The Air report for 2014 has ranked the air in our area, and the results may surprise you.

Monmouth County was included in a region that included counties from New, Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.  Then the area was ranked by ozone, year round particle pollution and short term particle pollution.

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Our area was, not surprisingly, ranked in the bottom 20 in all categories. It may be surprising to find out which areas ranked worse than we did.  The top 5 areas for worst air in all categories are all in California. Our region did not rank in the top 10 worst in any of the categories.

The area that included Monmouth County ranked 12th worst in the ozone category, 13th worst for year round particle pollution, and 16th worst for short term particle pollution. Keep in mind Monmouth County was included in a region that includes counties from New York, North Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

I guess it's pretty bad when we're not surprised to be in the bottom 20 in a category as important as this. For the record, the areas that got the worst air results were L.A./Long Beach and Fresno/Madera, both obviously in California. You can check out the full list of counties in our area with monitors.

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