Los Angeles can be a harsh, dangerous place - and now the stats confirm what we already suspected. First, we had the highest homeless population. Then we were named the most polluted city in the US. But we were truly hardcore when we were named the murder capital of the country. So we barely batted an eyelash when we read this: all that pollution is killing us. The Environmental Protection Agency has released its report "National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment" and we're so close to being number one again! Damn, New York beats us? We're just the runner up in the quest to be the state with the highest likelihood of contracting cancer from airborne chemicals. But - have no fear - Los Angeles is far more polluted than the state as a whole. The cancer threat in our fair city is 93 per million, and those pussies in Orange County only have 79 per million. Still, not bad when the national average is 41.5 per million.
And third most likely to contract cancer? Oregon. All those birkenstock-wearing, granola-eating naturalists are breathing killer air from forest fires and - we kid you not - their fireplaces.
If all this is scaring the crap out of you and you're looking for cleaner air, you can move to rural Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana, which have the cleanest air. Instead, you can die of boredom.
State's Air Is Among Nation's Most Toxic [LA Times]