“There’s no such thing as an ‘asthma-free’ city,” says Mike Tringale, Director of Communications at Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. This is from a February 8, 2006, press release announcing the 2006 U.S. Asthma Capitals.
Topping the list are Scranton, PA, Richmond, VA, and Philadelphia, PA. Only one southern city, 4th ranked Atlanta, GA, made the top ten this year. You can check out the entire list of 100 Worst Cities for Asthma in 2006 from the AAFA website.
This is the third year AAFA has ranked cities for asthma. During the first two years, southern cities took the top three spots with the exception of third-ranked St. Louis, MO in 2005. St. Louis has consistently scored in the top ten all three years. In 2004, KY and TN topped the list, and last year (2005) Little Rock, AR (directly east of my western AR location) and St. Louis, MO (directly to my north) took the #2 and #3 spots. This year brought some surprises, as the North Central and North Eastern seaboard areas seem to dominate. See the 2004, 2005, and 2006 lists to see how your area fares.
Feel free to share any local reports or commentary from your area in the comments. Copyrighted material should be in the form of links with your comments about the link. Please do not post copyrighted material, with the exception of a brief sentence to introduce the link.
