Today's Medical News  
Customized Briefing for Dr. Jarir Nakouzi

EPA says almost 2.2 million Americans live in areas where pollution increases risk of cancer.

USA Today (6/23, Heath, Morrison) reported, "The government's latest snapshot of air pollution across the nation shows residents of New York, Oregon and California faced the highest risk of developing cancer from breathing toxic chemicals." The findings from the Environmental Protection Agency are "based on emissions from 2002, the latest year for which the EPA had detailed estimates of pollution from across the nation." The National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment, or NATA, "is used by the EPA to identify parts of the country where residents could face the greatest health threats from air pollution." The analysis showed that "air pollution generally presented high health risks around major cities such as New York and Los Angeles -- although some of the counties where the air was even worse were in rural areas of Mississippi and Kentucky." Notably, "almost 2.2 million people lived in neighborhoods where pollution raised the risk of developing cancer to levels the government generally considers to be unacceptable."