Air Pollution Puts 2 Million Americans at Risk of Cancer, EPA Says

clean airTwo million Americans, living in close to 600 U.S. neighborhoods, are exposed to air pollution at levels that increase their risk of cancer significantly, a new report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found.

While the EPA said all Americans have an increased cancer risk of greater than 10 in a million due to air pollution, those in the most polluted areas face cancer risks of greater than 100 in a million — a level the EPA generally regards as unacceptable.

For comparison, the average cancer risk in the United States is 36 in 1 million, according to the National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment.

“If we are in between 10 in 1 million and 100 in 1 million we want to look more deeply at that. If the risk is greater than 100 in 1 million, we don’t like that at all … we want to investigate that risk and do something about it,” Kelly Rimer, an environmental scientist with the EPA, told The Associated Press.

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