Leaf - peepers flocking to Vermont to appreciate itsfall foliagethis season can catch one’s breath assured that every breather of fresh air they take there is in reality fresh . allot torankings fromU.S. News & World Report , the Green Mountain State has both the lowest level of industrial toxin and the lowest defilement - related wellness risks in the country — make it America ’s least polluted state .
The title for America ’s most polluted state , meanwhile , run to Louisiana , with the second highest pollution wellness risk and the third highest stage of industrial toxin . The Pelican State has a reputation for air pollution , specially in the industrial neighborhood that stretches from New Orleans to Baton Rouge . That area is sometimes relate to as “ Cancer Alley ” due to the high-pitched - than - normal cancer rate among residents , specially in low - income community .
U.S. News & World Reportbased its rankings off two 2019 datasets created by the Environmental Protection Agency — one that measure out a state ’s “ full toxic chemical substance pollution … per square mile of land area , ” and another that assess “ prospicient - term , chronic human health effects of toxic chemical pollution , such as parentage defects and Cancer the Crab . ” Some potentially pretty significant befoulment sources are excluded from these analyses , including husbandry , transferral , and wildfires . It ’s also deserving emphasizing that the data is from 2019 , and , as anyone who ’s heard the wordpandemicknows all too well , a lot can change in three year .
In other parole , this is n’t the single classical ranking of most contaminated states . But it can serve as a world-wide idea of which states have a bigger chemical toxin problem than others . Nevada , Indiana , Delaware , and Utah labialise out the top five . See if your state made the top 20 below , andcheck out the full lean here .
