Sacramento ranked among worst U.S. cities for asthma risk as Clean Air Day highlights pollution concerns

As California marks Clean Air Day, an annual event that promotes efforts to reduce pollution, a new study is putting Sacramento's air quality back in the spotlight.

The study by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America ranks Sacramento as the worst city in California and 10th worst in the nation for asthma risk, raising concerns among health and clean-air advocates about the region's ongoing struggles with air pollution.

Sacramento County resident Mackenzie Wieser has struggled with asthma since she was a child.

"I would be out on the field and I would just lose my breath, so I would need an inhaler," Wieser said.

She says Sacramento's smoggy days can make breathing difficult, and she regularly checks online air quality maps before exercising.

"If it's anywhere in the yellow or red, I'm not going," Wieser said.

Wieser is one of an estimated 125,000 people in Sacramento County diagnosed with asthma, and the region has a higher-than-average number of people going to the hospital because of the disease.

"The Asthma Foundation recently named Sacramento as the asthma capital of the West, which is certainly not a title we want to have," said Bill Magavern, policy director of the Coalition for Clean Air.

Air quality officials say pollution levels in the city have gone down 30% over the last 25 years, but clean air advocates say more progress can be made by reducing driving and offering incentives for people to purchase zero-emission vehicles or take public transportation.

"Seventy percent of our air pollution here is generated by mobile sources. That's your trucks on the road, that's railways, that's your cars," said Jennifer Finton, CEO of Breathe California Sacramento Region.

Magavern said California already has policies aimed at improving air quality but that additional measures are needed.

Sacramento's pollution levels are also impacted by something we can't change: our geography.

"We do live in a valley. That affects our air quality and it tends to stay here," Finton said. "We're in a bowl."

Sacramento is now complying with the 2008 federal air quality standards, but there are more stringent requirements still not being met.

Air advocates used this year's Clean Air Day to encourage more people to cut back on driving and help clear Sacramento's skies.

"We really need to improve our air quality so that everybody can enjoy the outdoors," Magavern said.

For comparison, a decade ago, Sacramento had 17 Spare the Air days, but last year, there were only two. So far this year, there's only been one.