The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America recently ranked the 100 largest U.S. metro areas in terms of which cities are
the most challenging places for allergy sufferers to live. The Washington-based nonprofit organization used 12 factors to
analyze the metropolises, including crude death rate from asthma, pollen counts, public smoke-free laws, air pollution, number
of people without health insurance, number of asthma specialists, and number of asthma medications used per patient.
The U.S. cities that ranked as the five worst asthma cities for 2008 are St. Louis, Missouri; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Birmingham,
Alabama; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Ranking as the five best places for asthma sufferers to live are Cape Coral, Florida; Seattle, Washington; Minneapolis,
Minnesota; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Portland, Oregon.
For a complete list of all 100 cities evaluated, visit
http://www.webmd.com/asthma/news/20090129/st-louis-challenge-for-asthma-sufferers/ . Source: Hendrick, B. (2009, January 29). St. Louis a challenge for asthma sufferers. WebMd. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www.webmd.com/asthma/news/20090129/st-louis-challenge-for-asthma-sufferers/
