The region comprising three cities with the worst climate is in South Los Angeles, Maywood, Compton and Paramount, and is the metropolitan area with the worst air quality in the entire country.
The deterioration of the air in that area is surpassed only by Bakersfield, the area with the worst air you could breathe, according to a study by several institutions, including the University of Washington.

What's wrong with Bakersfield, the study says, is that it has an "unfortunate location" and geographic characteristics.

Bakersfield traps industrial pollution, agricultural pollutants, dust, smog from countless trucks, vehicles, and trains, and even from oil drilling, and it hardly ventilates.

But the trio of cities, primarily in South Los Angeles, has a high concentration of freeways, warehouses, train stations, and some industry; it's the metropolitan area with the worst air to breathe.

Both regions, Bakersfield and South Los Angeles, have consistently exceeded the pollution limits established by the federal Clean Air Act over the past 25 years.

The study, titled "Disparities in Air Pollution Exposure in the United States by Race/Ethnicity and Income," confirms that those who are poorer and in areas with a lower white population suffer the worst air pollution.

In Maywood, 97.4 percent of the population is Latino, immigrant, and even undocumented, living within a high concentration of freeways within a perimeter of less than two square miles; Paramount is 83 percent Latino, and in Compton, seven out of ten residents are also Latino.

The Institute for Local Government states that "the city of Maywood is the most densely populated in the state and has one of the highest proportions of Latinos, immigrants, and undocumented immigrants in the county." One in four Maywood residents lives in poverty.

The study says that in these cities, the impact of air pollution is greater, for example, from so-called fine particles, which are found in cement and diesel pollution, and which, because they are so extremely fine, pass from the lungs into the bloodstream, and from there can reach the brain.

The impact of fine particulate matter, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is premature death, especially in people with heart or respiratory conditions; it can cause heart attacks, arrhythmia, worsen asthma, decrease lung capacity, and increase symptoms such as irritation, coughing, and shortness of breath.

Fine particulate matter is also associated with miscarriages, increased fragility in the face of COVID-19, kidney disease, and blood infections.

The American Lung Association agrees with the same regions mentioned in the study regarding air pollution, except for broader regions. It says Los Angeles, along with Long Beach, has the worst air pollution from ozone (smog), and Bakersfield is in second place.

Both the new study and the American Lung Association agree that California has the most polluted air in the country.