The 3 Best Places in Florida for Air Quality
Who Should Take Clean Air Into Consideration When Choosing a Place to Live or Retire in Florida?
Everyone. Why? Because you’ll learn below how air pollution such as ozone can cause serious diseases and defects in children and adults alike and lead to premature death.
So even if you’re entirely healthy now, it may be wise to chose a city or town with the best air quality possible, so you can stay that way. If your family history includes lung ailments or diseases, or if you or someone in your family already suffers from one, choosing a town with the best air is may be a priority.
Florida Towns with the Healthiest Air
If you were to look at all of the fossil fuel burning power plants in Florida and the congested interstates up and down the east and west coasts of Florida and around Orlando, you might wonder how the state could possibly have any place with clean air readings. Well, It has to do with some unique features of the state of Florida.
First of all, when viewed from space, you’ll notice most of Florida is a long thin piece of land surrounded on 3 sides by large bodies of water. In the part of Florida where the cities with the cleanest air are located, half of the state is flat as a pancake. There are no mountains, hills or valleys to hold pollutants in any area for any length of time. The general air flow most of the time is from west to east in the areas named as having the best air. All of our the highest quality air cities are on the west coast of Florida and generally have clean air coming off the Gulf and then moving any pollution in the area, inland.
Salt and Lung Conditions
Legend has it that miners who worked in salt mines rarely suffered any kind of lung problems, even if they were smokers, as many miners years ago were. Millions of people in other parts of the world swear that spending time in salt caves improves their breathing and eases their asthma. Today, they are business that make salt caves and “salt rooms” available for people who pay to sit in these places to breath in the salty air for relief from their lung issues.
I have also seen reports from people who say they have experienced easier breathing while at a saltwater beach. I did not find any published study that has proved or disproved the effectiveness of breathing air that has blown in off of saltwater, but all of the towns on this best air quality list do have that benefit (if it is in fact one) in addition to have the cleanest air that was measured by monitoring over many years.
Specific Air Quality Rankings of Florida’s Best Places to Live for Clean Air
There are two main types of air pollution that damage the lungs of Americans
- Ozone: This is the most deadly and widespread type of air pollution. Worse yet, it’s invisible and you may have no idea that you’re breathing this lung-searing pollutant. Ozone is what results when the sun’s rays heat-up particle pollution that was put into the air from sources such as car exhaust and fossil fuel burning power plants. According to the American Lung Association, ozone can cause damage to lung tissue even in healthy individuals that don’t have asthma or any other type of lung disease. Ozone may cause cancer, asthma attacks, developmental damage in children, reproductive damage, cardiovascular damage and lung tissue swelling and more.
- Particle Pollution: If you’ve ever seen dirty exhaust coming out of a car, truck or smokestack, you’ve seen particle pollution. That pollution can lead to death in the form of asthma attacks that choke off a person’s ability to breath. It can also cause lung cancer, the #1 cancer killer in the US which kills almost all of it’s victims in less than 5 years after a diagnosis. Particle air pollution also raises the risk of heart disease, the #1 killer disease in America today.
Additional Requirements to Make Our Cities with the Best Air Quality in Florida List
In order to qualify for our towns with the cleanest air list, all towns must also meet all of our other stringent requirements on quality of life factors. So yes, in addition to the best air, they must also have…
- Property and violent crime rates lower than the national average.
- Higher ranked schools overall than what you’ll find in most of Florida. I feel this can help to maintaining those lower crime rates and whether you own or rent, you’re directly or indirectly paying for those schools.
- Better employment prospects than most other cities in Florida, which again can help places remain safe places to live.
- More restaurants, pubs, parks, shops, etc. per capita than the average for Florida and meet all of our other criteria too.
You may find lists of places in Florida that have the best air quality in the state, but they did not qualify for this article because they had other quality of life factors that were too low.
To qualify for our best places to live in Florida for cleaner air, cities must have better air quality, as well as other quality of life factors that are higher than what you’ll find in most of Florida. These towns had no problem doing that. In fact, they have all previously made other best places lists on this website such as the best places for golfers, or to raise a family or best beach town in Florida. So here they are…
The 3 Best Towns to Live or Retire in Florida for the Cleanest Air and a High Quality of Life
In no special order…
1) Cape Coral Florida
According to the latest State of the Air Report from the American Lung Association (as of this writing update), Cape Coral Florida had the following ratings:
Ozone – B
Particle Pollution 24-hour – B
Particle Pollution Annual – Pass
See a Cape Coral Florida Video
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2)Bonita Springs Florida
According to the latest State of the Air Report from the American Lung Association (as of this writing update), Bonita Springs Florida had the following ratings:
Ozone – B
Particle Pollution 24-hour – B
Particle Pollution Annual – Pass
See a Bonita Springs Florida Video
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3) Naples Florida
According to the latest State of the Air Report from the American Lung Association (as of this writing update), Naples Florida had the following ratings:
Ozone – A
Particle Pollution – DNC (No monitor for this pollutant exists in this area)
Particle Pollution Annual – DNC (No monitor for this pollutant exists in this area)
See a Naples Florida Video
Please Note: Research for this post came from various sources including information from the National Lung Association.
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Ron Stack “That Best Places Guy”
- Want to be certain if moving to Florida is right for you or your family? You’ll know after reading the Florida Move Guide.
