Metro Atlanta ranks high on two national lists for unhealthy air.

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In the American Lung Association's State of the Air report, released today, this region was 6th on the list for highest levels of year-round soot, and 12th for ground-level ozone, a colorless gas formed when heat mixes with pollution from vehicles, power plants and factories.

Both air toxins are ingredients in the smog that often blankets the city on hot summer days.

The ALA releases the annual report based on the most recent data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This year's report is based on pollution monitored in 2004, 2005 and 2006. According to the report, two in five Americans live in counties that have unhealthy levels of either ozone or particle pollution at least part of the year. Metro Atlanta has both.

"The very young and old, those with asthma, lung and heart diseases are at the greatest risk," Dr. Gerald Staton, an Atlanta pulmonologist at Emory School of Medicine and an ALA board member in the Southeast, said in a statement.

"Ozone pollution is a respiratory irritant — like sunburn on the lungs... and fine particle pollution is a danger because it can travel down to the most delicate part of the lungs, the tiny air sacks, and even pass into the blood stream.

"My patients with lung disease always have more trouble during the bad air days in the summer."

Relative to other metro regions in the country, metro Atlanta's air quality worsened since ALA's report last year when it ranked 13th for year-round soot pollution and 25th for ozone.

The worst metro regions for year-round particle pollution, or soot, are:

1 — Los Angeles

2 — Pittsburgh

3 — Bakersfield, Calif.

4 — Birmingham

5 — Visalia-Porterville, Calif.

6 — Atlanta

7 — Cincinnati

8 — Fresno, Calif.

9 — Hanford-Corcoran, Calif.

10 — Detroit

The worst metro regions for ozone pollution are:

1 — Los Angeles

2 — Bakersfield, Calif.

3 — Visalia-Porterville, Calif.

4 — Houston

5 — Fresno, Calif.

6 — Sacremento, Calif.

7 — Dallas

8 — New York

9 — Washington D.C.

10 — Baton Rouge

11 — Philadelphia

12 — Charlotte, NC

12 (tie) — San Diego, Calif.

12 (tie) — Atlanta

15 — St. Louis

15 (tie) — Beaumont, Texas

To read the report: www.lungusa.org