Florida Ranked #1 Natural Environment in the Nation
Posted by Lacey Hagler on Friday, October 26th, 2018 at 9:53am.
According to U.S. News, Florida residents can breathe easy knowing they live in the state with the best natural environment in the nation, placing number one overall for drinking water quality, urban air quality, and low pollution health risk.
The World Health Organization states that air pollution is a major environmental health risk, and by living in areas with high air quality, people can reduce the burden of disease from stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic and acute respiratory diseases, and even dementia.
While the sunshine state may be best known for gorgeous beaches, oranges, and Hawaiian-shirted retirees, Florida also leads the country with lowest air and water pollutants. With the sea breeze sweeping over mostly flat terrain in a state that has never been very industrial to begin with, small gasses like car exhaust and energy emissions don’t tend to linger. To top it off, Florida’s economy relies heavily on tourism, agriculture, and international trade- all relatively light in pollution.
Natural preserves, protected lands, and golf courses all take up a majority of the state, and cater to the relaxed, healthy lifestyle tourists travel from all over the world to experience. Florida residents are the lucky ones who get to live the dream every single day.
Florida also ranked in the top ten for states with most residents in near perfect physical health, and more than 75% of Florida residents say they like what they do every day and most have strong social relationships, according to a USA Today study.