We're breathing some of the nation's worst air

Hack, hack. Cough, cough.

The air quality in the Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland region went from being the 20th worst in the nation to the 12th, according to an annual report released today by the American Lung Association.

Grading counties on various facets of air quality, the association gave Philadelphia County an "F" for the number of days with high levels of ozone, or smog. It got another "F" for the amount of short-term particle pollution, or soot.

Both exacerbate chronic lung diseases and can lead to other health problems.

Elsewhere in the area, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties received a "C" for their overall air quality because of high levels of ongoing — as opposed to short-term — particle pollution.  Camden County scored an "F" for smog and soot.

"We need greater clean-up of power plants and federal funding to install equipment to clean up the 20 million dirty diesel vehicles currently on the road polluting U.S. cities like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg every day," said Deborah Brown, acting CEO of the Association's Mid-Atlantic region.

Visit www.lungusa.org to search local air quality grades by zip code.