Hamilton County ranked in the top-25 healthiest counties in Tennessee in a new national survey but also was listed among the five worst counties in the state for environmental factors such as air pollution.
But local officials said the dirty-air numbers were based on statistics that most counties don’t track. That puts those that do – like Hamilton County – at a disadvantage, said Bob Colby, director for the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau.
“The fact of the matter is, most of the 95 counties in Tennessee don’t have any ozone monitors or any particulate monitors,” Colby said Wednesday. “For the last six years, we’ve been able to say our air quality is better than it’s ever been.”
The healthiest county in Tennessee was Williamson County near Nashville and the least healthy was Benton County in western Tennessee, according to health outcomes rankings compiled by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. This is the second year the rankings have been released.
Tennessee Health Commissioner Susan Cooper said the rankings are a “handy tool to get a snapshot of where you are.”