Fairest air in all the land?

In terms of air quality, the Bay Area puts Southern California to shame, a new report finds.

Data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that, based on the number of days per year in which smog, soot and other ozone pollution exceeds federal standards, the Bay Area’s nine counties are well below the state average, but Los Angeles and surrounding counties are the state’s worst for air quality, according to SFGate.com.

The average county in California experienced 15 days exceeding federal ozone standards in 2010, while the report found that Marin, San Francisco and Solano counties had no above-standard days. San Bernardino County, on the other hand, was the worst in the state by that measurement, exceeding ozone standards on 103 days.

Forty percent of the state’s population resides in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Kern and Riverside counties, where high barometric pressure keeps pollution close to ground-level.