New York City’s air quality is among the worst in the country, according to the American Lung Association’s annual list of the most polluted cities in America.

The New York metropolitan area ranked eighth on a list of 10 cities most polluted by ozone between 2004 and 2006, according to the association. Los Angeles topped the “State of the Air” list.

“The levels we’re experiencing in New York — and other parts of the country — really do put people at risk” for heart disease and lung cancer, the American Lung Association’s assistant vice president of national policy and advocacy, Janice Nolen, said. Despite modest improvements in New York’s pollution levels in recent years, the air quality is “dangerous,” she said. “The metropolitan area is still among the most ozone-polluted in the country,” she said.

In the metropolitan area, the average number of high ozone days was 12.2 a year, compared to 12.7 in the previous report. Statewide, seven out of 33 counties earned “failing” grades, based on an analysis of air quality. “These grades illustrate that too many New Yorkers — almost half our state’s residents — are exposed to unhealthful air,” the president and CEO of the American Lung Association of New York State, Deborah Carioto, said in a statement.

The findings come on the heels of an announcement earlier this week that the New York Power Authority awarded a 20-year contract to Astoria Energy to build a new power plant in Queens. The new plant would replace the Charles Poletti Power Project, which is scheduled to close in 2010. On Tuesday, City Council Member Peter Vallone Jr. called on the state to investigate the awarding of the contract, arguing that the new plant would create a health hazard to children in Queens.