The American Lung Association’s (ALA) State of the Air 2016 report released this week found continued progress in cleaner air, with the Los Angeles metro area achieving its best ever air quality. Although the region remains on the top of the list for ozone pollution, it saw its fewest unhealthy ozone days since the release of the first State of the Air report.
The region also had the best ever year-round particle levels and fell to 9th place behind the Bay Area for daily particle pollution.
“The State of the Air 2016 report shows us that our clean-air laws are working but we must increase our efforts to cut pollution that puts lives in our community at risk,” said Olivia J. (Gertz) Diaz-Lapham, president and CEO of the American Lung Association in California.“Pollution from petroleum fuels and other sources is harming our residents, contributing to the incidence of asthma and other chronic lung conditions. Air pollution costs our communities in healthcare spending, lost productivity, reduced quality and length of life.”
Covering air pollution data collected in 2012 to 2014, the report measures the two most widespread pollutants— ozone and particle pollution— which are dangerous to public health and can be deadly.
The Los Angeles metropolitan region includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. Across the region, unhealthy particle pollution levels have dropped by a whopping 90 percent and ozone days have fallen 34 percent since reporting began.
Specifically, of the top 10 cities in the United States with the worst air pollution, California municipalities rank as follows:
Ozone pollution
No. 1 Long Beach-Riverside
No. 2 Bakersfield
No. 3 Visalia-Porterville-Hanford
No. 4 Fresno-Madera
No. 6 Sacramento-Roseville
No. 7 Modesto-Merced
Short-term particle pollution
No. 1 Bakersfield
No. 2 Fresno-Madera
No. 3 Visalia-Porterville-Hanford
No. 4 Modesto-Merced
No. 8 San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland-Stockton
No. 9 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside
Annual particle pollution
No. 1 Bakersfield
No. 2 Visalia-Porterville-Hanford
No. 3 Fresno-Madera
No. 4 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside
No. 5 El Centro
No. 6 Modesto-Merced
No. 6 San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland-Stockton
In spite of the improvements, the report reflects the region’s ongoing pollution challenges caused by emissions from transportation sources, ports and goods movement, oil refineries, and residential wood burning.
For instance, Los Angeles residents continue to breathe unhealthy ozone days more than three months out of the year. While all communities are at risk due to unhealthy air, many residents face higher risks due to their proximity to freeways, rail yards, freight corridors and other local pollution sources.
Climate change is a growing threat to air quality in California. Drought weather conditions and wildfires related to climate change are contributing to elevated levels of particle pollution in some areas of the state.
Key sources of soot include wood-burning devices, transportation sources such as diesel engines in trucks, buses and freight, and smoke from wildfires. These soot particles are so small that they can lodge deep in the lungs and trigger asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes, and they can even be lethal.
In the Los Angeles metropolitan region, nearly 1.5 million residents have asthma, including 390,000 children.
State of the Air 2016 utilizes the new, more health-protective, federal standard for ozone (smog) levels— 70 parts per billion— in the measurement of unhealthy smog and soot.
“Southern California has a history of serious pollution problems, but we are making progress in cleaning up the air,” said Afif El-Hasan, MD, volunteer physician on the American Lung Association in California governing board. “We know that climate change is contributing to increased levels of ozone and particle pollution and will make it harder to meet federal health-based standards. Our most vulnerable citizens, children, seniors and those with lung disease such as lung cancer, asthma, chronic bronchitis, or emphysema, suffer the greatest. We must redouble our efforts to transition off of fossil fuels for transportation and energy generation by investing in zero emissions solutions.”
To address the challenge of air pollution and climate change, the ALA in California and major health and medical organizations are urging the public and policy leaders to strongly support the federal Clean Air Act and the federal Clean Power Plan, as well as California’s strong clean energy and clean-air policies. This year the lung association is also calling for support of Senate Bill 1383 (Lara) to set clear targets for reducing “super pollutants” like black carbon from diesel exhaust and wood burning that threaten public health locally and are accelerating climate change.
For more information on the State of the Air 2016 report, visit stateoftheair.org/california2016 .
