“It blows in here and it has nowhere else to go.”Ĭity leaders have also been disgruntled about the location of a smog-monitoring station in their city.
“It’s not our smog,” said Glendora Mayor Pro Tem Larry Glenn. But city officials are quick to point out that they are bearing the brunt of a regionwide problem. Glendora has recorded the most smog alerts in the South Coast Air Basin, and thus the nation, every year since 1982. In the San Gabriel Valley, there is a feeling of impotence in fighting the pollution that blows in from the west and settles against the foothills. “We have absorbed more people and more automobiles and we have managed to not let the air pollution situation get worse.” “I think essentially what we have accomplished is to stay in the same place over the last decade,” Kilburn said. And their lung capacity did not increase as much between the second and fifth grades as the Houston children’s, said Kaye Kilburn, the USC professor of medicine who directed the study.Īnother USC study showed notable lung abnormalities in 80% of 100 youths who died in homicides or accidents. The findings support research at USC, which showed that second-graders in the Los Angeles Unified School District had 10% to 15% less lung capacity than a comparable group of children in Houston. And after 25 years of age they had a greater decline in lung function.” “But in the polluted areas kids did not have as large an increase as in the control area. “Young people tend to have an increase in lung function until the age of about 25,” Detels said. The researchers compared residents of Glendora and Long Beach with Lancaster, a control area with relatively cleaner air. “But we should continue to be concerned about levels of air pollution.”ĭetels and a UCLA research group will soon publish the latest chapter in a study that has documented the decreased lung function of people who live in polluted areas.
“Certainly it’s good news that we have had fewer alerts and lower levels of pollution,” said Roger Detels, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA’s School of Public Health. There were still 180 days this year when ozone levels at least one reporting station in the Los Angeles area exceeded the state’s more stringent clean air standard of 0.09 parts per million of ozone, the AQMD reported. Researchers added that although they are encouraged by the lower ozone levels, residents’ health is still suffering because of air pollution. Researchers have estimated that this year, an average of four smog-alert days were eliminated at each smog station by pollution controls, and the rest by helpful weather, Cassmassi said.Įxperts say the elements will not always be so accommodating.
Weighing the impact of weather against emission controls is difficult, he said.
“Most of the days of improvement are based on weather conditions,” Cassmassi said. High pressure holds the pollution close to the ground and prevents it from blowing away.īut more low-pressure systems penetrated the Los Angeles Basin in the last year, cleaning the air, said Joe Cassmassi, AQMD senior meteorologist. Ozone forms in the air when hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides emitted by cars and industry are exposed to sunlight. In this year’s improvement, favorable weather conditions also played an important part, they said. “There’s really been a dramatic improvement.” “When you compare it with the past, it’s like night and day,” said Joe Cassmassi, senior meteorologist with the AQMD. The book shows 43 such alerts in 1986, compared to nine in 1989 and just two this year.ĪQMD officials say the air has improved substantially over the last decade, in large part because of greater controls on car exhausts and industrial emissions. The improvement can also be seen on the pages of the Glendora Unified School District’s “Smog Book.” The district has an ozone meter and logs days on which schools are notified to curtail students’ exercise. “I used to go out and say, ‘Where are the mountains?’ ”
“There is no question I go out from my house more days and say, ‘Aren’t the mountains beautiful!’ ” Glendora Mayor Bob Kuhn said. And by this measure, as well, many have seen improvement. In the San Gabriel Valley itself, most people judge the smog by looking toward the San Gabriel Mountains. During the 1990 smog season-for the fourth year in a row-no second-stage alerts were declared in the San Gabriel Valley.ĪQMD officials called the improvements “mind-boggling” and “dramatic.”