California metropolitan areas like the Bay Area, Los Angeles and Bakersfield continue to persevere as some of the nation’s most air polluted cities, according to a new report from the American Lung Association.
Nine out of 10 Californians live in an area affected by harmful air pollutants, according to Wednesday’s 2023 State of the Air report.
Bakersfield and Visalia tied for first place as the city with the most year-round particle pollution, and Los Angeles dominated as the city with the worst ozone pollution, also known as smog, as it has for nearly 24 years.
The 24th annual air report utilized the most recent air pollution data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with a focus on ozone and particulate matter. Researchers assigned grades to counties and cities across the country based on daily and long-term levels of air pollution.
In years prior, the report’s findings have reflected the success of the federal Clean Air Act, noting significant pollution reductions in the industrial and transportation sectors.
But recent years have revealed new obstacles in preserving clean air as climate change-induced natural disasters intensify — specifically, disproportionately higher particle pollution in Western states due to wildfires.
Wednesday’s report cites wildfires contributing to an increase in the number of places and days that face unhealthy levels of particle pollution.
Between the years of 2019 to 2021, nearly 32 million people across 10 states endured days where Air Quality Index levels of particulate matter were 106 parts per billion or higher, which are levels that increase the health risks of everyone, regardless of pre-existing conditions, according to the report. Researchers note that this is a “worrisome sign of a trend” that is likely to continue if wildfire conditions worsen.
Mariela Ruacho, clean air advocacy manager for the American Lung Association in California, called on California officials to move quickly with wildfire prevention efforts and investments into clean transportation.
“We need zero-emission technologies across the board,” Ruacho said. “We also need to build a healthier transportation system.”
Overall, air quality has improved across the nation: 17.6 million fewer people live in unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution levels than last year’s report.
But unhealthy air disproportionately burdens communities of color — nationwide, 72 percent of residents living in counties with failing air pollution grades are people of color.
Dr. Sonal Patel, an allergy and immunology specialist in Southern California, said breathing in air pollution is linked to respiratory and cardiovascular damage, and it poses a significant threat to people with asthma.
“I know when I see those hazy smog days that my phone is going to start ringing in the office because my patients with asthma are going to start having trouble, through no fault of their own,” Patel said. “They cannot avoid the unhealthy air, I have seen these effects firsthand.”
The time is now to make investments that will clean up the air, Katherine Pruitt, the American Lung Association’s national senior director of policy, said at a press conference Tuesday.
“The American Lung Association is calling on the Biden administration to urgently move forward on several measures to clean up air pollution nationwide, including limits on ozone and particle pollution and new measures in California,” Pruitt said.
California Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gomez Reyes, D-Colton, also in attendance at Tuesday’s press conference, introduced legislation that would impose more air quality measures on warehouse centers and truck transportation. Reyes represents San Bernardino, the county ranked with the worst ozone pollution in the nation.
“There are so many residents facing this overall burden, especially from local pollution from the hundreds of thousands of diesel trucks rolling through our communities,” Gomez Reyes said. “Trucks are passing to black and brown communities and immigrants in lower income neighborhoods, making life unhealthy.”
“The pollution facing my most vulnerable communities is not terribly different from the pollution facing so many Californians. We must clean up all local sources of pollution to bring our regional burdens down,” she added.
30 comments
Why do I get the feeling this “press conference” will be cited as proof additional “restrictions” are “needed” to ensure health “of the children”, the favorite DEM catch phrase.
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Still wonder why there are so many monitoring stations measuring 2.5 particulate are located next to freeways which generate rubber and brake pad 2.5 dust. But I’m positive there isn’t an intentional attempt to skew data, they wouldn’t do that.
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Any wild guesses as to what DEMs will come up with next to limit what you can do.
..well said OG
Next they’ll claim prisons are gross polluters and must all be closed immediately. It’s the only way to save the planet, and democracy etc. etc. etc.
They purposefully import black and brown people to exploit their cheap labor and then blame the diesel trucks necessary to transport the results of said labor. If these guys where any more full of B.S. it would flowing from their systemically racist ears.
Huh… I was told that was smug. Not smog.
I think much of it blows over from China
This is true. Up to 29% of our air pollution does float over from China. So no matter how clean we get we will always have pollution from them. And they are building hundreds of coal-fueled power plants in the next 2 years!
As to wildfires,
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‘ ‘‘I Own This’: Gov. Newsom On California’s Wildfire Emergency, PG&E Power Shutoffs And More’
https://tinyurl.com/yz9fk9st
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“California’s worst fire season on record could have been averted”
https://tinyurl.com/3mzbwf62
https://tinyurl.com/9txb6763
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“Record-breaking wildfires released twice the amount of emissions that California cut between 2003 and 2019, though unlike fossil-fuel emissions, they can eventually be reabsorbed by vegetation”
Scientific American https://tinyurl.com/wwvspcn6
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This summer’s fire season because of all the rain encouraging abundant wildlands’s brush growth could be worse that last five fire seasons when brush dries out.
But never fear, wild land fires will be blamed on climate change.
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Yeah, the American Lung Association isn’t biased nor do they have an ulterior motive… the report is their justification for more regulations. It’s a “crisis”, right? Riiiiiight.
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How do the air quality readings in these CA cities compare to Beijing, Mumbai, Mexico City, and Manila?
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And if 9 out of 10 live in an allegedly impacted area, maybe they should move out of the state.
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Does the ALA have credible scientific data to back it up? How are goods to be transported in to this state and at what cost? Screwed again.
We are not ready for electrical powered trucking, as our entire system will need an
a major upgrade. Perhaps nat gas trucking will help as the particulate count would
decrease. It won’t help CO2 emissions, however.
This whole state is a big polluted cesspool.
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… and of course the stats include a racist slat citing “people of color”.
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Asians shouldnt be lumped into that “group”. Asians are the liberals’ inconvenient minority, having studied and worked hard to climb the socio-economic ladder. They are, by in large, successful and don’t abide by victimhood mentality.
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Yet no one questions the spray planes over our heads every day. You either see it or you don’t. If anyone wants to have a conversation about pollution and climate change, perhaps we should give Xi Jinping a call and ask about all the coal fueled plants being built. Why are they not held accountable? It’s all ganda.
@TPC…..Spray planes????….Oh, the ones with the chemtrails…..why of course, and the world is flat.
Wow the state with the highest population has the most pollution. some phd must of figured that out. Now there forcing cities to build more housing.
Ahhh, setting the stage for the next mandate. Maybe forbid any charcoal grilling, no more vacuuming, because that kicks up dust, no camping in the mountains, or the desert because that also kicks up dust. No drinking carbonated beverages, because burps are causing holes in the ozone layer. Don’t argue with them, because it is science, and you cannot argue with science.
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Liberal Climate Hysteria 101:
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All cattle in CA will be required to wear butt filters to address their methane-containing flatulence.
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For San Bernardino the pollution mentioned is a self-inflicted wound. The city government actively encouraged a massive warehouse building boom to generate new but low paying jobs, and now Amazon for example has like 19 different facilities which generate huge amounts of pollution from the large number of trucks, including those just sitting there idling and waiting. San Bernardino as a city has a history of not looking at the consequences of their decisions. They just came out of bankruptcy last year.
And how did we go from pollution to discussing our brown and black communities …
STAY IN YOUR LANE!
Talk about the pollution, the numbers and all of that, fine. But when you start bringing race into everything, you lose all credibility in my mind. There are too many people in todays WOKE world that think bringing race into their conversation will get them heard … for me, it gets them ignored.
I agree…..Bringing race into just about every conversation has rendered the topic almost meaningless. When you are talking about pollution yet still try and make it race related many people will completely tune out and rightfully so.
A considerable amount of air pollution is from the stolen vehicles driven by the state’s democrats/criminals/liberals while they/them/scum are driving around doing crimes.
BAAQMD should declare no burning rubber nights and be at every sideshow citing participants as gross polluters.
The brothers call them sideshows. Newsom privately refers to them as ballot harvesting events.
Probably most of the pollution comes from local government agencies blowing a lot of hot air. 🤣
Even after Nazi air pollution laws, smog checks and the BAAQMD and their hijinks? The special gas we have to pay for to keep pollution down supposedly? All Democrat lies to extort more money out of us.
With out CO2 we all die no plants no animals no no humans do some research PLEASE
Thank you for being a voice of reason. Humans and plants have a symbiotic relationship which keeps us all alive. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. In essence, what we exhale, the plants and trees breathe, and they in return give us the breath of human life, O2. This is basic science. Those who do not understand it are being manipulated into protesting against their very existence.
This is a very strange argument. Nobody wants to eliminate CO2 completely. The problem is that there is way more CO2 (and other pollutants) in the air than there used to be. Meanwhile, forests that generate O2 are getting cut down, burned down, or dying out due to human activity faster than they’re regrowing. That’s very clear science.
Where do you get your Info? CO2 is not a Pollutant! it’s plant food! it promotes the greening of the planet. Read up on the worlds acknowledged expert on CO2, Dr. Charles Happer, It’s amazing the BS that is getting pedaled to bring a Sodalist/Communist NWO. Protect Individual Rights or we will have no rights at all.
Some people can’t see what’s going on in the sky’s above them.
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