The San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland (Bay Area) region had the fifth-highest annual particle pollution in the country from 2016 to 2018, according to a report released Tuesday by the American Lung Association.
The organization’s annual State of the Air report examines ozone and particulate pollution in cities and major metro areas across the country.
This year’s report found that the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland area has the country’s third-highest daily particle pollution and the eighth-highest ozone pollution.
No Bay Area city made the report’s list of the top-25 cleanest U.S. cities by yearly particle pollution. Salinas was the only city in the greater Bay Area and Monterey peninsula to make the list of cleanest cities, tied for 23rd with Appleton-Oshkosh-Neenah, Wisconsin, and Gainesville-Lake City, Florida.
“With nearly half of Americans — and almost all Californians — affected by unhealthy air, our ‘State of the Air’ report shows that because of increased heat and wildfires driven by climate change, we have to work harder at protecting public health — especially for our most vulnerable and highly polluted communities,” American Lung Association clean air advocacy director Will Barrett said.
California cities and metro regions occupied six spots on the list of the 10 cities with the most annual pollution, including each of the top five positions. Bakersfield topped the list, followed by Fresno-Madera-Hanford, Visalia, Los Angeles-Long Beach and San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland.
Nationally, the report found that about 150 million Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. That figure has increased each of the last four years, from about 141 million in the 2019 report, about 134 million in the 2018 report and 125 million in the 2017 report.
In addition, about 21 million people live in the 14 counties across the country that failed all three measures of air pollution.
“California has clear pathways to healthier air — we know transportation pollution is at the heart of our clean air challenges — we need a widespread transition to zero emission cars, trucks and buses and a shift in our travel choices toward more transit and pedestrian friendly communities that reduce traffic and harmful pollution,” Barrett said.
It is very easy to clean up Bay Area air. Prevent people from going to work, restaurants, visit friends, etc…Some people have wanted this all along.
but why aer lea blowers still allowed to blow their GAS pollution, dirt and particulates in the air?
wise up California, a lot of Cities have already.
They may be spreading the virus in the air too, not to mention deafening people.
What kind of car does Mr. Barret drive?
We do have a few refineries.
Yes, but they’ve been here longer than 3 years. The report focused on 2016 – 2019, and specifically identified transportation pollution as the key issue, with higher temperatures and wildfires making things worse.
And yes, Troll Boy, some of biologists with 35+ years of experience do want our wasteful lifestyle dialed back for the health of all. Too many humans sucking up too many resources = catastrophic population crash. This Covid-19 matter is minor compared to what could happen, so let the professionals tell you what needs to be done and stop your uninformed rants.
In this story, “Chevron USA Inc. agreed to pay $146,500 for 33 air quality violations from 2016 to 2018, according to the air district.”
http://claycord.com/2020/04/23/air-district-announces-146k-settlement-with-chevron-for-refinery-violations/
They have us where they want us right now. AOC and the rest of the socialist greenies are ecstatic about it.
Why wou8ld they be happy?
Let’s stay on house arrest forever.
I saw unicorns grazing in my yard now that the evil humans are inside all day.
🦄
How much of this is due to the smoke from wildfires…
Also, blowers and as mentioned above, refineries. What about the poisons used to prevent weeds. Plus nail and hair salons. Cleaning and crop fertilizers. Actually, overpopulation. Close the borders. Zero immigration.
We have a population of prisoners recently freed that need jobs to keep them too tired to commit crimes. Their debt to society can be paid through service…rather than self serving.
I was reading with interest until I read the words, “driven by climate change,” then I lost interest. Maybe the fires are due to climate change, and maybe they are not. Nobody, not even the worlds top scientists know this for a fact, it’s all based on theory. This is why science is always changing when new observations come into play, and why all scientists will never reach the same conclusion, but the American Lung Association and the media will report it as fact.
The fires are not due to climate change, but rather deferred maintenance by our power company.
WC- Don’t put all of the blame on utilities. The state and federal government have known for over 40 years that they had a fuel problem in their parks and forests. They didn’t do the work because they spent the money on ‘other things’. And they prevented private individuals and logging companies from doing the work. As with others, I call BS on climate change.
BTW- Glaciers are an artifact from the last ice age. Liberal heads may now explode.
Wildfires added to the total on this if we didn’t have the fires it would have read different.
well this statement SOUNDS good :
we need a widespread transition to zero emission cars, trucks and buses and a shift in our travel choices toward more transit and pedestrian friendly communities that reduce traffic and harmful pollution,” Barrett said.
and yet if the MTC keeps stealing the measure Q and gas tax money to buy buildings and support bart and busses and others mismanaged funds …just how is that going to happen
these entities all do what they want and give huge bonuses and pay outrageous union wages ….yet fail to manage their entity to survive a down turn of more than 3 weeks
yet on the flip side …we as the lowly workers are brow beat as to why we need assistance with our struggling small business or lack of employment
why is it these union run public agencies can just suck up tax money on a regular basis and pay huge bonuses bi yearly
or have the MTC just take money from where ever and use it how ever with out regard for the future needs
while we are given pittance and have to grovel and suffer
as they get richer and or demand tax money to bail them out of their mismanaged hole ….I mean do these places even have an accountant or treasurer …..anyone saying hey we need to have funds incase of a scenario that dictates a lull in income as a public service living off of the taxpayers teet…..then demand more money to bail out mismanaged services …..
the abuse of tax money is showing more than ever …..
if we don’t act it will get even worse
as we all know when you get away with something you tend to do it more and more and escalate it as well
these unions are acting a serial tax rapists ….that when caught ….cry for even more money
what makes you think they wont demand even more after this crisis and abuse tax money even more
its disgusting that America is beholding to the unions ….they are not protecting their workers …they are feeding off of them then taking their tax money and then when they mismanaged it they steal more
this is the voters fault who allow politicians to be bought by unions and slap us around like indentured servants ….and when they blow it ….they take from our coffers to increase their accounts
ahhhh socialism is working out great …..for us taking your money repeatedly and then hah taking your retirement when we need a bail out
you’ve been informed ….lets see how you react
Blah blah blah “use public transportation” wah wah wah.
The fact so few of us use public transportation here allowed us to maintain social distancing early on and may be one of the reasons why California is apparently not as affected by the Wuhan Flu.
That may be very true. I was reading about New York’s subway and when they cut down the number of trains they were running more people were packed into other trains. This helped spread the virus.