L.A. Ranked Third Smoggiest City in America
A new report released Wednesday ranks Los Angeles as the third most smoggy city in America. With 69 "smog days" in 2010, Los Angeles tied with Bakersfield in a study conducted by advocacy group Environment California.
The Riverside-San Bernardino metro area took home first place for smoggiest city in America, with unhealthy air recorded one out of three days last year. The Visalia-Tulare-Porterville metro area ranked second, with with 78 "smog days" last year.
"Danger in the Air: Unhealthy Air Days in 2010 and 2011" was released as a push to reform outdated standards used by the Environmental Protection Agency to measure smog.
The report defines "smog days" as days during which at least one air-quality monitor detected ozone levels beyond the national standard. Los Angeles had three "red-alert" days when people could experience respiratory problems as a reaction to the air.
The Environment Protection Agency worked to toughen ozone standards after realizing they were outdated, but efforts were hindered after President Obama backtracked this month on previous calls for tighter regulations. The new regulations formulated by the EPA could save 12,000 lives, but cost $90 billion, and therefore were dismissed by President Obama.
If the proposed regulations had been passed, ozone standards would have been tightened to a range of 60-70 parts per billion in comparison from the 75 parts per billion back in 2008. Los Angeles was expected to have seen an additional 32 smog days last year.
"The public isn't aware of how bad the problem is, because the EPA standars are outdated," said Environment California spokesman Sean Carroll.
Studies showed that in order to protect public health, EPA must set an ozone standard within the range of 60-70 parts per billion average over eight hours.
With over 700,000 people suffering from asthma, 165,000 of them children, Los Angeles suffers from the threats of smog and major efforts must be taken to improve current conditions.
