The air pollution in California is getting very bad. Smog is a way of life. In Los Angeles, 1,300 people per year die of air pollution. The city is not as smoggy as it was in the 1980s, but it is still some of the most polluted air in the country.
This number of deaths is triple that of the deaths in New York.
The study’s author, Dr. Anthony Cardillo, from Glendale Adventist Medical Center, said:
“We see that the annual number of excess deaths is quantitatively very similar to the number of deaths from alcohol-related traffic fatalities.”
He is an emergency room doctor and he’s been seeing more patients with pollution-related ailments. He said:
“If we had tighter restrictions and better control over our air quality, we would see a drop, or decline in these acute crises that people have with these underlying chronic conditions.”
A study found that cleaner air could prevent 3,632 deaths per year in California. This is one-third of the 9,320 early deaths in the country. The state could really benefit from tighter restrictions on air pollution.
A study by the American Thoracic Society says that we should lower the ozone pollution from 70 parts per billion to 60 parts per billion. Everyone is at risk for pollution related complications, but some groups are further threatened by it. The elderly, children, and people with respiratory diseases are more likely to get sickened by polluted air.
There are three main factors that caused the air pollution in California:
- Large amounts of air pollution are generated by the activities of 33 million people.
- Terrain or topography traps pollution.
- A warm, sunny climate helps form ozone and other air pollutants.
The main sources of air pollution are:
- Gasoline and diesel-powered motor vehicles such as cars, trucks, trains and boats.
- Factories.
- Power plants.
- Fireplaces.
You can use this website to find out the air pollution levels in your city.
Here is a Los Angeles Times report on the subject:
