Exhaust dominates dirty air

There was a time when it was a rarity to see towering Mt. Wilson rise above the Los Angeles skyline.

During the summer,  news reports routinely warned people with asthma, heart conditions and respiratory problems to avoid stepping outdoors.

But as we enter a new century, the air -- infamous as the countryâs worst -- is the cleanest it's been in a generation. In fact, Houston surpassed Los Angeles in 1999 as the nationâs dirtiest city.
 

Kris Gainey/Daily Forty-Niner Diesel exhaust as well as emissions from industrial plants such as this contribute to local air quality.

Nevertheless, experts say, more people -- especially children -- are contracting asthma and other respiratory problems, despite the major improvement in Southland air quality.

The air in the industrial areas in west and downtown Long Beach, Carson and Compton, are the most polluted, according to a recent South Coast Air Quality Management District report.

Contaminating the air are petroleum coke dust and especially exhaust from the heavy traffic surrounding the port, the report found.

"Although air pollution generally has decreased over the past decade or so, ultra-fine particulate pollution may actually have increased," said Dr. Gina Solomon, a physician and specialist in public health and spokeswoman for the National Resources Defense Council.  "These are the tiny particles that are not visible to the naked eye as smoke or soot, but that can penetrate deep into the lungs."

While Solomon acknowledges air pollution has not been scientifically proven to cause asthma, the effects of smog on an already asthmatic person are well known.

"It certainly can trigger an attack," Solomon said.

Solomon's organization goes so far as to say that every year nearly 6,000 people in the Los Angeles area die prematurely from cardiopulmonary causes linked to particulate air pollution.

However, children are those most easily distressed by high pollution levels in the atmosphere.

"Children with asthma are at risk of an asthma attack on a smoggy day, especially if they also exercise, thereby increasing the amount of the air pollution that gets into their lungs," Solomon said.

There are 500,000 children in California who suffer from asthma, a leading cause of school absences and hospitalizations among children, said Alan Deleon, a spokesman for the American Asthma Foundation.

And particulate matter may not be the only cause behind asthma.

Diesel particles have been shown in an Albert Einstein College of Medicine study to increase the risk of allergy and asthma, Deleon said.

The area's worst air is found near freeways, Air Quality Management District spokesman Bill Kelly said.

The Air Quality Management District has advocated that diesel-burning trucks be retrofitted with cleaner, gasoline-burning engines, a proposal fiercely opposed by trucking associations.