San Bernardino, Calif.-Area Breathers Worst Off
By Andrew Silva, San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.
Jan. 20–The most dangerous form of air pollution is thicker in the Inland Empire than any place in the country, according to an analysis by an environmental group released Thursday.
That came at the same time officials from the governor’s office were in Riverside to talk about the air pollution component of the ambitious $222 billion plan to improve California’s roads, ports, rail lines and schools.
The governor’s plan includes $2 billion just for reducing air pollution from the continuing growth in traffic, especially truck and train traffic.
There are no specifics yet on how that money will be spent, but it does reflect Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commitment to reduce smog even as the plan seeks to ease congestion, said Cindy Tuck, assistant secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency.
As the hub for all products moving east from the Pacific Rim through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the Inland Empire is enduring explosive growth in the number of trains and tractor-trailers passing through, and in the toxic pollutants those vehicles pump out.
Trucks and trains are the biggest users of diesel, which creates dangerous particulate pollution, tiny specks of dust and chemicals that have been linked to lung problems, asthma attacks, heart problems and thousands of premature deaths.
The San Bernardino-Riverside county area has the worst particulate pollution in the nation, the analysis of pollution monitors in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., found.
The more scientists study the health effects of particulates, the more they see the tiny particles as the most dangerous component of smog.
The report was released just as scientists and activists are pressuring the Bush administration to toughen standards for particulate pollution.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently disregarded its own scientific experts and proposed tightening rules for particulates, but not enough for many experts.
“The Bush administration is shirking its responsibility and walking away from it . . . This is the most important decision affecting public health,” said Moira Chapin, a field organizer with Environment California, which prepared the report called “Plagued by Pollution: Unsafe Levels of Soot Pollution in 2004.”
Tougher regulations would save thousands of lives per year, many experts agree.
A monitoring site in Rubidoux in Riverside County recorded the nation’s highest annual average reading, with a site in San Bernardino close behind.
Those average readings are roughly 50 percent higher than the current federal standard. The Rubidoux and San Bernardino sites had readings of about 22 micrograms per cubic meter of air, compared to the federal standard of 15.
That’s for the smallest and most dangerous particles, called PM2.5, or only 2.5 microns in diameter, roughly one-thirtieth the thickness of a human hair. A micron is one-millionth of a meter, or about one-thousandth the thickness of a dime.
The highest reading in Southern California came at the San Bernardino site with 93.4 micrograms.
Those particles can penetrate deep into human lungs, bypassing the usual defenses of fine hairs and mucus. Such particles can even get into the blood and travel to other organs, researchers have found.
The Bush administration has proposed leaving the annual average standard of 15 micrograms per cubic meter of air untouched, but has also proposed cutting the current one-day limit of 65 micrograms to 35.
Cutting the maximum allowed in any 24-hour period should bring down the average anyway, said John Millett, a spokesman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C.
A letter sent last month to the EPA director calls for even tougher standards and was signed by 100 scientists, doctors and health professionals.
Local smog regulators remain frustrated that the biggest sources of pollution, namely trucks, trains and ships, are under federal jurisdiction.
“We really need a bigger role from the feds in reducing emissions from federally controlled sources,” Tuck said.
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