>> Living near freeways is still not good for you — but many Angelenos have moved into “black lung lofts” unaware of long term health risks (via LAist):

The new study [by USC scientists] showed that alarming numbers of children ages 10 to 18 who live within about a block — 528 feet — of a Southern California freeway suffer reduced lung development, a deficit likely to persist through adulthood, and which may increase the risk of respiratory disease and premature death.

City zoning laws and planning decisions haven’t taken these highway-related pollution studies into account. In fact, the LA Weekly article argues city laws have encouraged more people to live in these polluted areas:

Today, in fact, the Department of City Planning chief Gail Goldberg and the Office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa concede to L.A. Weekly that nobody in City Hall is tracking, or can even estimate, the number of children who have moved into housing erected within 500 feet of freeways since scientists documented the chilling health effects. Los Angeles lawmakers are making no effort to measure the human health costs of such housing.

Earlier: Death by Smogging: Ultrafine particles in Los Angeles

>> Power plants create heat pollution in the oceans, and environmentalists are trying to make them pay. Basically, the plants suck in cool ocean water — along with little sea creatures — to cool their plants, the dump the warmed water — with now-dead sea creatures — back into the ocean.

Federal rules have banned new plants from drawing in seawater for so-called “once-through” cooling systems. Now the state water board wants to apply this rule to the 19 existing plants dotting the coast from Eureka to San Diego. The board’s proposal … would require plants to supplant seawater pipes with massive cooling towers that recycle water, or to use air-cooling platforms.

>> Tougher emissions rules could make the ports cleaner. The South Coast Air Quality Management District proposed rules to put regulatory teeth into the current voluntary pollution reduction targets. These “backstop rules,” if passed, would make polluters pay for not reducing pollution.

Each year, pollution from the movement of goods through the region contributes to an estimated 2,100 early deaths, 190,000 sick days for workers, and 360,000 school absences, according to the California Air Resources Board.

Photo by andropolis

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