If you’re like the majority of Americans, what you breathe could kill you. According to a the American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air Report, “six out of ten Americans — 186.1 million people — live in areas where air pollution levels endanger lives.”
Are you part of the unlucky majority? Find out at stateoftheair.org, which lets you quickly check out how your county’s doing. So you know, despite Terry O’Day’s assurances that our air’s finally cleaned up, Los Angeles county got a big fat F! In fact, the L.A.-Long Beach-Riverside Counties area gets first place for ozone pollution, third for year-round particle pollution, and fourth for short-term particle pollution.
That news is perhaps unsurprising, considering the fact that L.A.’s even got a newish book dedicated to its dirty air called Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles. That said, American Lung Association says the air in pretty much every major city’s very polluted — and getting dirtier to boot, despite some local efforts to clean up the air.
The pollution also tends to be worse in areas where low-income people and some racial and ethnic groups live, making clean air a social justice issue too. In fact, USC Center for Sustainable Cities recently released a study looking more closely at environmental justice issues. Titled Justice in the Air: Tracking Toxic Pollution from America’s Industries and Companies to Our States, Cities, and Neighborhoods (PDF), the report ranks cities, states, and companies that are failing to protect the socially disadvantaged from dirty air.
Check that report too to see if your city makes the list of “Ten Worst for Protecting Minorities” or “Ten Worst for Protecting the Poor.” Luckily, L.A. isn’t on either of those lists; perhaps our air’s so unclean that wealth can’t protect anyone from its polluting effects.
What can you do? American Lung Association’s recommends simple actions many green LA girl readers are already taking: “drive less; don’t burn wood or trash; use less electricity; and make sure local school systems require clean school buses.” Now we just need to pass and enforce policies that make it easier for (or maybe just force) other Angelenos to do likewise. I’m hoping that next year our air’ll be better due to reduced diesel pollution, thanks to the clean truck program at the Port of L.A.
My family already does many of the ALA’s recommendations. We drive less. We don’t burn wood or trash. We use less electricity (my 7 year-old son is excited to see if our family of four can get under 200 kWh this month).
But the recommendation to make sure local school systems require clean school buses seems a little too simplified… unless I’ve just been terribly misinformed, and my local school district is just rolling in cash for retrofitting old buses and/or buying new ones…This is one change that I don’t think will happen without pressure and resources from the state.
Danny Bradfield’s last blog post..It’s Not For Me
Comment by Danny Bradfield — April 30, 2009 @ 10:51 am
Interesting — Because my thought was the school buses tip was the most complex — though for the exact reason you cited: It’s not something you can just do alone; you must organize with others and get resources from the state / county / school board, etc. I’m guessing the American Lung Association wanted to make people feel their individual choices DO make a difference with the easier stuff — then added on the school bus thing to press the point that we must work together and push for bigger changes :)
Comment by Siel — April 30, 2009 @ 9:28 pm