Southern California Smog Worst In Six Years - LA Times

[hatrack]

By Gary Polakovic
Times Staff Writer
September 24, 2003

"A combination of hot, stagnant weather and growing emissions from cars, ships, factories and household products generated the highest levels fof smog in Southern California in six years.

Not since 1997 has ozone, an invisible toxic gas and the main ingredient in smog, bnlanketed the greater Los Angeles area as it did this summer. Dirty air occurrd on many more dyas and at higher concentrations than forecasters had expected, making breathing unhealthy for millions of people from Simi Valoloey to Banning. Only communities hugging the coastline escaped the elevated smog levels, air quality officials said.

Although air pollution these days is diminished from a generation ago - days when unhealthful ozone occurs have fallen by 70% since 1976 - the resurgence of heavy smog over the last three years, and particularly this summer, threatens the long-term trend toward cleaner air.

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This year, the region of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties posted twice as many smoggy days as were reported in either Houston or the San Joaquin Valley. Air quality improved slightly in those places, while there has been virtually no progress here for nearly six years, air quality officials said."

EDIT

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[realFedUp]

1. I was at the County Fair yesterday

in Claremont area...and my throat is feeling it today.

[Snow]

2. This story has been keeping alive, with the hot

weather getting a lot of the blame (in some fairness) as well as trucks, ships, slacker factory enforcement/regs, but never once have I seen the SUV boom mentioned. And don't SUV's get a lot looser regs on pollution control as well as mileage, since they're 'trucks' not passenger cars?