Depending on who you believe, California is either winning or failing in its battle against air pollution.
Depending on who you choose to believe, the State of California is either making progress in its battle against air pollution, or is continuing to fail to protect its residents against dangerous ozones and particulates.
This week, the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association released a report with pretty yellow flowers on the cover espousing the progress the state has made in cleaning its polluted air.
Next week, though, the American Lung Association’s annual “State of the Air” analysis is expected once again to give many California counties a failing “F” grade for air quality.
The executive director of CAPCOA, Kenneth Koyama, told California Watch that their report is designed to counter the message of failure regularly portrayed in “State of the Air:”
“Giving a grade of F suggests to me that whatever the air district has done has failed, and that’s certainly not the case. We’ve introduced programs that we believe have been very innovative to reduce emissions and improve air quality in the state. We believe we’ve done a lot to protect public health.”
The CAPCOA report includes data showing both ozones and particulate matter in the state are down nearly 60 percent since 1980, despite a near-tripling of miles driven by Californians each year.
California also reduced the number of days its air was declared “unhealthy” by 74 percent since 2000, including zero unhealthy days in 2011 in the nine-county greater Bay Area.
Despite noting progress, the report also acknowledges the tremendous cost to public health of air pollution. An estimated 9,200 Californians die each year from heart or lung conditions brought on by dirty air. And In the San Joaquin valley and Southern California alone, the annual health costs are estimated at a whopping $22 billion.
The American Lung Association will release its 2012 State of the Air findings next Wednesday.
Jesse Garnier is the editor and founder of SFBay. A Mission District native, he also teaches journalism as associate professor at San Francisco State University.
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All part of a phony game played every year by the California Air Resource Board.
When the head of the Bay Area QMD says that it is OK for people with normal lungs to breathe toxic chemical contaminated air, you should understand that your health is in the hands of someone who doesn’t understand what air quality is all about.
CARB is run by politically appointed attorneys who have little to no health literacy and are not qualified to deal in matters that affect public health. They routinely override sound medical advice.
We in California are paying a steep price for their malfeasance as eight out of ten of the worst air polluted and most unhealthy cities to live in are in California.