Nine of the ten regions with the most ozone pollution are in California. High ozone has now been linked to health problems. (eutrophication&hypoxia/Flickr)

Smog has been linked to heart problems and even death, and new research by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency begins to explain why.

Researchers found that healthy young adults who have been exposed to ozone – which is a major component of smog – experience physiological changes that could be linked to heart ailments in vulnerable populations, such as elderly people with cardiovascular disease. Additionally, the study “provides a plausible explanation for the link between acute ozone exposure and death,” lead author Robert B. Devlin said in a statement.

The study has special implications for Californians, who are exposed to some of the highest ozone levels in the country.

Of the 10 regions in the country with the most ozone pollution, nine are in California, with Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside topping the list, according to the American Lung Association.

“Our ozone problem is the result of the combination of population, climate, terrain and industry,” with car exhaust as the main source of the pollutant in California, Dimitri Stanich, a spokesman for the California Air Resources Board, wrote in an email. “California has historically had the worst air pollution in the union. In the 1940s, there were smog events in the L.A. area where residents couldn’t see a city block.”

Ozone is created when pollutants from cars, power plants and other sources interact with sunlight.

To address ozone pollution, the air resources board requires car manufacturers to meet more stringent emission standards and regulates some chemical-based consumer products that may contribute to ozone during evaporation.

In its new study, EPA researchers exposed 23 healthy young adults to two-hour sessions of both clean air and ozone-polluted air at levels about two times greater than what residents in China or Mexico experience during the middle of the day. After exposure to the pollutant, the study subjects saw an increase in various cardiovascular indicators that could result in heart problems in people with heart disease, including vascular inflammation and a reduced ability to dissolve artery-blocking blood clots.

Though studies of ozone and human health abound, the new EPA study, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, is among the first to use human volunteers to explain how ozone can potentially kill people by causing heart attacks. Previous epidemiological studies have shown a connection using statistical analyses.

“It’s the strongest evidence that there is a true causal connection” between ozone exposure and heart health, and confirms and expands what has been suggested in previous studies, said Douglas Dockery, an environmental epidemiology professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health.

Health experts said that the latest EPA study is an important contribution to determining the extent of the relationship between ozone exposure and cardiovascular problems – an issue that is far from scientifically settled.

A larger, 90-person study among the elderly was recently launched by the Boston-based Health Effects Institute in conjunction with UC San Francisco and two other universities.

“There is not a universal set of studies that say, ‘Yeah, ozone definitely contributes to cardiovascular effects,’ ” said Dan Greenbaum of the Health Effects Institute. “But that may be because we have not looked at it the right way, and that is what we are trying to do with this study (of the elderly).”

Joe Lyou, a governing board member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the CEO and president of the Coalition for Clean Air, said more could be done at a policy level to address the health impacts of ozone pollution.

“We need to move toward zero and near-zero emission transportation for both people and freight,” he said in an email. “In order to meet our clean air standards, we have to focus on the combustion of petrochemical fuels and identify ways to minimize and eliminate it. If we do it right, we can increase energy efficiency, reduce our dependency upon foreign oil and save boatloads of money.”

The EPA is currently reviewing the national air quality standards for ozone and will issue a final rule in 2014. In preparation, a draft scientific assessment was recently released by the agency for public comment, and it states that the current health research is “suggestive of a causal relationship” between the pollutant and cardiovascular effects. The agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee Ozone Review Panel, however, had previously recommended that the EPA upgrade this determination to “likely to be a causal relationship.”

In September, the Obama administration rejected a proposed rule from the EPA to tighten the federal air quality standards related to ozone pollution. In a statement, the president cited the “importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover.”

More information

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has more on how to limit ozone exposure.

Diesel trucks in West Oakland. (Photo: Xan West)

West Oakland residents have long been plagued by polluted air that comes from living near a huge port and three freeways. Rates of asthma and other illnesses are high. In early 2010, the Port of Oakland implemented a program to replace and retrofit the diesel trucks that rumble in and out of the neighborhood to comply with new state laws to reduce pollution.

Researchers at U.C. Berkeley measured emissions before the program started and again in mid-2010, just months after it went into effect.

The researchers found a dramatic change, just in those few months. The Berkeley Transportation Letter reports that “after the first phase of the emission control program took effect in early 2010, black smoke emissions were reduced by about half. NO_x emissions also dropped by 40 percent.”  NO_x (nitrogen oxide) is a key contributor to smog.

Read the entire story here.

(Ordinary Grace: Flickr)

California has embarked on a landmark effort to reduce greenhouse gasses.  As part of that work, local jurisdictions are busy spotlighting zones for housing infill and transit-oriented development. Infill sounds good, right? Let’s avoid further suburban sprawl and direct people to mass transit, reducing greenhouse gasses.

Not so fast.

Here’s the problem: the state Air Resources Board has evaluated air pollution risk and identified swaths of urban areas that create public health hazards because of diesel truck traffic or other pollution.

Call it the irony of unintended consequences. The housing development areas overlap with the communities with high air pollution in too many places in the Bay Area. It looks like we’re on a road to reduce greenhouse gases while increasing public health risks.

That’s where a study today from the Pacific Institute is critically important. It has lots of colorful maps and detailed information that provide tools to cities and counties to consider when planning new housing.

Here’s a starting point in San Francisco County. The blue priority development area is almost completely encircled by an area the Air Resources Board says has health risk from toxic air pollution.

San Francisco map shows "Priority Development Area" located almost completely inside an area of concur to the state Air Resources Board. (Map: Pacific Institute)

Major highways run right through the bright blue area where local planners say more housing development would be good. Would you want to live next to a freeway?

But the Pacific Institute report looked at recommendations for a buffer zone around highways, especially those that carry pollution-spewing big rigs. By adding these buffer zones, public health concerns can be greatly reduced.

Here’s another map, showing a 500 foot buffer zone:

San Francisco map showing 500 foot buffer zone around freeways. (Map: Pacific Institute)

By inserting these buffer zones around freeways and other so-called freight transit hazards, the Pacific Institute report says, 74% of the land in these locally identified priority development areas is far enough away from pollution hazards for new housing to be safe, from a public health perspective.

Catalina Garzon, program director of the Pacific Institute, is co-author of the study. “What we’re hoping is that regional agencies that are currently developing a plan for meeting greenhouse gas requirements as part of state climate policy will include protections for health in decisions about siting land use in the region.”

The Pacific Institute also has maps for Alameda County, East Contra Costa County, West Contra Costa County, San Mateo County, and Santa Clara County. [All maps are PDF].

Children's park located under a freeway in Fresno. (Photo: Sasha Khokha)

Yesterday morning, KQED brought you Sasha Khokha’s report questioning how well the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is protecting public health on poor air quality days.

About 10 hours later, the Valley Air District issued an air quality alert using significantly stronger language than it had used previously.

Coincidence?

A little background: Khokha reported that the Valley Air District’s public service announcements had focused on what people could do to reduce emissions, but had not alerted the public how to protect their health on poor air quality days.

For example, the District issued a PSA on September 29, 2011, a day when the air quality was in the “unhealthy for all” category. Among other things, the District recommended people walk or bicycle instead of drive their cars. Now, this is great for reducing emissions, but anyone who followed this advice could have harmed their lungs. Not exactly a great public health message.

Yesterday afternoon, a few hours after Khokha’s report aired, the District again faced a day with poor air quality.  But this time, the District issued a very different kind of alert. Public health recommendations are quite clear:

People with heart or lung diseases should follow their doctors’ advice for dealing with episodes of unhealthy air quality. Additionally, older adults and children should avoid prolonged exposure, strenuous activities or heavy exertion. Everyone else should reduce prolonged exposure, strenuous activities or heavy exertion.

A quick check of the Valley District’s Real-TIme Air Quality Advisory Network showed that the air quality, at least in Central Fresno, is in the “good” zone this morning.