Our agency – the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) – recently paired up with the Los Angeles Sentinel for a unique partnership to broaden outreach to the communities that both we and the publication serve. This article and future features will share who the SCAQMD is and what we are doing, in collaboration with many others, to improve Southern California’s air quality.
Since SCAQMD was formed in 1977, our Governing Board and staff have been working with individuals, communities, businesses, and government representatives as well as scientists, engineers, and health experts to reduce harmful air pollutants affecting Southern Californians’ health. Long-time Angelinos may still remember Stage II and Stage I air alerts that restricted children’s outdoor play, and the thick brown haze that hid the downtown skyline from view. The clearer, bluer skies reveal that our collective efforts to improve the Southland’s air quality have worked as our region has grown. But those same blue skies are a bit misleading.
Studies show that the pollution we cannot see is even more harmful to our health. Ultra-fine particulates bypass our natural filtration system, lodge in our lungs damaging healthy tissue, and even find their way into our bloodstream. These particles can affect our nervous systems, contribute to preterm birth and low birth weight, increase asthma and other respiratory diseases, decrease children’s lung function and development, incite cardiovascular diseases and cancer, and lead to premature death. In fact, people are dying daily from breathing air pollution, which is why the decisions my Governing Board colleagues and I make are so critical to everyone we represent. SCAQMD is mandated to achieve state and federal clean air standards throughout the urban portions of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and all of Orange County. This large four-county region is home to nearly 17 million people, more than 40 percent of California’s population; and unfortunately, despite the tremendous clean air progress made, we are still breathing some of the unhealthiest air in the nation.
During the more than 20 years I have been on the SCAQMD Board we have adopted landmark programs and regulations, initiated community and business assistance programs, launched initiatives, and established funding incentives to reduce air pollution. Our fleet rules have effectively replaced dirtier, diesel and gasoline powered street sweepers, waste haulers, and school and transit buses with less polluting models. SCAQMD regulations and programs fund and/or promote multiple clean air technologies – from alternative fueled, cleaner burning engines for large trucks and off-road vehicles to the reformulation of household paints and cleaners that contain less smog-forming chemicals. Understanding the importance of balance, SCAQMD rules, programs, and initiatives seek to help grow our economy, create good ‘green’ jobs, and protect public health.
This article is the first in a series of informational pieces to be published in the LA Sentinel and the LA Watts Times throughout 2016. While this is more of an introductory piece, next month the early January 2016 issues of these two papers will be wrapped in special four-pagers on the SCAQMD that will give details on our agency’s blueprint to meet clean air standards, called the Air Quality Management Plan. The feature also will include articles on: SCAQMD’s environmental justice initiatives; an update on our AQ-SPEC, the nation’s first test center for low-cost portable sensors that can be used to monitor air quality in your communities; and details on how you can report local air quality problems to SCAQMD 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In addition, throughout 2016, future issues of LA Sentinel community papers will include more articles sharing information about what we at SCAQMD are doing to make the quality of our air better.
To learn more about SCAQMD visit our website at aqmd.gov to view our signature film, The Right to Breathe, as well as other online videos that highlight our monthly Governing Board meetings. To report air quality issues or to find out your local air quality call us at 1-800-CUT-SMOG (1-800-288-7664).
