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Air Pollution and Your Health

How Does Air Pollution Affect Health? Research conducted by the University of California has established that air pollution:

aggravates heart and lung illnesses
adds stress to the cardiovascular system
reduces the lungs' ability to exhale air (loss of lung capacity)
damages the lungs even after symptoms of minor irritation disappear.

Protecting Students People sensitive to air pollution include children under 14 years old, asthmatics, people with heart and chronic respiratory disease, athletes, and elderly people.

Since their lungs are still developing, children are most likely to develop chronic lung disease when exposed to air pollution, including cigarette smoke. Children's lungs also have a greater exposure to air pollution because they breathe at a higher rate than adults, and they tend to be more active outdoors when peak levels of smog occur.

Play it Safe, Play Inside

Stay indoors during peak hours. Keep doors and windows closed, indoor ozone levels are half of those found outside.
Avoid smoke, aerosols, dust, fumes, and other lung and eye irritants.
Avoid outdoor vigorous activity

Avoid breathing by mouth. Breathe through your nose. Breathing by mouth bypasses your body's natural filtration system. It also allows air pollution to be taken deep into your lungs, where it can cause the most damage.

For Your Information: According to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, Fresno County has the third highest mortality rate from asthma in the United States. The Fresno Bee Reports the following incidences of Adults and Children With Asthma, in California's Central Valley, by county.

Fresno 63,504

Kern 51,872

Tulare 29,064

Merced 16,552

Kings 10,264

Madera 9,264

Air Quality Index Yields
Higher Numbers, Improved
Health Warnings

The Air Quality Index (AQI) is used by local air districts for daily air quality reporting to the general public as required by the Clean Air Act. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the AQI in 1999.

The AQI has category titled “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups”. Sensitive Groups include children under 14 years old, individuals with heart and chronic respiratory disease, athletes, and elderly people.

Air districts set up monitoring stations to test the ambient air quality. The monitoring stations measure the amount of a specific air pollutant such as ozone (O3), particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) in parts per million (ppm) over a period of time, usually one hour.

The EPA sets the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect human health from exposure to air pollution.

In July 1997, the EPA revised the NAAQS to replace the one-hour standard with a new standard with an eight-hour average. The revised standard “will provide increased protection to the public, especially children active outdoors and other sensitive groups, against a wide range of ozone-induced health effects, including decreased lung function; increased respiratory symptoms; hospital admissions and emergency room visits for respiratory causes, among children and adults with pre-existing respiratory disease such as asthma; inflammation of the lung; and possible long-term damage to the lungs.”(1)

The eight-hour standard for ozone (O3) is set at a level of 0.08 ppm. This primary standard then becomes a “breakpoint” on the Air Quality Index. Simply put, when the ambient air quality measurement of the eight- hour average for ozone reaches 0.08ppm, the air district informs the public that the AQI is 100.

Some individuals may be extremely sensitive to certain pollutants and may suffer ill health effects at an even lower concentration of the pollutant.

The AQI will allow local air districts to report information on the 1997 NAAQS for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), inhalable particulate matter (PM10), carbon monoxide (CO), and sulfur dioxide (SO2).

The index ranges from 0 to 500. An index value of 500 reflects the significant harm level for a pollutant. Significant harm levels are those ambient concentrations of air pollutants that present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health or welfare, or to the environment.

Intermediate index values of 200, 300, and 400 are the basis for the Alert, Warning, and Emergency episode levels.

Below an index value of 100, an intermediate value of 50 was defined either as the level of the established annual standard (as for PM10 and SO2), or as a concentration equal to one-half the value of the short-term standard used to define an index value of 100 (for O3 and CO).

In establishing the AQI, the EPA added Pollutant Specific Health Effects and Cautionary Statements.

“Timely information about air quality will help individuals take actions to avoid or reduce exposures of concern and can encourage the public to take actions that will reduce air pollution on days when levels are projected to be in air quality categories of concern to local communities.”(2)

Local newspapers, television and radio stations carry the information, usually as part of their weather report. They report on the forecasted AQI for the next day and often include the previous day’s AQI reading.

The EPA has also found an innovative way to provide information to the public by means of the Internet. Their Ozone Mapping Project includes real-time data reporting at their AIRNOW web site (http://www.epa.gov/airnow). For California, the site links to participating air districts and public interest groups. For example the Sacramento Air Quality Management District has its Spare the Air page linked to the AIRNOW site. When you visit the Sacramento web page, you can view an “Ozone Movie”. You can view the past hour’s reading from ambient ozone monitors connected to the system on a regional map color coded to the air quality index. Or, you may view the previous day’s air quality as it changes hourly from 8 am to 8 pm.

Individuals may use this information to avoid health problems associated with exposure to poor air quality, the may change a behavior to help improve air quality, and they may even watch the movie daily and take notes to help them decide where to reside in a region to enjoy the cleanest air quality.

Project Clean Air members without Internet access at home or work, may want to call our office and arrange a time during our office hours to stop by and go online.

NOTE: At the AIRNOW website you can find information from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. At the AIRNOW homepage, click on Ozone Forecasts, then move down the page to State and Local Forecasts. Under California, click on San Joaquin Valley.

Endnotes (1) &(2): Information quoted from the document Environmental Protection Agency, 40 CFR Part 58, Air Quality Reporting.