| Jan. 4, 2008 DIAMOND
BAR – Air pollution programs have reduced Southland residents’ risk of
cancer from toxic air pollution by at least 15 percent in the past seven
years, according to a landmark study released today by the region’s clean
air agency.
“This reduction in cancer risk shows that we are on the right track in
tackling toxic air pollution,” said William Burke, Ed.D., Governing Board
Chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
“However, the remaining cancer risk is completely unacceptable.
Thousands of residents are getting sick and dying from toxic air pollution.
Some of them live in low-income, minority neighborhoods that may be heavily
impacted by cancer-causing air pollution. We must continue to fight for
cleaner ships, locomotives, trucks and other sources of toxic air pollution
to improve the health of all Southern California residents.”
The study conducted by AQMD and dubbed MATES III (Multiple Air Toxics
Exposure Study) is the latest and most sophisticated air toxics research
effort ever conducted in Southern California. Its chief findings are that:
- On average, Southland residents are exposed to a lifetime cancer risk
from toxic air pollution of 1,200 in 1 million. That is a 15 percent
reduction from the average risk estimated in AQMD’s last air toxics study
conducted in 1998-1999, but still one of the highest risks in the country;
- The highest computer-modeled risk level is in the port area with a
maximum lifetime cancer risk of up to 2,900 in a million;
- Diesel exhaust accounts for approximately 84 percent of region-wide
cancer risk and mobile sources -- including cars and trucks as well as
ships, trains, aircraft and construction equipment -- account for 94
percent of the total risk; and
- Sites with higher levels of cancer risk due to air toxics include
Burbank, downtown Los Angeles, Fontana, Huntington Park and Wilmington.
The site with the lowest risk is Anaheim.
“This reinforces the policy agenda we have pursued for the past several
years,” Burke said. “Mobile sources and especially diesel-fueled vehicles
are by far the largest source of our air pollution problem. We will
continue to do everything in our ability to address this public health
threat.”
AQMD staff will now solicit public comments on the study for 90 days
before finalizing the report. AQMD also will prepare an update to its Air
Toxics Control Plan to include strategies for further reducing toxic air
pollution and cancer risk based on MATES III findings. The proposed plan
will be presented to AQMD’s Board this summer.
AQMD leadership in reducing toxic air pollution
AQMD has worked to reduce toxic emissions for several decades and
elevated the issue to a higher priority in 1997 when its Governing Board
adopted AQMD’s first Environmental Justice Initiatives. As part of those
initiatives, in 1998 and 1999 AQMD carried out MATES II, the most ambitious
and far-reaching study at the time of toxic air pollution in an urban
setting.
Following MATES II, AQMD adopted numerous rules and incentive programs to
reduce toxic emissions, including:
- AQMD’s clean fleet rules, which have resulted in the purchase of
hundreds of clean-fueled transit buses, school buses, refuse trucks,
street sweepers and other vehicles;
- Regulations that have significantly reduced emissions of
perchloroethylene (“perc”) at dry cleaners and other industries;
hexavalent chromium from metal plating shops and protected schools from
toxic air pollutants from new sources;
- Collaboration with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to
establish the ports’ Clean Air Action Plan, a landmark program to cut
diesel emissions from ships, trucks, trains and other sources;
- Use of well over $100 million in incentive funds to reduce diesel
emissions from school buses, tug boats and trucks in the ports and other
sources of diesel exhaust; and
- Adoption in January 2007 of AQMD’s Mobile Source Fair Share
Initiative, which led to introduction of the Marine Vessel Emissions
Reduction Act in Congress last year. If approved, the measure would
compel the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce toxic and
smog-forming pollution from ships.
In addition to AQMD, regulations and programs instituted by the
California Air Resources Board and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
have contributed to significant diesel emission reductions in recent years.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major
portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
-#-
|
