As the region's oldest air quality monitoring station, the South Coast Air Quality Management District's downtown Los Angeles station has been home to the gamut of technologies used through the years to measure air pollution.
The station was first operated by the old Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District at 5201 Santa Fe St. before being relocated to the agency's headquarters at 434 South San Pedro in 1955. In 1979 it was moved to its present location at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power facility at 1630 N. Main St.
The highest ozone level the station ever recorded was .68 parts per million in 1955 and the lowest was .14 ppm in 1996. Ozone is a chief component of smog.
During the station's early years, everything was done by hand. Air pollution researchers set jars outside for up to 36 hours to collect fallout air samples. Then using qualitative and quantitative laboratory methods they determined air quality levels.
"As far as automated sampling went, we passed air samples through a liquid agent that changed colors based on the properties of the contaminant in the sample," said William Bope, who then worked for the Orange County Air Pollution Control District and is now manager of AQMD's Atmospheric Measurements Division.
The monitoring equipment was large, cumbersome and would be subject to interference from time to time, Bope said.
In addition to equipment, the laboratory was home to a variety of small animals used to test the health effects of air pollution. Rats, mice and guinea pigs were exposed to rooms filled with clean and ambient air concentrations. After the animals died, the scientists examined their lung tissue and respiratory systems. This information was used to help establish smog alert levels.
"The electronic age, beginning in the 1970s, helped to greatly reduce the size of our equipment," said Bope. "It also enabled us to gather information more quickly and produce more reliable data."
Today, modern technology instantaneously measures air quality. The public can obtain current air quality reports from AQMD at 1-800-CUT-SMOG and through AQMD's Internet site.
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