California hosts the top five most air-polluted cities in America.
Experts suggest that in the 1960s, LA’s ozone pollution was even worse than in present-day
Beijing.
So how bad is LA’s pollution now?
And how does it compare to other cities worldwide?
Well, the World Health Organization and the American Lung Association both measure air
pollution primarily by how many fumes and particles exist in the air we breathe.
The fumes come from sources like power plants or car exhaust, and are referred to as “ozone”
or “smog”.
Particles, on the other hand, are solid, and most evident in dust and smoke.
Our body is equipped to expel larger particles by coughing or sneezing, but anything less
than 2.5 microns in diameter can get stuck in the lungs and enter the bloodstream.
This can trigger lung cancer, heart disease and strokes.
One researcher has compared living in a polluted city like Beijing to smoking one and a half
cigarettes every hour.
In the US, Los Angeles is the worst Ozone-polluted city, due to its massive car population, and
Fresno is the most particle-polluted, as a result of brush fires and other burning of
fossil fuels.
California’s pollution restrictions are some of the nation’s strongest, but the
recent drought has thwarted recent efforts to clean up the air.
However, things HAVE improved over the last half century.
At point in 1954, LA was said to have “virtually shut down” for a month due to smog.
Today, LA’s annual mean density for small particles in the air is 20 micrograms per
cubic meter, and Fresno’s density is rated 45 micrograms per cubic meter.
Comparatively, Beijing’s annual mean comes to about 56 micrograms per cubic meter.
This is much improved from a mere decade earlier.
The city smog once merited the nickname “airpocalypse”, and China was home to 16 of the planet’s
20 most air-polluted cities.
One recent report even suggested that pollution had contributed to more than 4,000 Chinese
deaths every day.
However, Beijing’s pollution levels have since gone down and China is taking steps
to drastically curb emissions.
They have set goals for emission reduction in international conferences, and they have
threatened to shut down factories which don’t comply to guidelines.
This is not that different from the steps LA took to reduce their own pollution.
The Clean Air Acts in 1963 and 1970 began a revolutionary change in air pollution regulation
for California and other smoggy regions.
Laws mandated strict limits on regional pollution, and were enforced by hefty fines.
“Spare-the-air” days were introduced to the public to cut down on wood-burning smoke.
The government also offered more education and benefits to those who were interested
in being more eco-friendly.
But other cities, especially in developing countries, do little to deal with pollution.
Today the most polluted city in the world is New Delhi in India, where existing anti-pollution
laws are weak and inconsistently enforced.
International politicians encourage countries like China and India to make new pledges to
reduce emissions, like some did in 1997 with the Kyoto Protocol.
As global warming and environmental change become increasingly important, it will be
vital for polluted countries to clean up their act.
Want a more in-depth look at how pollution uniquely affects China and how deadly it is?
Watch this video.
Thanks for watching TestTube!
Remember to like and subscribe so you don’t miss out on new videos daily.