Freeway next to us proves toxic!!!!

The most current study by the regional smog agency, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, found an average 1,200 people per million are at risk from diesel soot for the Los Angeles air basin, including Orange County.

The map displays a great area with cancer risk over 100 in a million southeast of the point where the 55 and 405 freeways meet, between Costa Mesa and Irvine area, another where the 55 meets the 5 freeway, and another straight in the east of Mission Viejo from south toward Laguna Hills.

Arnold Den, senior science advisor for EPA in San Francisco, said “If you’re near a freeway, there are higher concentrations. If you’re at the intersections of two freeways, there are contributions from both freeways.”

Nationwide, the report found that more than 2 million people live in census tracts where combined cancer risk from air contaminants is 100 in 1 million or higher. More than 284 million live where the combined risk is 10 in a million or higher. The nation’s average risk is 36 in a million.

The map shows amount of pollution rate by industries. The pollution rate decrease about 40 percent since the clean air act was amended in 19990.

Note: The worst hazardous element in California was benzene, found in auto exhaust; in the other states the major pollutant is1,3-butadiene and formaldehyde.

Reference: Pat Brennan, science, environment editor (2009), retrieved from https://greenoc.freedomblogging.com/2009/06/25/epa-air-pollution-cancer-risk-higher-in-parts-of-oc/9163/

Categorised in: EPA