
Southern California just saw its longest streak of bad air in decades - spking
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-smog-streak-20180921-story.html
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thinelvis
Truck traffic in LA is by far the problem, not so much the car traffic (though
that is horrible, based on the population).

Ships come into Long Beach, the containers are offloaded, the trucks begin a
lumbering journey to points East. Belching all the way.

I'm not making up the claim. California rules put in place over ten years ago
had trucks retrofitted or whatever, and this change to TRUCKS ONLY was like
removing 30 MILLION cars from California roads. There are not 30 million
trucks in California, though sometimes it appears so.

[http://4cleanair.org/DieselTrucks.pdf](http://4cleanair.org/DieselTrucks.pdf)

~~~
housingpost
Don’t forget that in 2015 the NAFTA requirements that allow Mexican trucks on
US roads were fully put into effect so now we’ve got heavily polluting Mexican
trucks on Southern California roads now.

~~~
ovi256
Is there a quota on that ? If not, I predict this will follow the same pattern
it took in Western Europe, where low-cost of labor Eastern Europe companies
are slowly taking over long distance trucking. The limiter of the rate of
change is the number of available EE long-distance drivers, which the
companies hiring have vacuumed clean.

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refurb
Los Angeles is unfortunate that due to the surrounding geography, thermal
inversions are common where air close to the surface is trapped and doesn't
circulate. That amplifies the air quality problems compared to say SF where
the off-shore breeze keeps the air relatively clean.

~~~
bsder
This is relatively straightforward to solve. You take the existing CA gas tax
and have it increase a couple of pennies every single month indefinitely.
Gasoline in California is still about 1/2 the price in Europe.

By making the tax small and gradual, everybody can _PLAN_ around the fact that
gas is going up instead of the dislocation from when gasoline prices whipsaw.

The problem is that we have _zero_ political will to do this. People will
attack the gas tax instead of attacking the lack of transportation options.

~~~
swingline-747
That won't work in the real world, it will just tax the poorest people and
accomplish nothing tangible. There's very inelastic demand for travel by car
in LA because everything is so spread out, making other forms of transport
unworkably moot. People have to work and live, so they're just going to hate
you for making their lives harder while they have no workable options. Heck,
the auto industry even had the 19th/20th c. era local commuter trains ripped
up so they wouldn't compete with the automobile.

~~~
romed
Demand for travel by car is elastic to the tune of about 1 billion annual VMT
per penny.

[https://www.brookings.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2017/06/jpube-v...](https://www.brookings.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2017/06/jpube-vmt-paper.pdf)

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minimaxir
A neat perk of iOS/watchOS 12 is that it now supports Air Quality in the
Weather app/Siri, which has been very useful over the past few days!

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another-cuppa
Why is it useful? What do you do about it?

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Jtsummers
It can be useful if you need to make a decision on how active to be outside.
It’s usually not a good idea to be running/cycling (for fitness) or other
similar activities outside with very poor air quality.

~~~
another-cuppa
So if the air quality is bad, you'll drive. I see, very useful.

~~~
Jtsummers
Or not run outside. Or if I cycle, not press hard.

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jpmattia
If interested, here is a link to the air quality index, as measured by purple
air monitors:

[https://www.purpleair.com/map#11/34.0244/-118.4531](https://www.purpleair.com/map#11/34.0244/-118.4531)

The map extends worldwide, but only reports data from those who have purchased
their monitors.

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NickBusey
Whoa, what's going on in Utah?
[https://www.purpleair.com/map#6.74/39.975/-111.145](https://www.purpleair.com/map#6.74/39.975/-111.145)

~~~
stevenwoo
Geography and local weather patterns, similar to Mexico City in that regard
where the city sits surrounded mostly by mountains and frequent broadly local
temperature conditions trap air in the valley.

~~~
Forbo
There's also a 113,000 acre fire burning currently.

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mrhappyunhappy
I read somewhere that a single fire in the area pollutes more than all of th
cars combined for a year. I don’t know how much of this is true, but if it is,
it seems climate change is having a much bigger impact already that we simply
choose to ignore.

~~~
Retric
Winds blow east and most people live very close to the coast making fires
significantly less of an issue.
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:California_populatio...](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:California_population_map.png)
Big wildfires are also concentrated in areas with few people.
[https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?hl=en&mid=1ZpcZ8OMZh1G1...](https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?hl=en&mid=1ZpcZ8OMZh1G1XwRmt9GaCwH6f-g&ll=38.37852090873982%2C-118.9441938415527&z=7)

The real issue is transportation pollution occurs right where people are.
Further, you get inversion layers over cities which traps the pollution.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inversion_(meteorology)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inversion_\(meteorology\))

~~~
mrhappyunhappy
Do you live in the area? It doesn’t sound like it. If you live anywhere near
San Fernando valley then you’d be quick to acknowledge the impact fires have
on the area.

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seanmcdirmid
This is all about a bad wildfire season right? Even Seattle had many bad air
weeks this summer.

~~~
greglindahl
Wildfire-related smoke has been bad, but non-wildfire-related ozone has also
been bad.

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mrhappyunhappy
When are we going to acknowledge that commuting to a city center in this day
and age is a ridiculous thing to do. I would wager most of LAs output is in
the form of info services that can be done from home or the burbs. I remember
when gas prices were at an all time high at one point and nobody was dissuaded
from driving less. People would simply complain more but suck it up and go
about their routine anyway. And who can blame them?! SoCal is not traversable
by any means other than an automobile. There are nutjobs who will fight tooth
and nail about public transportation, specifically buses, but any resident
will tell you what kind of people use those services and they can’t be
convinced to. I reckon fires and geography have a lot to do with everything
but unless there is a dramatic shift in public policy, ain’t nothing going to
change.

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j0e1
Looking outside of my window, I've seen the haze/fog/smog, but can't make out
if it's because of polluted air or if it's just condensation- the kind you'd
expect to see in high altitudes.

~~~
tomatsu
Devices for measuring the concentration of particulates (PM10, PM2.5, and
maybe PM1.0), TVOC (total volatile organic compounds), and HCHO (formaldehyde)
are fairly affordable nowadays. You could get one of those.

The air quality indoors is usually even worse than the air outside if you
aren't using some filtration system. New-ish buildings release formaldehyde,
laser printers release particulates and ozone, 3d printers release VOCs and
particulates, and there is lots of dust generated by inhabitants and their
pets.

Sadly, the Trump administration did a rollback of emission and fuel efficiency
standards. It's a big step in the wrong direction.

Personally, I'd even ban combustion engines within city limits. It's
completely insane that we poison the air we breathe 24/7.

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swingline-747
Yuck. I remember the early 80's regularly seeing a visible smog.

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Panino
> Joseph Lyou, a South Coast air quality board member who heads the Coalition
> for Clean Air, said he’s concerned that although the intensity of Southern
> California’s air pollution has dropped, its longevity is increasing.

If air quality becomes more consistently bad then maybe wearing a mask, like
in some Asian countries, will become more socially acceptable. Sometimes I'd
like to wear one but I'm scared people would treat me like I have TB or ebola.

And even on clear days, the air is still bad next to busy roads.

~~~
gascan
Masks help with particulate, which I think is Asia's core problem (from all
the coal). But most bad-air US cities struggle with ozone, and I don't think
masks help with that.

~~~
Reedx
Would just note that it depends on the mask. They often have a large amount of
leakage, and can give a false sense of security.

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-airpollution-
masks...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-airpollution-masks/face-
masks-available-to-consumers-may-be-ineffective-against-air-pollution-
idUSKBN1I426I)

~~~
Panino
I notice an obvious and immediate improvement wearing a mask in Asia. And
according to this article, the masks tested were effective in reducing the
amount of pollution inhaled. "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

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shams93
I live here in the valley and you can feel it like taking a punch from Mike
Tyson in the lungs

~~~
shams93
However it used to be far worse back when everyone was using leaded gas here
in the 70s.

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lwb
Isn't Seattle supposed to be way worse?

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BookmarkSaver
Seattle's was due to fires in surrounding regions. For whatever reason, smoke
just accumulates in the Sound and lingers in the city, even for fires up in
Canada. In LA, typically unless there is a fire in the immediate proximity,
smoke doesn't really affect it that much. This article seems to be mostly
about smog and ozone, rather than temporary air quality issues that don't
really have a solution.

But yes, from what I've read, for a couple weeks last month, Seattle had the
worst air quality in the world. And if you were here, you'd believe it.

~~~
ed_balls
Rain also helps with reducing the air pollution

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viburnum
Ban cars.

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Theodores
Can anyone summarise the article for those of us in Europe?

We can't get the LA Times here.

What has changed this year - wild fires? Or is it the problem of ten million
cars pissing in the pool with no wind to clear the air. Do tell.

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specializeded
I’d do just that but I’m not sure if it’s legal in Europe either ;)

Jokes, full article: [https://outline.com/CrmCSK](https://outline.com/CrmCSK)

~~~
kwhitefoot
That's a useful site. It reduces the Daily Fail to a single paragraph!

