onthehunt wrote:
Quote:
CARB deemed some diesels to be damaging to the CALIFORNIA environment based on factors such as population density and air basin geography.
Following your logic it would be safe to assume that the chemicals I use here at work that are labled" This product contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer" are safe for me to use because I live in Wisconsin?
I think the problem is worse in California because in parts where there are air basins or mountain ranges, the air is not exchanged as fast as say, flat Illinois. Most large metropolitan areas that have mountains close by have these problems. The stagnant and polluted air does not move east and disperse (dilution is the solution..). I think Mexico City, LA, and SLC have these problems.
I guess it would be similar to an inversion? Where it is colder and cloudy down in the valley's but warm and sunny up in the mountains? I think that during inversions, the air is not as clean in the valleys as it normally is.
Some thoughts to consider.
From Salt Lake City Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Lake_CityQuote:
During mid-winter, strong areas of high pressure often situate themselves over the Great Basin, leading to strong temperature inversions. This causes air stagnation and thick smog in the valley for several days to weeks at a time and can result in the worst air-pollution levels in the U.S., reducing air quality to unhealthy levels.[43][44]
From Los Angeles Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles#Environmental_issuesQuote:
The name given by the Chumash tribe of Native Americans for the area now known as Los Angeles translates to "the valley of smoke"[47] because of the smog from native campfires. Owing to geography, heavy reliance on automobiles, and the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex, Los Angeles suffers from air pollution in the form of smog. The Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley are susceptible to atmospheric inversion, which holds in the exhausts from road vehicles, airplanes, locomotives, shipping, manufacturing, and other sources.[48] Unlike other large cities that rely on rain to clear smog, Los Angeles gets only 15 inches (381.00 mm) of rain each year: pollution accumulates over many consecutive days. Issues of air quality in Los Angeles and other major cities led to the passage of early national environmental legislation, including the Clean Air Act. More recently, the state of California has led the nation in working to limit pollution by mandating low emission vehicles. Smog levels are only high during summers because it is dry and warm. In the winter, storms help to clear the smog and it is not as much of a problem. Smog should continue to drop in the coming years due to aggressive steps to reduce it, electric and hybrid cars, improvements in mass transit, and other pollution reducing measures.[49]
As a result, pollution levels have dropped in recent decades. The number of Stage 1 smog alerts has declined from over 100 per year in the 1970s to almost zero in the new millennium. Despite improvement, the 2006 and 2007 annual reports of the American Lung Association ranked the city as the most polluted in the country with short-term particle pollution and year-round particle pollution.[50][51] In 2008, the city was ranked the second most polluted and again had the highest year-round particulate pollution.[52] In addition, the groundwater is increasingly threatened by MTBE from gas stations and perchlorate from rocket fuel. With pollution still a significant problem, the city continues to take aggressive steps to improve air and water conditions.[53][54]
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