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Children in school buses are exposed to air pollution. |
Poor Grades for the Region
Unhealthy Air - it's in your car
BY PHIL HAMPTON
UCLA Today
Long-distance commuters got some bad news recently. The amount
of time they spend in a vehicle typically is the most important
factor in determining overall exposure to diesel exhaust particles,
according to a UCLA Institute of the Environment (IoE) researcher.
In the latest IoE environmental report card issued Oct. 27, Professor
Arthur M. Winer of the School of Public Health said that scientists,
using new methods of measuring exposure to air pollutants, have
found highly elevated levels of particulate matter inside passenger
cars following diesel-powered vehicles on congested freeways. In
a related study, Winer and others found that children riding in
diesel school buses are exposed to elevated levels of unhealthful
pollutants, due to emissions from surrounding diesel vehicles and
exhaust from their own buses.
Overall, Southern California scores poorly in efforts to reduce
traffic congestion that increases exposure to unhealthful pollutants.
“This year, one inescapable conclusion emerges from the studies,”
said Mary D. Nichols, director of the IoE. “As a region, we
have yet to come to grips with the immense impacts our transportation
system is having on the environment and public health.”
To reduce traffic congestion, the region should focus more on improving
bus service than on building rail transit lines, said Professors
Randall Crane and Paul Ong of the School of Public Affairs. Toll
roads and other forms of “congestion-pricing” likely
carry more benefit than additional carpool lanes, they said.
The report card also gave poor marks for efforts to limit illegal
dumping on Indian reservations. “The laws pertaining to illegal
dumping on reservations are so complex and deficient that reservations
are perceived as a kind of legal no-man’s land,” said
Carole Goldberg, faculty chair of the Native Nations Law and Policy
Center at the UCLA law school.
In one area — the reduction of pollution in runoff reaching
the ocean — Sean Hecht, who directs the Environmental Law
Center at the law school, gave the region more favorable grades.
For details, visit http://www.ioe.ucla.edu/.
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