Los Angelenos' Cancer Risk From Air Pollution Down 15%

"This reduction in cancer risk shows that we are on the right track in tackling toxic air pollution," said William Burke, Governing Board chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

"However, the remaining cancer risk is completely unacceptable," said Burke. "Thousands of residents are getting sick and dying from toxic air pollution. Some of them live in low-income, minority neighborhoods that may be heavily impacted by cancer-causing air pollution.

Diesel exhaust accounts for 84 percent of region-wide cancer risk, the study shows, and mobile sources - including cars and trucks as well as ships, trains, aircraft and construction equipment - account for 94 percent of the total risk.

Smog hangs in the air over Los Angeles. (Photo by Tatiane Santos)

On average, Southern California residents are exposed to a lifetime cancer risk from toxic air pollution of 1,200 in one million, the study found.

That figure is 15 percent below the average risk estimated in the South Coast Air Quality Management District's last air toxics study conducted in 1998-1999, but still one of the highest risks in the country.

The study, conducted by Air Quality Management District and dubbed MATES III for Multiple Air Toxics Exposure Study, is the latest and most sophisticated air toxics research effort to be conducted in Southern California.

It found that the highest computer-modeled risk level is in the port area which poses a maximum lifetime cancer risk of up to 2,900 in a million.

"We must continue to fight for cleaner ships, locomotives, trucks and other sources of toxic air pollution to improve the health of all Southern California residents," Burke said.

Sites with higher levels of cancer risk due to air toxics include Burbank, downtown Los Angeles, Fontana, Huntington Park and Wilmington. The site with the lowest risk is Anaheim.

"This reinforces the policy agenda we have pursued for the past several years," Burke said. "Mobile sources and especially diesel-fueled vehicles are by far the largest source of our air pollution problem. We will continue to do everything in our ability to address this public health threat."

Air Quality Management District staff will now solicit public comments on the study for 90 days before finalizing the report.

The agency will prepare an update to its Air Toxics Control Plan to include strategies for further reducing toxic air pollution and cancer risk based on MATES III findings. The proposed plan will be presented to Air Quality Management District Board this summer.

AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and large portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

The agency has worked to reduce toxic emissions for decades and elevated the issue to a higher priority in 1997 when its Governing Board adopted its first Environmental Justice Initiatives. As part of those initiatives, in 1998 and 1999 the Air Quality Management District carried out MATES II, at the time the most far-reaching study of toxic air pollution in an urban setting.

Following MATES II, the agency adopted numerous rules and incentive programs to reduce toxic emissions, including clean fleet rules, which have resulted in the purchase of hundreds of clean-fueled transit buses, school buses, refuse trucks, street sweepers and other vehicles.

Regulations adopted following MATES II have reduced emissions of perchloroethylene, or perc, at dry cleaners and other industries, reduced hexavalent chromium from metal plating shops, and protected schools from toxic air pollutants from new sources.

Collaboration with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to establish the ports’ Clean Air Action Plan has cut diesel emissions from ships, trucks, trains and other sources.

In addition, regulations and programs instituted by the California Air Resources Board and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have contributed to diesel emission reductions in recent years.

The Air Quality Management District has disbursed well over $100 million in incentive funds to reduce diesel emissions from school buses, tug boats and trucks in the ports and other sources of diesel exhaust.

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